Giveaway and Review: "Alice in Zombieland" by Gena Showalter

Synopsis:

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave.  Forever. Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone. 

Her father was right. The monsters are real…. 

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….
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     Let me start off by saying that I am not normally a fan of zombie books.  I have had no interest in any zombie related books, movies or TV shows.  However, for Gena Showalter, I was willing to try anything.  She always blows me away with her amazing stories and characters and I new I would just have to give this one a try.  As usual Gena, you have blown me away!

     Alice is a strong protagonist through the whole book but certainly gains confidence throughout the story.  She's thrown into a life of zombies that she never believed existed.  Like most of my favorite heroines, she's got that snarky attitude that I love.  With the help of Cole, the leader of the zombie slayers, Alice must navigate her way through this new world.  What can say about Cole?  Yum!  I am used to reading Gena Showalter's adult series, Lords of the Underworld, and wondered how she would do in this new YA series.  Of course Gena managed to make Cole hot, without anything too steamy going on.  Everyone at school is afraid of Cole.  He's all tough muscle with a take no prisoners attitude (and yes, there's more than one meaning to that statement as you'll soon see).  I loved learning Cole's background and finding out why he is the way he is.  There's always a softer side to these tough guys.  He's also so loyal and devoted to his crew and Alice that you just have to overlook his bad side.  There's definitely something brewing between these two and it's not just romance.  I'm anxious to get some more answers about this, hopefully in the second book.  The zombies are not your typical zombies.  Oh they're dead, but that's about all that's the same. Unfortunately I can't really say anything more than that without giving anything away but Gena has definitely created a unique take on the zombies and how they behave.  This story has me thoroughly hooked!  I can't wait for the next book.  

     Gena Showalter has created a unique, captivating world of zombies, slayers and more that will have you flying through this book.  It's full of action, mystery, romance, a little humor as well as some real life drama that everyone can related to.  Gena is a master at making me stay up way too late reading.  This was certainly one I didn't want to put down.   "Alice in Zombieland" is definitely a must read!  

"Alice in Zombieland" will be released September 25th, 2012.
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Review: "City of Lost Souls" by Cassandra Clare

City of Lost Souls is the fifth book in Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series.

We left off in book 4 with the demon Lilith being destroyed and Jace and Sebastion are now missing.  When the Clave gives up the search for them, Clary and her friends band together to search themselves.  When they finally find Jace he is "changed".  Clary is ecstatic to know he's still alive but desperate to try to get "her" Jace back.  One big problem... Jace and Sebastion's life forces are joined.   This forces Clary to convince Sebastion that she has forgiven him in order to get close enough to find a way to seperate them.  If the Clave finds out where Jace and Sebastion are they will kill either one at the first chance they get.  Will Clary find away to save Jace before it's too late?

This book had a lot more romance and relationship building then the previous books.  Not only do we have Jace and Clary's relationship, but Simon's and Alec's as well.  We got a lot more of Magnus in this one - he cracks me up!  Simon is proving that he's really not the monster that he thinks he is and he has been an amazing friend to Clary.  I'm glad Clary is finally realizing this.  The chemistry between Jace and Clary was touching as usual.  Them kissing or even holding hands is as good as some of the sexier scenes in some other novels.  I was glad Cassandra Clare didn't end it with a huge cliffhanger like the last book.  I almost through the book across the room screaming "Noooo!" when I finished book 4.  This book had a little different feel to it then the previous books since there was a little less action and more on the characters but I loved it.  This is one of my favorite YA series and this book certainly didn't disappoint.