Book Review: The Crow Box

The Crow Box (The Shadow & Ink Series) by Nikki Rae

Synopsis:

The small wooden box is dirty, the size of a human fist, and sealed with wax. When Corbin takes it upon herself to clean it and break the seal, a voice she has tried to ignore gathers strength. Shadows play on the walls at night, and with a family history of mental illness, Corbin fears the worst. But the voice tells her it is real. That its name is Six and it will prove it in time. 

Drawn to this mysterious entity, Corbin isn't sure what to believe and the line between reality and her imagination blurs more every day. 

Some doors should not be opened; can this one be closed.

MEOW . . . MEOW . . . MEOW

The Crow Box is a little kind of weirdly, that's the best term to describe it, It's not a bad thing I know Nikki loves to write weirdly dark things. The character Corbin (which is a very interesting name for a girl), she starts hearing voices . . . well actually A voice.  

There's some interesting connection between the Voice and black feathers? 

Corbin is not one of those average girls most people read about, she pretty much keeps to herself and keeps her home life pretty in secrets. Her mom has a Mental condition and throughout the book Corbin starts to hear a voice and starts wondering if she's becoming like her mom. 

The voice named Six, is some unexplained form is the best way I can say it. I'm still not sure what he is or who he is, what's his purpose and what's his interest in Corbin? All bunch of questions that still leaves me in thoughts. 

Towards the end of the book, something happens Corbin she gets lost into her own delusional/hallucinations state and then the Voice is near but sounds more real than a mist of a form that leaves behind black feathers. 

I give this 4 Cat Paws Up,  I like the weirdly factor Nikki put into this book. 

Here's a couple Teasers of The Crow Box

Convinced? Then Go Enter! 

 

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Hide & Seek

It's Hide & Seek day! and today reveal is The Donor Part Two by Nikki Rae . . .

Here's is Part One Cover and Synopsis

Casey Williams and her family are poor. Her parents work non-stop and so does she, just so they can keep the trailer roof from leaking.

They’re getting by fine enough when the headaches start. Then there’s the nosebleeds. And the inevitable doctor’s bills.

Fortunately for Casey, there’s MyTrueMatch.com: an exclusive, quick, and almost easy way to pay it all back before her parents even have to know.

All she has to do is give a man she’s never met whatever he wants from her body.

Inside or out.

Now the Synopsis for Part Two

 

When Casey joined MYTrueMatch.com, she never imagined she would meet a man who not only helps her pay the bills, but has been nothing but a gentleman. 

As the nose bleeds make way for worse symptoms, Casey can’t help the feelings she has for Jonah, despite how he may never return them. And he’s been keeping things from her. 

Big things. How does he make his money, and who is that girl in the picture?

 

With the clock ticking, can she find the answers she’s looking for?

And now for the Reveal of the Cover for The Donor Part Two

 

What do you think about that SEAHORSE????

 Cover credit goes to Nikki herself :-)

 

 

The Donor Blog Tour

MEEOOWW! Guess who I have on the blog today? Nikki Rae the author the the Sunshine series and her upcoming novels, The Donor Part One and The Animal . 


Today I interview Nikki once again, but this time let's learn something about her and a little bit about The Donor. 

What your favorite snack to snack on while writing or at any time of the day?
You know those lifesaver's mints? The individually wrapped ones? On a good day, you'll find those little clear wrappers EVERYWHERE.

What's your favorite color(s)?

It's not a color, but black.

What qualities would best describe you?

Loving, creative, hardworking, worrisome, strange, pale...lol. The list goes on.

Favorite drink?
Tea!

What do you like to do on your spare time?

I love to read. I also love to just...hang out. It's sounds boring, but I'm so busy all the time that when I have a spare moment, I like to watch a movie or play a board game with my boyfriend or friends or go to the diner with my sisters. That's when I'm most relaxed and happiest, so I'll take it.

 
Now the big question!
If you were stranded on a desert Island, there's water and food provided . . . what are your top three things must have and one of those three has to be a book.

A notebook, a pen that never dies, and probably some sort of (very BIG) short story anthology, just so I can read something different when I get bored.

Then here's my question about The Donor,
What made you decide to write in three parts?

I wanted to see if I could do it, basically. I think the structure(s) work well in three separate parts, and I think it will be interesting to see how people react to shorter parts released closer together.

How does writing in parts help you tell the story?

Casey and Jonah are two characters that are going through life the best ways they know how. I wanted each part to tell the reader what was going on and how they decided to deal with it. It's also going to show how quickly ideas, decisions, and lives can change as well.

Was this planned to write in three parts or you decided to go a different route on getting this story out?

The Donor was originally a short story I wrote for creative writing class. I didn't have anything and it was due the next day so that's what I wrote. I didn't expect anyone to like it AT ALL, but everyone responded very positively to the story. By the time I was done revising it, I had ideas for the rest of the story, but I wanted to tell it differently than I would a novel. The parts were something I always wanted to try, and it just sort of fit for this project.

Check out the giveaway!
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Sun Damage Blog Tour

Sun Damage (Sunshine Series #3) 

Life wasn't what Sophie was expecting, so why should death be any different? 

She’s come back from swimming between the two, and every problem she left is still there. And then some.
There’s the human world, where she has a brother on the verge of ruins, band mates all set to go on tour, and people she thought she wouldn't be seeing for a long time showing up.

Then there’s her new world, where she’s seeing and hearing things that should not be heard or seen. Where Myles knows more about her than she could have ever guessed. She still doesn't know exactly why Michael is tormenting her, but somehow, everything is connected.
The monsters are closing in on all sides and the question is, will Sophie be able to defeat them before it all ends?

Goodread : Smashwords : Barnes and Noble 

 Sunshine on Amazon Sun Poisoned on Amazon

Check out the trailers!!!!

Sun Poisoned

Sun Damage

I'm so excited to be part of this blog tour! I can't believe just under a year ago Nikki has reach out to me to review her books!!! Now finding out it was Vampires, I really was on that whole FAD where Vampires were old news but Nikki's Sunshine series wasn't just about Vampires. It was about a girl with a rare sun condition and having her own three man band and her vampire boyfriend and a sociopath vampire out to kill her.

The dark and gritty vampire series has it's own stand out personality, so if you haven't read her books do it NOW!!!!.

To read both of my review of Sunshine and Sun Poisoned, click on the links and also check out my Character interview with Sophie and Myles after Sun Poisoned.

Guest Post  

Today I didn't want to do the average interview questions about the book or about her because really I've done that. I wanted something different so when we both talked about a post the question of "What your Playlist" came up. So I asked Nikki, What's your Playlist?

The Sun Damage Playlist

1. Phantogram--The Day You Died

2. Saturday NIght--The Misfits

3. Trout Heart Replica--Amanda Palmer

4. I Don’t Want Love--The Antlers

5. Jack The Ripper--Morrissey

6. Famous Last Words--My Chemical Romance

7. Mt. Washington--The Local Natives

8. One Headlight--The Wallflowers

9. Close Your Eyes To See--Circa Survive

10. Colors--Portugal. The Man

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About Nikki Rae 

Nikki Rae is a student and writer who lives in New Jersey. She is an independent author and has appeared numerously on Amazon Best Seller lists. She is the author of The Sunshine Series and concentrates on making her imaginary characters as real as possible. She writes mainly dark, scary, romantic tales, but she’ll try anything once. When she is not writing, reading, or thinking, you can find her spending time with animals, drawing in a quiet corner, or studying people. Closely.

Where to find her
Twitter : Blog : Author page : The Sunshine Series page

Sunshine Series: Character Interview

Today I have Sophie and Myles from Nikki Rae's Sunshine series, now if you haven't heard or read Nikki's Sunshine series you really should.

 

I will hopefully get deep inside the minds of Sophie and Myles, so let's start the questions!

Sophie: You been through a lot in your life, how come you decided to keep all that inside rather than tell someone? Even Myles felt your pain and your suffering

I’d rather keep things to myself than have people know. I don’t want anyone pitying me. I don’t need that.


Myles: What made you decide to tell Sophie about yourself?

She also had things happen to her that she couldn’t control, so I felt like she would understand. Though she wouldn’t admit it at the time, she trusted me, and I didn’t want to keep such a large part of me hidden from her anymore.

Sophie: You seem most at peace with yourself when you’re playing the piano, what are you thinking when you play?

That’s the thing. I don’t think when I’m playing. All I need to do is make sure the sounds that come out of that instrument are the sounds I visualize in my head. Everything else melts away. Nothing else matters.

Sophie: You and your mom don’t have that mother-daughter relationship, but when you got hurt that dynamic changed . . . How’s your relationship now?

It’s pretty much the same. Well, now it’s the same, but she calls me and asks how I am and she also holds back saying what she would have said without thinking pre-accident. So I guess it’s slightly better.

Myles: How old are you really? Or are you touchy about your age?

I don’t really know. I know I’m somewhere around four hundred, but I don’t remember when my birthday was when I was alive. Even if I did, years go by a lot faster for me, so it’s hard to keep track. I’m not exactly touchy about my age, but I don’t like thinking about it because it makes me think about what I am.

Sophie: How’s your band adjusting to the New York lifestyle? Any new songs from you and the band?

The band is doing AWESOME. We’ve been fighting like crazy, trying to understand each other when writing out the music because Boo and Trei read sheet music and I don’t, but other than that it’s been a blast. We’ve covered a lot of songs as well as written some new ones we’re excited to share.

Myles: You “marked” Sophie without her knowing it, did you ever explained to Sophie about that?

I did. I had my reasons for it, and I was going to tell her, but a lot of things happened afterward and it didn’t seem right to bring it up. I will, though. Eventually.

Myles: You said in the end when Sophie was dealing with Michael’s blood that you will fix your relationship with Sophie, how will you do that? I know Sophie had reasons to be angry at you and she's is known to keeping things that hurt her deep inside

We’ve both kept things from each other. When you get two people together that are used to hiding everything about themselves, I guess that’s the risk you take. I want to tell her everything. Telling her everything may not fix our relationship—it may break it entirely—but she deserves to know the truth.

Sophie: What your thoughts about getting your relationship fixed?

It’s going to take a whole lot of super glue to fix this. I hope it can survive, but at this point, I just don’t know. I don’t like thinking about it.

Well there you have it! I like to thanks Sophie and Myles for stopping by and answering my questions. I do hope that Sophie and Myles will be able to fix their relationship and hopefully will be in a happy place of their relationship.

Sun Poisoned Review

Sun Poisoned (Sunshine #2) by Nikki Rae

Sophie’s life has changed. She’s moved to New York, she’s playing music for new people, and she’s making new friends. Then there’s Myles, and the fact that he is now her boyfriend—and everyone knows it. There are a lot of new things to take in, but Sophie has no problem adjusting.

She’s not exactly normal, living in a half-human, half-vampire world, but she’s finally, truly happy. But some parts of Sophie and Myles’ old life still hide in the dark, waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

Sophie’s having nightmares again, but they aren’t about her; Myles is hiding something that she’s not sure she wants to know.

And one lie will change everything.

No matter how hard she tries to cover up the marks her monsters have left behind, they never truly go away, and Myles’ monsters are no different.

Once again, Sophie’s caught between life and death, but this time, only she can save herself.

 

Kindle Edition

Published June 28th 2013 by Nikki Rae

 

Again I have to thanks Nikki for lending out her books to me in return my honest review. Sun Poisoned is book #2 of the Sunshine series, Sophie and Myles are back!

 

Review

Sophie nnd Myles are back and living it large in New York, the band is doing great . . . Life is good. Myles still can't feel what Sophie feeling anymore but that doesn't prevent him from getting close to her and her being close to him.

What do you do if someone you trust have been lying to you and for Sophie a tragic event happens that leaves her almost defeneless and in danger.

Was the Michael threat over? Or is there a greater threat beyond Sophie and Myles control?

I give this 4.5 cat's tails up, I really like the intensity of the climax of the story and that ending was just WHEW! and AW MAN! I have to wait until the next book.

 

Ramble

Yes I know my review is slightly short, but it was the best way I could do without revealing spoilers in the review. My ramble is for the spoil aspect. So onwards I ramble on, first off I'm glad that Sophie took the leap to go to New York, after what happen to her that previously winter I wasn't sure if even

 

Myles or the band could convince her. But now in New York life couldn't be any more perfect, except Sophie stills has a hard time adjusting to herself with Myles.

 

Myles does what he can to make Sophie as comfortable as possible and taking things slow but the memories still haunts Sophie no matter what she does to not think about it. Myles give Sophie the control since all she's ever know was being under controlled.

 

Ava and Evan part of Myles's past and good friends, but when Ava's sudden collapse in Sophie's apartment Myles has to explain to her about Ava's situation. Michael's blood, yes Michael is back in the picture (sort of) his blood is infected to others both vampires and humans. And Myles leaves out an important detail from Sophie and then Sophie becomes mad until a family thing happen.

 

The family tragic: I really hates these tragic stories especially when you're so drawn to those character and boom the author cut him out of the story.

 

And Cue the ending! I was blown away and Michael wastes no time trying to end Sophie's life and what better way to do so by getting her bitten by vampires that are infected with his blood? The pain and suffering Sophie went through and Jade came into the realization that without Myles's help Sophie will not survive.

 

Now Nikki did leave it open-ending, so we're left wondering if what Myles did will help her and how will Sophie's life change now?

 

Sunshine Review

Sunshine (Sunshine #1) by Nikki Rae

18 year old Sophie Jean is pretty good at acting normal. Sure, she’s not exactly happy, but happiness is nothing compared to being like everyone else. She can pretend she’s not allergic to the sun. She can hide what her ex-boyfriend did to her. She can cover up the scars she’s made for herself. Ignore anything. Forget anything. Then Myles enters her life, and he has more than a few secrets of his own. When accident after accident keeps happening to Sophie, she can’t help noticing that he’s everywhere. That he knows too much. That she’s remembering too much.

It’s one thing covering up her own dark past, but does she really need to worry about people finding out just how much Myles likes her? Or that despite how much she doesn’t want to repeat past mistakes, she kind of likes him back? Not to mention the fact that she now has to conceal that Myles drinks blood-that he says he’s about four hundred years old.

She almost forgot about that part.

But Sophie has no plans to ruin the normal life she has created for herself. She can deal with this little glitch, no problem. Even if word has gotten around to the wrong vampire about Sophie and Myles, even if she’s putting the few people she loves at risk. Suddenly, those who were monsters before are just people, and the monsters? They’re real. Now being a normal human being is the least of her problems. Now she has to stay alive

Kindle Edition, 330 pages

Published January 28th 2013 by Nikki Rae

 

 

So just yesterday I had another author request to review his/her book, and last night I finished her book. Book Number One just to clarify, she had asked me to review her second book that had recently just come out but I needed book one before I could read number two. I just might start number two later tonight.

 

Review

Sophie Jean lives her life in the dark, not by dark memories of her past but she can only really be in the dark. Having a freakish allergy to any type of sunshine makes life almost tough for Sophie, at home and at school. Then Myles Lott comes.

Myles Lott isn't your typically guy teenager, he's much more and that just makes him even more drawn to Sophie. He knows Sophie like to hide but he wants to help her in any way possible.

Opening old wounds and facing old memories is something Sophie would avoid at all costs, but for Myles he see how much pain she in and how she live her life in fear.

Can Myles save Sophie from herself and can he protect her from his world that he may have just brought Sophie into?

When an very old vampire wants to make sure that Sophie doesn't get too involved with Myles or his world, he'll do just about anything to take Sophie out of the picture.

 

I give this 5 Cat Tails, I really love the book and was even more drawn to the storyline for Sophie and how Myles is truly someone that makes her happy, her other half as some would call it.

 

Ramble

First off this was my first YA/NA mix, also I've been dying to read NA books and here it is! Sunshine focused on young adults getting to the end of high school and entering the adult world.

 

Sophie been through a lot in her life, stuff that should have never happen to her and having a pain the butt mom who will stop at nothing to get her "freak show" of a daughter to be finally normal.

 

Thankfully Sophie has two greatest friends in the world and her brother Jace for moral support, even from her step dad and two sisters.

 

So how does Myles come into the picture? Well he's the new kid and both Boo and Trei instantly makes friends with him while Sophie is trying to remain in the dark . . . unnoticed. Yeah like that was going to work. Soon Sophie sees that Myles isn't all as he seems but he rather try to keep it a secret for as long as he can.

 

Myles and Sophie finally start trusting each other, even when Sophie won't tell her biggest secrets to Myles but Myles is the same way, only telling her what she can understand and possibly accept the facts.

 

Really I love Myles and Sophie together, I love all the things Myles does for Sophie even when she doesn't want it but something she may not know what best for her. Out of all the dates Myles take her on, the beach one was definitely my fav even when that date goes wrong. Then my other fav part was the white roses that Myles was going to give her at the dance before a certain someone appears.

 

That certain someone was the face of Sophie's horrible past but was entirely someone else to Myles. Apparently there's an very very old vampire roaming around and is said to be one of the worst vampire around.

 

Oh did I mention that Myles is a vampire? OOPS I guess I wanted to keep that as much lip-sealed but now I have to mention it because of the big bad vampire Michael. Now Michael will do just about anything to scare Sophie away from Myles but that only made their bond closer and that makes Michael even more determine that she has to die one way or another.

 

So now Sophie, Myles and two of Myles friends must do what they can to protect Sophie but can Myles protect her and save her before it's too late?

I would recommend this book to all new readers of NA only because this doesn't  have that mature content like some are. So thanks Nikki for lending me out your book, and I can't wait to read book two!