Tuesday, November 5, 2013

My Date From Hell by Tellulah Darling Review & Giveaway


To see other stops on the tour for reviews, guest posts, and excerpts click here.




My Date From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy #2)
Expected publication: October 31st 2013 by Te Da Media





Sixteen-year-old Sophie Bloom wishes she’d been taught the following:

a) Bad boy’s presence (TrOuBlE) + teen girl’s brain (DraMa) = TrAuMa (Highly unstable and very volatile.)
b) The Genus Greekulum Godissimus is notable for three traits: 1) awesome abilities, 2) grudges, and 3) hook-ups, break-ups, and in-fighting that puts cable to shame.

Prior to the Halloween dance, Sophie figures her worst problems involve adolescent theatrics, bitchy teen yoga girls, and being on probation at her boarding school for mouthy behaviour. Then she meets bad boy Kai and gets the kiss that rocks her world.

Literally.

This breath stealing lip lock reawakens Sophie’s true identity: Persephone, Goddess of Spring. She’s key to saving humanity in the war between the Underworld and Olympus, target numero uno of Hades and Zeus, and totally screwed.

Plus there’s also the little issue that Sophie’s last memory as Persephone was just before someone tried to murder her.

Big picture: master her powers, get her memories back, defeat Persephone’s would be assassin, and save the world. Also, sneak into the Underworld to retrieve stolen property, battle the minions of Hades and Zeus, outwit psycho nymphs, slay a dragon, rescue a classmate, keep from getting her butt expelled from the one place designed to keep her safe …

… and stop kissing Kai, Prince of the Underworld.

My Ex From Hell is a YA romantic comedy/Greek mythology smackdown. Love meets comedy with a whole lot of sass in book one of this teen fantasy romance series. Compared to Kai and Sophie, Romeo and Juliet had it easy.


Jennifer's Review of My Ex From Hell:
This is the first book in the Blooming Goddess series and it makes a good first impression. I have to say that I am a fan of Greek Mythology so I was intrigued from page one! Its definitely a YA series so I will be recommending this series to my daughter soon who has loved The Percy Jackson and Lost Heroes series. Note that not all of the Greek Mythology details are accurate in this book --they are mostly accurate and that was good enough for me as it was easy to follow--Tellulah changed things for a reason in my opinion and the changes make sense -- just putting it out there if you are a stickler for things to be 100% accurate.  I kinda viewed it as suspenseful to see how Tellulah's tales were going to differ from traditional Greek mythology.

The story is told from Sophie's POV - a normal sarcastic teenage girl  at a boarding school with normal teenage problems. She has two loyal and totally lovable best friends, one annoying nemesis (thing popular, rich, pretty, and yoga obsessed) and one hot mystery guy. A prank that leads to a knee buckling kiss awakens a bit of her past -- and here we go: she's not a normal teenage girl BUT really is the Goddess Persephone, the Goddess of Spring stuck in a mortal's body because someone tried to kill her. Ahh, so the drama begins -- but what fun would the book be if it didn't have an awesome twist. The story unfolds as Sophie comes to terms with this new twist herself.

Hannah is her BFF who is not only beautiful but super smart (Totally a Proud Geek). Great display of friendship here! They had their own cute BFF rituals and didn't keep secrets for each other. Wow, so refreshing! I liked that they didn't keep secrets because so often in plots friends keep things from each other. So it was nice that Sophie laid it all out there all the time and Hannah accepted everything without a second thought. At no point was Hannah kept in the dark about anything because she was "human". She was Sophie's BFF and thus privy to everything Sophie was going through. As it should be!

The other best friend in their trio is my favorite character, Theo. He gives off a mysterious vibe but we don't get too much detail of him in this book (but you do in book #2 -- hip hip hooray so keep on reading!)

Kai, AKA Kyrillos, Son of Hades- so from what we know how about him in this book, well I just want to slap him! He is very infuriating from our first encounter with him. Because hello, I would of thought that Kai would have been just a little more happy to find Persephone after thinking she was dead. But instead he just gives off this arrogant, "I'm a Player" vibe. It was hard to get his mood swings (thankfully Tellulah fixes that in book #2 and we get chapters from his POV). When Kai does let something genuine slip out -- well you began to SWOON and it gives you a glimpse of the good that he holds within.

This was a FUN read with a fresh new take on Greek Mythology with a storyline that was refreshing. It will have you rolling with laughter at some points (even the chapter titles were funny) and I was excited to rush into book 2! 





Sophie Bloom’s junior year has been a bit of a train wreck. After the world’s greatest kiss re-awakened Sophie’s true identity as Persephone (Goddess of Spring and Savior of Humanity), she fought her dragon-lady guidance counselor to the death, navigated mean girl Bethany’s bitchy troublemaking, and dealt with the betrayal of her backstabbing ex, Kai (sexy Prince of Darkness). You’d think a girl could catch a break.

Yeah, right.

With Zeus stepping things up, it’s vital that Sophie retrieve Persephone’s memories and discover the location of the ritual to stop Zeus and Hades. So when Aphrodite strikes a deal that can unlock Sophie’s pre-mortal past, what choice does the teen goddess have but to accept?

The mission: stop media mogul Hermes from turning Bethany into a global mega-celebrity. The catch? Aphrodite partners Sophie and Kai to work together … and treat this suicide mission as a date. Which could work out for Sophie’s plan to force Kai to admit his feelings for her–if she doesn’t kill him first.

Add to that the fact that BFF Theo’s love life and other BFF Hannah’s actual life are in Sophie’s hands, and suddenly being a teenager—even a godlike one—seems a bit like … well, hell. Whatever happened to dinner and a movie?


The YA romantic comedy/Greek mythology fireworks continue to fly in My Date From Hell. Love meets comedy with a whole lot of sass in book two of this teen fantasy romance series. Breaking up is easy; dating is deadly


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Jennifer's Review:
After sharing an amazing kiss in book one with Kai, Sophie discovers that she is actually the goddess Persephone and the boy who kissed her is Kyrillos, son of Hades.

With Sophie's awakening as a goddess comes new powers and new enemies.  Where before she was a typical teenager with two loyal and lovable best friends, and  1 annoying nemesis -- Bethany, the popular, rich, pretty yogi-wannabe who spreads her crazy "mantras" like they are gospel. Now, Sophie is being pursued by both Zeus and Hades for something Persephone was planning with Kyrillos before Persephone became Sophie.

Book 1 ends with what seems to a betrayal by Kai (i.e. Kyrillos).  Sophie hopes to never see him again. Unfortunately her father, Zeus, kidnaps Sophie and she ends up in the same room with Kai -- both attached to a painful energy sucking machine. Zeus and Hades have teamed up against SOPHIE and KAI. Using her brain to outsmart the "energy sucking manacles" Sophie and  Kai escape. Kai sends Sohpie back to school with a promised to join her shortly. Upon returning to school, Sophie discovers that Bethany has taken over --  literally. Everyone has fallen under her spell and her popularity has even spread to a television reality show! What??? Yeah, craziness!

I liked book two better than book one.  We meet more gods (We meet Hephaestus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Pierce/Eros/Cupid) and a lot more history. I loved Festos (Hephaestus) and his tie to Theo makes for an interesting story line. Festos is loyal, feisty and fierce. He was a great addition to this already great line up of characters. He totally tops my list of fav characters.  I like their relationship almost as much as I like Kai and Sophie's.  Kai and Sophie are hysterical with all the bantering and innuendos. We also get a lot more insight into Kai and that was good because in book 1 you really couldn't figure out if Kai was a jerk or if he was sincere. We also see their relationship grow and Kai really starts to appreciate and love Sophie (not just Persephone). Love Kai!

So if you have read other YA books about Greek Mythology then you expect: quests, challenges, gods, demigods, and a prophecy -- this one does not disappoint. As the title implies Kai asks Sophie out on a date and it ends up being a crazy, globe trotting quest to get her memories back and stop Bethany from taking over that ends with a life threatening challenge game set up by Hermes. Whew! its a whirlwind!




About the Author: 
Tellulah Darling
noun

1. YA romantic comedy author because her first kiss sucked and she's compensating.
2. Alter ego of former screenwriter.
3. Sassy minx.

Geeks out over: cool tech.
Squees for: great storytelling.
Delights in: fabulous conversation.
Writes about: where love meets comedy. Awkwardness ensues.

Sassy girls. Swoony boys. What could go wrong?


 Website   Twitter   Facebook   Goodreads



The author is hosting a contest on her site to give Sophie’s power (her vines of light) a cool name. The winner will get a signed copy of My Date From Hell, a t-shirt featuring a design of one of Kai’s tattoos and will have their power name featured in the final book of the trilogy. Contest runs Oct 21-Nov 7. Details and entry (as of Oct 21) here: http://bit.ly/1evuIp0


***Giveaway*** 
2 signed copies (1)of My Ex From Hell and (1) of My Date From Hell - International, (3) eBook copies in mobi or epub – International

a Rafflecopter giveaway








2 comments:

  1. Jennifer, it was so great of you to read and review both My Ex From Hell and My Date From Hell. Thanks for hosting me and my crazy stories on your lovely blog today. :)

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    1. We LOVE this series! So excited for you to pop in to say hi ;)

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