Romance Author Michelle Abbott
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Review: Insanity by Cameron Jace

1/30/2014

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Book Blurb:

After accidentally killing everyone in her class, Alice Wonder is now a patient in the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum. No one doubts her insanity. Only a hookah-smoking professor believes otherwise; that he can prove her sanity by decoding Lewis Carroll's paintings, photographs, and find Wonderland's real whereabouts. Professor Caterpillar persuades the asylum that Alice can save lives and catch the wonderland monsters now reincarnated in modern day criminals. In order to do so, Alice leads a double life: an Oxford university student by day, a mad girl in an asylum by night. The line between sanity and insanity thins when she meets Jack Diamonds, an arrogant college student who believes that nonsense is an actual science.
Amazon/Goodreads

Excerpt:

The writing on the wall says it's January 14th. I am not sure what year. I haven't been sure of many things lately, but I’m wondering if it’s my handwriting I’m looking at.

There is a strange key drawn underneath the date. It's carved with a sharp object, probably a broken mirror. I couldn’t have written this. I'm terrified of mirrors. They love to call it Catoptrophobia around here.

Unlike regular patients in the asylum, my room is windowless, stripped down to a single mattress in the middle, a sink, and bucket for peeing--or puking--when necessary. The tiles on the floor are black-and-white squares, like a chessboard. I never step on black. Always white. Again, I'm not sure why.

The walls are smeared with a greasy pale green everywhere. I wonder if it's the previous patient's brains spattered all over from shock therapy. In the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum, politely known as the Warneford hospital, the doctors have a sweet spot for shock therapy. They love watching patients with bulging eyes and shivering limbs begging for relief from the electricity. It makes me question who is really mad in here.

It's been a while since I was sent to shock therapy myself. Dr. Tom Truckle, my supervising physician, said I don't need it anymore, particularly after I stopped mentioning Wonderland. He told me that I used to talk about it all the time; a dangerous place I claim I have been whisked away to when my elder sister lost me at the age of seven.

Truth is, I don't remember this Wonderland they are talking about. I don't even know why I am here. My oldest vivid memory is from a week ago. Before that, it's all a purple haze.

I have only one friend in this asylum. It's not a doctor or a nurse. And it's not a human. It doesn't hate, envy, or point a finger at you. My friend is an orange flower I keep in a pot; a Tiger Lily I can't live without. I keep it safe next to a small crack in the wall where a single sun ray sneaks through for only ten minutes a day. It might not be enough light to grow a flower, but my Tiger Lily is a tough girl.

Each day, I save half of the water they give me for my flower. As for me, better thirsty than mad.

My orange flower is also my personal rain check for my sanity. If I talk to her and she doesn't reply, I know I am not hallucinating. If it talks back to me, all kinds of nonsense starts to happen. Insanity prevails. There must be a reason why I am here. It doesn’t mean I will easily give in to such a fate.

"Alice Pleasance Wonder. Are you ready?" the nurse knocks with her electric prod on my steel door. Her name is Waltraud Wagner. She is German. Everything she says sounds like a threat and smells like smoke. My fellow mad people say she is a Nazi; that she used to kill her own patients back in Germany. "Get avay vrom za dor. I an coming in," she demands.

Listening to the rattling of her large keychain, my heart pounds in my chest. The turn of the key makes me want to swallow. When the door opens, all I can think of is choking her before she begins to hurt me. Sadly, her neck is too thick for my nimble hands. I stare at her almost-square figure for a moment. Everything about her is four sizes too big, all except her feet, which are as small as mine. My sympathies, little feet.

"Time for your daily ten-minute break," she approaches me with a straitjacket, a devilish grin on her face. I never get out. My ward is underground, and I take my break in another empty ward upstairs, where patients love to play soccer with a hedgehog’s head.

A big muscled warden stands behind Watlraud. Thomas Ogier. He is bald, has an angry-red face and a silver tooth he likes to flash whenever he sees me. His biceps are the size of my head. I have a hard time believing he has ever been a 4-pound baby.

"Slide your arms into the jacket," Waltraud demands in her German accent, a cigarette puckered between her lips. "Slow and easy, Alice," she nods at warden Ogier, in case I misbehave.

I comply obediently and stretch out my arms for her to do whatever she wants. Waltraud twists my right arm slightly and checks the tattoo on my arm. It’s the only tattoo I have. It’s a handwritten sentence that looks like a thin arm band from afar. Waltraud feels the need to read it aloud, “’I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.’” I was told I have written it myself while still believing in Wonderland. “That Alice in Wonderland has really messed with your head.” She puffs smoke into my face as she mocks me.

The tattoo and Waltraud’s mocking is the least of my concerns right now. I let her tie me, and while she does, I close my eyes. I imagine I am a sixteenth century princess, some kind of a lucky Cinderella, being squeezed into a corset by my chain smoking servant in a fairy tale castle above ground, just about to go meet my Prince Charming. Such imagery always helps me breathe. I once heard that it was hope that saves the day, not sanity. I need to cool down before I begin my grand escape.

My Review:

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A retelling of the Alice in Wonderland Story. Alice Wonder is in an insane asylum after, apparently, killing everyone in her class. I'm not sure if she is really responsible for the murders and the book didn't clear that up for me. Alice can't remember how, or why she killed her classmates. While she's been in the asylum, someone has been killing people and stitching their faces up so that they have a permanent grin. The killer has been named The Cheshire Cat. In the asylum, Alice meets a hookah smoking professor who also happens to be a serial killer. He's convinced she's the real Alice from Wonderland and the only person capable of stopping the Cheshire Cat.

This was one of the weirdest books I've ever read. The author incorporated most of the characters from Alice in Wonderland but changed things up. I loved the facts about Lewis Carroll that were scattered throughout the book, for example, I didn't know that Alice in Wonderland was originally called Alice's Adventures Under Ground. There was plenty of mystery; who is Jack Diamond and why is he following Alice? Is Alice the real Alice? By the end of the book I still didn't know, I guess I'll have to read the second book to find out. It was a wacky and fun read. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys retellings of fairy tales, or fans of Alice in Wonderland.

About the Author:

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Wonderlander, Neverlander, Unicorn-chaser, enchanter, musician, survived a coma, & totally awesome. Sometimes I tell stories. Always luv the little monsters I write young adult paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and science fiction mostly. The Grimm Diaries series is a seven book saga that deals with retellings of fairy tales from a young adult POV - it connects most of the fairy tales together and claims to be the truth about fairy tales. I live in San Fransisco and seriously think circles are way cooler than triangles.

Website/Goodreads/Facebook/Twitter


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Chocolate hearts image by DoubleJdesign
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Blog Tour + Giveaway: Vexing Voss by Gail Koger

1/28/2014

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Virtual Book Tour Dates: 1/28/14 - 2/4/14
Genre: Erotic Science Fiction Romance with a sense of humor. 
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Book Blurb

For Voss, a Coletti warlord, conquering the universe is a piece of cake. After all, he's a master of psychic seduction; no one can resist him when he sets his mind to it. Zoey Jones is determined to find her mother's killer. Surrendering to a fierce Coletti Warlord is the last thing on her mind. But Voss is determined to make her his mate, forcing her to unleash her own brand whoop-ass to discourage his pursuit. When her clever disguises, skunk perfume, stun gun, smoke bombs, and tranquillizer darts failed to stop him, she's forced to negotiate her surrender. Zoey would willingly agreed to mate with him, if he would help her find her mother's killer. To Zoey's surprise, Voss agrees. Together they soon discovered that Malik, the deadliest villain in the galaxy, was behind her mother's death. Their quest to bring him to justice leads to unlikely alliances in an interplanetary war, and more surprisingly to love.

Buy Links

Loose Id
Amazon 

About the Author

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I was a 9-1-1 dispatcher for thirty-one years and to keep insanity at bay, I took up writing. Not to worry. The insanity isn’t catching – much. Other than the addiction to chocolate and the twitch in my left eye, I’m good. My current project is Reality Bites, the next in the Coletti Warlord series.

Author Links

Website 
Goodreads

Giveaway

The author is hosting a print book giveaway at Goodreads! Runs 1/28/14 – 2/4/14.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Vexing Voss by Gail Koger

Vexing Voss

by Gail Koger

Giveaway ends February 04, 2014.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win
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    Author

    Michelle Abbott lives in the UK and hates describing herself in 3rd person.

    She writes new adult romance about heroes who fight against the odds and are protective of their girl.

    She's an avid reader of romance, is addicted to coffee and loves wine and chocolate, so yeah, not the most healthy eating and drinking habits :-) She spends way too much time online when she should be writing. She collects teddy bears and occasionally knits a couple of rows on a sweater she started years ago, which she may eventually finish in time to wear for her funeral :-)

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