Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Libby Day was just seven years old when her evidence put her fifteen-year-old brother in jail.
Since then, she had been off. Barely making ends meet or even getting out of bed. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced that Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard that night Ben's? Was Ben even capable of murder? As she uncovers the truth she's been avoiding her whole life she begins to realize that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. But that being said...

Who did massacre the Day family?

Holy Balls! This book had my emotions all over the place. Dark Places is just that... Dark. And much like Gone Girl this book had so much mystery in it. Gillian Flynn has this creepy amazing way of writing creepy and amazing stories. Dark Places had me hooked from page one. The way she had the main character Libby talk was in itself something worth reading. Gillian basically tortures readers for 350 pages just a FYI! 

 

Dark Places is one of those books that is so hard to write a review on without giving anything away... I think the best way to describe this book is by comparing it to Clue the board game... You know all the players involved, you know all the settings, and you know all the weapons. You are given little clues here and there and you have your little card to check off what you think... The Who, What, When, Where, and even the Why. Gillian give you pieces of a whole, much like the game. Sometimes she reveals that it was the candlestick, and sometimes your shown its professor plum. But you still have no idea what the real answer is until you're so close to the end of the game that you finally are begging to open that little envelope and see what the final answer is.... That's exactly how Dark Places was. I spent 99% of the time coming up with all these crazy theories... 

All I can say is that every single one of my theories were both right and wrong at the same time. Gillian plays out the novel in such an amazing way. Bouncing from the present to the past, and never letting on more than she needed too. I hate when books do this too, not in the case of Dark Places. I was craving the flashbacks I needed them. I wanted to know more about their mother, and father, and Ben. God did I want to know what was up with him! And like I said above, Libby was AMAZING! Such a well written and confusingly like-able character. You really don't want to like her but at the same time you're kind of cheering her on. But Libby isn't just a victim, she has plenty of dark secrets and mystery to her as the next person in her family.

“There are few phrases that annoy me more than I won't bite. The only line that pisses me off faster is when some drunk, ham-faced dude in a bar sees me trying to get past him and barks: Smile, it can't be that bad! Yeah, actually, it can, jackwad.” 

The only thing that kept this book from being a perfect ten star book for me was some of the ending. It got a little jumbled to the end, but that being said was still completely mind blowing. When the big reveal happens you'll more than likely have your jaw dragging on the floor like I did. Dark Places was amazing.

I can't wait to see this movie in theaters! If you haven't had a chance to read this book please do so before the movie comes out! I know Leah and I will be there opening day clinging to the edge of our seats!

9.5/10 Stars 

-Angela

Black Iris Cover Reveal!!!!!

We here at Southern Read are so excited and honored to be apart of the cover reveal for Leah Raeder's new novel Black Iris. If you don't know who Leah Raeder is she is the author of Unteachable. Which is the novel we choose as our biggest surprise read of 2014. We both read and reviewed that novel for our blog and have reviews posted (Links at the bottom of the page). We absolutely adore her! So again we are so thankful too be a part of this.  

Seriously people look at that cover!!! IT'S STUNNING and it's only making the wait for it harder!

Leah Raeder is a writer and unabashed nerd. Aside from reading her brains out, she enjoys graphic design, video games, fine whiskey, and the art of self-deprecation. She lives with her very own manic pixie dream boy in Chicago. You can learn more about her and see more of her work by visiting her at LeahRaeder.com. 

Wondering what Black Iris is about?? Well we've posted the description below... So after reading it be sure to go and add it to your TBR on goodreads.

"It only took one moment of weakness for Laney Keating’s world to fall apart. One stupid gesture for a hopeless crush. Then the rumors began. Slut, they called her. Queer. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up, so messed up even her own mother decided she wasn't worth sticking around for.

If Laney could erase that whole year, she would. College is her chance to start with a clean slate.
She's not looking for new friends, but they find her: charming, handsome Armin, the only guy patient enough to work through her thorny defenses—and fiery, filterless Blythe, the bad girl and partner in crime who has thorns of her own.
But Laney knows nothing good ever lasts. When a ghost from her past resurfaces—the bully who broke her down completely—she decides it's time to live up to her own legend. And Armin and Blythe are going to help.
Which was the plan all along.
Because the rumors are true. Every single one. And Laney is going to show them just how true.
She's going to show them all."

Black Iris will be available in both Ecopy (5.99) and Print at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Booksamillion, and Indiebound (15.00). It's also available on all those sites for per-order.

WE CAN NOT WAIT TO GET OUR HANDS ON THIS BOOK!!! 

BUT WAIT! That's not it... We were also provided with an excerpt from chapter one to give yall!

  BLACK IRIS by Leah Raeder  

April is the cruelest month, T.S. Eliot said, and that’s because it kills. It’s the month with the highest suicide rate. You’d think December, or even January—the holidays and all that forced cheer and agonized smiling pushing fragile people to the edge—but actually it’s spring, when the world wakes from frostbound sleep and something cruel and final stirs inside those of us who are broken. Like Eliot said: mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. In the deepest throes of depression, when sunlight is anguish and the sky throbs like one big raw migraine and you just want to sleep until you or everything else dies, you’re less likely to commit suicide than someone coming out of a depressive episode. Drug companies know this. That’s why antidepressants have to be marked with the warning MAY CAUSE SUICIDAL THOUGHTS.
Because what brings you back to life also gives you the means to destroy yourself.

 LEAH RAEDER YOU'RE GIVING US GOOSEBUMPS!!! 

You can also follow Leah on her many social media pages listed below:

http://www.leahraeder.com/

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

and check out both of our reviews for Unteachable here: 

Angela's Review

Leah's Review 

 Thanks again Leah Raeder and the people at Simon and Schuster the people at ATRIA BOOKS ( a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.)

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

"Old enough to screw, old enough to crew"

I actually started Red Rising last year and it ended up going in my "DNF/On Holf" list on goodreads. At the time it just wasn't want I wanted to read... BUT seeing as in it's the start of a new year I said I was going to go back to that list and finish every book on it (there's around 11). I am so thankful I did this.

Originally I got about 90-ish pages in and it was just so slow... So this time knowing some of what was going on I powered through the first part of the book and when I hit the second half I wanted to smack myself in the face for even putting it down. If I would have known that the second half of the book would have hit like a train I wouldn't have stopped in the first place. I also, like everyone else I know whose read this, am having a hard time placing this book... Is it Sci-fi? Is it YA or NA? Is it Fiction?... I don't know and I don't care I just loved it. 

I will repeat though the first half of this book is slow. Once I hit the other section I completely understood why. Pierce does an amazing job in world building and setting up the story to have this amazing POW effect towards the end. On to the actual review though.

Darrow is a Helldriver on Mars. He is drilling mines with the hopes that one day people will live on the surface. This world is ruled under strict laws/rules. Darrow is all about keeping a low-pro and just doing what needs to be done. His wife, Eo, however doesn't feel the same way. Disgusted by how the Golds rule she wants to take action to free everyone from the way things are. The relationship between Eo and Darrow is so much more than sweet. I feel a lot of times male writers either hit or miss the mark when it comes to capturing relationships, and Pierce hit the bulls-eye. After several events take place Darrow ends up on the surface of Mars disguised as a Gold. After which he enrolls into an Academy with the goal of rising up in the Gold ranks. 

“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.”

 

The Academy however is not what you would think. THIS IS WHERE THE STORY REALLY HAPPENS! THIS IS WHERE I SHOULD HAVE PUSHED MYSELF TO GET... Once he is enrolled all shiz hits the fan. Darrow goes from this mundane kind of boring character and truly transforms into someone that is even hard to describe. Just this off the charts growth. I thought this story was going to take kind of a feeling like The Testing had too it, but I was so so wrong. I was excepting the school to start off norm and then become something insane. What I didn't expect was Darrow's first test to be killing a boy with his bare hands. I didn't expect his character to be thrown into such warfare. I didn't expect all hell to break loose or this story to go from zero to sixty so fast. I know I'm saying "I didn't expect" a lot during this review, and again I don't care, because this book wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be.

The thing Red Rising has going for it besides the complete turn around in plot, was the surprising amount of action. I ended up feeling like I read two books at once. The first half was this world building, low key gem and the second half was this action packed book that could and will play out amazing on the big screen. There are so many surprises and action packed into the last half of this book that I swear I said "WHAT THE F DID I JUST READ" probably 50 times.

Character development was another thing that Pierce mastered, with such grace. If I would have read Red Rising last year it probably would have gone as my "biggest surprise read of 2014", sadly it didn't happen for me then... But thankfully it got my 2015 reading year off on the right foot. Also can't thank him enough for how he ended the book. (it wasn't on a cliffhanger and for once I'm really glad about it.)

Red Rising if you can't tell, took me by surprise and I can't wait to read Golden Son. This is a book you need to experience.

8.5/10 Stars 
-Angela

Fictional Book Boyfriends Pt 2!

Since our first post got so many hits we decided to do this again! 

Like we said last time, we LOVE putting faces to the characters in our books (especially the men). So this is our spin on "dream-cast" or as some call them "fictional book boyfriends". We picked a few titles and show you who we imagined the leading men to be. To see part one just click here. And like all our other post you can click the titles to get to the reviews. 

Rush by Maya Banks 

Man hires women to be his assistant and then pulls her into his provocative world.

 Nick Bateman as Gabe Hamilton
Don't think we need to explain why.


Raw by Belle Aurora 
Girl falls in love with her stalker and the story only get crazier from there. 

Stephen James as Twitch
With all the tattoos and bad boy attitude... Sold!

The Selection Trilogy by Kiera Cass 
35 girls are selected to enter a contest at a chance to marry the prince.

Liam Hemsworth as Prince Maxon

we have no doubt he would make a excellent bachelor.

The Covenant Series by Jennifer Armentrout 
Girl turns out to be more than she seems, and also has to choose between the man she is destined to be with and the man shes forbidden to love.

Scott Eastwood as Seth
Someone bring us a bottle of water... This God Killer is on fire!

The Mortal Instruments Movie Review

One of the Christmas presents that Angela gave me was The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones DVD because she wanted me to be able to be on the same level of fangirl as her when it comes to TMI. I watched it this afternoon with my hubby (seeing his reactions to everything was the best btw), and OMG SO GOOD. There are a LOT of changes from the book, but most of them I understand why they had to do it (wouldn't translate as well on screen).

The biggest change for me was the scene at the vampire hotel. First, Raphael isn't in the movie at all. If you remember, in the book he meets them outside of the hotel and helps them get inside when he is pretending to just be a rando teenager. When he gets them inside that is when it is revealed that he is a vamp. He isn't even mentioned in the movie. Second, Simon doesn't get turned into a rat! He drinks the juice at Magnus Bane's party, but he doesn't turn. When Clary and the gang come to rescue him at the hotel, he is just tied up and suspended in the air, but there is no rat anything. I get why this was changed in the movie. It would be pretty hard to explain everything in the movie if it happened the way that it did in the book. So, I get it. I still wish it happened, but I get it.

I really liked all the casting for the characters. I'll admit, Jamie Campbell Bower was not my first for Jace, but I think he did the role justice. JBC is what we like to call ugly hot. At first glance, you're like this dude is UGLY, but as time goes on you can't stop looking at him and then BAM you don't even realize that now you're strangely attracted to this scrawny British dude with Jesus abs.

My favorite character in the book and in the movie is Simon. I love love love Simon. He is so adorbs and I want to punch Clary in the face everytime she friendzones him. I also LOVE Magnus. The actor they picked for him is super hot and had me totes jealous of Alec.

All in all, I really really liked the movie. This series is so kick ass and I loved seeing it translated on screen. I'm sad that other movies won't be made, but hopefully other stuff will happen in the future (like the rumored possible TV show). I'm glad this is in my DVD collection and I can't wait to rewatch it!!

Burn by Maya Banks

Ash McIntyre has always explored his wilder side of well... you know. He demands control. His two best friends, Gabe and Jace, are both settled in their relationships with their new wife and fiance. So Ash has been left on his own. When Then Ash meets Josie, things seem to take a dramatic change.

I'm just gonna come right out and say it... I was pretty disappointed in this book. I was so excited for the final book in the Breathless Trilogy because it was about Ash, who has only made small appearances in the other two. He was who I was looked forward to seeing in the other two books. They constantly were saying how he was the polar opposite of Gabe and Jace... Turns out they were wrong... So wrong. He was exactly like the other two boys. So much so I felt like I wasn't even reading a different book. In Rush we got to see Gabe and Mia's interesting and commanding relationship. In Fever we got Jace and Bethany's dark turned sensitive relationship. Both those books were so different from one another. I felt like Banks just took Gabe and Jace and tried to mash them together to give us Ash. It didn't work out.

The only thing that was different in this book was the small twist towards the end and the girl. Josie was actually different from the other two women featured in one and two. She was suppose to be like the other two women so I guess it was nice that at least someone ended up different.

Burn was also a lot less steam than the other two. The flow of the story was nice and it kept a pretty steady pace, but overall was just lacking the spark that we got from before. Some parts of this book were five star quality while others were more like two. I find myself going back and forth when I was trying to rate this on Goodreads... One second I put it at a four right after I put it as a two.

I didn't like the build up between Ash and Josie. The reason I liked the other two guys was because they were all dominant and in control... and owned that. Ash was like that at first but then slowly started slipping... 

Levering himself upward, he kissed her forehead and then smoothed the hair from her face before kissing her lips. "Was that good for you?" he asked. "If it was any better, I'd be dead," she said ruefully.

No! Just no. The Ash I've read up until now doesn't ask how it was for you, because he knows he's good. None of these men ask the women. tisk tisk. Josie was also suppose to be strong willed and when the painting thing is revealed she should have stood her ground longer. I just didn't get them. Sigh. Pretty sure I spent most of my time shaking my head and saying no than I did actually enjoying it. 

I love Maya Banks writing, covers, and how she has her books set up. But Burn was not my favorite of hers. She could have given us so much in this book, and there was so much I wanted. She could have came hard with Ash and really made him the wild card she said he was from the get go. The small twist at the end of the book didn't really make up for the lack of everything else. Come on Maya you can't give us these amazing covers, an amazing first and second book, and then hand us this and expect us to just take it.... Ugh... Guess now that I think about it I'm more disappointed than I originally thought.... Hopefully the next series I pick up from her wont have an ending that let me down so much. 

4/10 Stars 
-Angela

WAT UP 2015?!?!

We here at Southern Read are so excited to bring in the New Year... New year equals new books right!?!?! Not just that, there are going to be some pretty big events happening this year... Everything from page to premieres, to new releases, to book signings! We can barely contain our fangirlness.

MOVIES!
I think the thing we are most excited for is.... 50 Shades of Grey the movie..... HAHAHA JUST KIDDING (But Leah is actually secretly excited for it to come out on DVD so she can watch it... No judgement...)(Angela's judging lol)! But there are a lot of movies we are looking forward too this year and we have plans to see them all!
As of right now all these movies are expected to come out in 2015.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth is the second movie in the Divergent Trilogy. I think we all can agree that at first seeing the teaser trailer and little pictures here and there, we weren't too excited for this movie to come out... But after seeing the full length trailer we're beyond stoked too see it, even with the already clear

changes. Seriously though, after seeing that trailer, we were both so confused. We were both like "it hasn't been THAT long since we've read the books, I know we couldn't have forgotten that much!!" and a lot of saying "WHAT'S IN THE BOX".  Regardless if it stays true to the book or not, it looks totes BA. Plus Theo James' abs in 3D, how can we say no.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. After meeting James Dashner this past year at YALLFest and hearing him talk about how awesome The Scorch Trials will be (and how handsome Dylan O'brien really is in person... yes, we asked), we are SO STOKED! The Scorch Trials was definitely our favorite book out of the trilogy and it's going to be so intense if they go by the book. All I'm going to say is all those scenes with the lightening and the who NO NOSE SCENE. OMG. SO TERRIFYING.

Paper Towns by John Green. Angela read this a while back (around 2010 I think), and Leah hasn't read it at all. But! Angela picked up a copy for us to read/re-read! John Green is pretty much one of those YA authors who can do no wrong, so we are excited to see how the movie comes out. If you don't follow him on Instagram, you definitely need to because he posts a TON of stuff from the movie set.

Fallen by Lauren Kate. Leah recently read book one of this series and while it wasn't her favorite book, it was still a good read. Fallen angels has been a big theme in YA books for a while, but there aren't too many movies out there featuring them (well, minus The Mortal Instruments, but we all see how big of a box office hit that was... womp womp). It can either go really good or really bad, so fingers crossed for the latter. The cast is already set, and they look like good picks so we are excited!

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger. Leah read this book a few months ago and it was well..... hopefully it will be a better movie than it was a book. Honestly, from seeing the trailers, the movie doesn't look like it is going to follow the movie at all, so this can probably one of those page to premieres that you can skip reading the book first. The guy that has been cast to play Wesley is hot hot hot, so he's reason enough to see this one.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. Dark Places is the second book that Gillian Flynn is having become a movie. Her first was Gone Girl and it was one of the best movies we saw this year. Chloe Grace Mortez is set to be the main star in this adaption... Is there anything this girl isn't in/going to be in. If you don't know she is also set to play Cassie in the 2016 film adaptation of The 5th Wave (which is the film Angela is the most excited about) and was the leading lady in the film If I Stay. We haven't read Dark Places yet (it is on our short TBR list), but we have read Gillian Flynn's other books and LOVED how dark and haunted they all are. If Dark Places is anything like that and the movie is anything like Gone Girl, get ready to get your socks knocked off.

OH JUST WAIT!!! DON'T THINK WE FORGOT!!!! The film we are probably most hyped on seeing in 2015 is....  MOCKINGJAY (Part Two) by Suzanne Collins, the fourth and final film in The Hunger Games Trilogy. After where they left part one we can't even explain how excited we are to finally see everything end. Bittersweet, but sure will be amazing. We have it set to take the whole day off to marathon the movies at our local theater. We can't wait to purchase some super sweet HG gear (in addition to what we already own) and geek out in the theater with Peeta bread sandwiches (get it??!) and snacks.

The other movies we are excited to see are...
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. (on our TBR)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. (Angela's read it and Douglas Booth swoon)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Leah got this for Xmas so its TBR).
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. (Angela's read it... thinking it's going to make a better movie than it did book; wasn't one of my favorites.)
Matched by Ally Condie. (Angela has read the series. I think if they just stick to book one that it will make for an interesting movie. However the Matched series is one of my least favorites.)

EVENTS! 

As far as bookish events we are definitely hoping for some big names to roll through Charleston this year. We have a locally owned book shop in our area (Blue Bike Books) that host most of the book signings in our area. Sadly they only list authors that are coming a little closer to time. So once we know, you'll know lol. If  my father doesn't end up working in Germany (Angela) than I'm going to try to head up to New York for BEA and possibly BookCon. Since they are the same week. We shall see though. Then of course we are doing YALLFest again this year!!!! 

It's biggest and best event we go to all year! It's the nations largest YA book festival. Authors come from all over for panels, signings, and meet and greets. We have coverage up from our time at the 2014 festival, both day 1 and day 2, so just click the links to read about our time there. The author line up for who will be attending probably won't be out until this summer, so stay tuned. We constantly troll the YALLFest website in hopes of new info popping up! Once the list does appear we will more than likely do a post on it.

We are also heading to Atlanta in October to go to the Walker Stalker Con! Angela is a big fan of the comics, and we are both HUGE fans of the TV show so this is a HUGE DEAL for us! Tickets and hotel
are booked, so now we only have to wait 300 something more days! So before you know it it'll be here! We'll get to meet the cast, get some swag signed, and go to some panels.

  

           NEW RELEASES! 

As y'all know though the number one thing our blog focuses on is books... And 2015 has some pretty big books coming out. We keep a running list in calendar of book release dates, so we will keep y'all posted when the big day for these comes up!  

Some of the books we are most looking forward to be released are The Heir by Kiera Cass, Invaded by Melissa Landers, Reborn by Jennifer Rush, Sea of Stars by Amy Bartol, Miss Mayheme by Rachel Hawkins, Unleashed by Sophie Jordan, The Death Code by Lindsay Cummings, Charmed by Michelle Krys, Hunted by Abi Ketner, Heart of Betrayl by Mary E. Pearson, The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. But the book we are MOST looking forward to is Every Last Breath by Jennifer Armentrout. This book is the grande finale for Layla and her love triangle with Zayne and our booboo Roth, so we are so stoked to see who she picks (ROTH!!!) in the last book! And we adored that Jla let her reads vote on who they wanted too see Layla end up with.

  

BOOK TRENDS!

As far as book trends, I (Leah) really hope the trend for series having different POV for each book ends. For example, in 2014 I read These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman. For the second book in the triology (and I assume the third will be this way as well), it has an entirely new cast of characters. I HATE THIS! I fall in love with characters in the first book and want to continue on with them through the whole series! Same goes for when I read Rush by Maya Banks. SO GOOD, but the other two books in the series are from the other two guys POV. HATE HATE HATE. I want more Gabe and Mia!! I also really hope that the time/dimension travel books stay popular. All Our Yesterdays and A Thousand Pieces of You were BIG hits for me, and I really hope to see more books like them! The dystopian theme seems to be fading away a bit, but I hope that it starts to pick back up with some new fresh ideas.

What I (Angela) am looking forward to as far as book trends go the only BIG thing I want to end is when authors change cover styles mid series. I like all my books in a series to match and when they switch them up UGH I get so annoyed. Also I'm hoping for some new and surprising things to be brought to the Ya genre. I've also really gotten into Na books this year and I can't wait to see what else they have in store for that as well. I love dystopian books and like Leah lately I haven't found anything too shocking or new brought in. I also would like more well written love triangles and just romance in general. I wouldn't mind seeing more books like Kiss of Deception were there is a lot of mystery to who is who. Also hoping for some really second books or final books in series. I guess the only other thing is that I'm hoping as far as the films coming out I pray even if they have changes from the books that they do the stories justice.

Resolutions

Angela- My bookish New Year resolution is to finish all of the books on my DNF/Broke up with list from 2014. I think there is around 11. To read more same author books. To do better about writing film adaption reviews right after we see the movies. To do more of my own photos for our blog. And to branch out more to other book bloggers and authors.

Leah- My 2015 bookish resolution is to branch out with the type of books that I read and be open minded with books that I normally wouldn't think I would like. I also want to work on chiseling away at my TBR list before adding new books. Like Angela, I want to do more of my own book photos for our blog. Lastly, I want to work on building up my fandom collections by adding more book swag to my collection.

If there are any movies we forgot please comment below and let us know! We would love to know and add it to our growing list. That goes for books coming out and book events going down as well! We would also love to hear about which movies and books you are looking forward to too.

<3 
-A&L