Kings & Queens by Courtney Vail: Review and Guest Post

Seventeen-year-old Majesty Alistair wants police to look further into her father’s fatal car wreck, hopes the baseball team she manages can reclaim the state crown, aches for Derek…or, no…maybe Alec…maybe. And she mostly wishes to retract the hateful words she said to her dad right before slamming the door in his face, only to never see him again.
All her desires get sidelined, though, when she overhears two fellow students planning a church massacre. She doubts cops will follow up on her tip since they’re sick of her coming around with notions of possible crimes-in-the-works. And it’s not like she cries wolf. Not really. They’d be freaked too, but they’re not the ones suffering from bloody dreams that hint at disaster like some crazy, street guy forecasting the Apocalypse.
So, she does what any habitual winner with zero cred would do…try to I.D. the nut jobs before they act. But, when their agenda turns out to be far bigger than she ever assumed, and even friends start looking suspect, the truth and her actions threaten to haunt her forever, especially since she’s left with blood on her hands, the blood of someone she loves

 Review:

  This book was not what I expected. To be honest it wasn't even close to what I expected it was going to be!! However I ended up really enjoying it and to honestly I didn't want to put it down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Every time I thought that the next page would allow me to put this book down and come back to it, things would pick right back up and I would be hooked again!!  The first few chapters were a little hard for me because I wasn't quite sure where it was going or what was really going on but to be honest you stop caring and just want to know what will happen next.  Only later on do you start wondering what is truly going on and exactly what is causing it and by then you are so hooked you have no intention of putting this book down!

  Majesty is your typical teenage girl really.  She attends high school, crushes on the guy that she feels is out of her reach (even if he is a friend), has a sister that gets on her nerves and a mother that cares.  Until she over hears a plot to shoot up a church and her world is changed in so many ways.  It's hard to prove what you heard when you didn't see who said it and have no proof.  When you confess what you heard to a friend and they don't seem all that interested in doing something to help you where do you go from there? Majesty is left to figure out so much on her own and in the process sometimes I get a little confused but I guess that is really how in her world you are at times.  Other times I think it may just have been me getting lost.
   I love Majesty in the moments that she is strong and so positive of what must be done and her ability to not let go of that determination.  There are so many times that lesser people would have just become sunken and given up but not her she continues to fight even when she believes all may be lost.  Her less admirable qualities however really tore at me.  I wanted so badly to look past them but some times it just became all around too much.  I understand that teenage lust can be a much stronger feeling than most and Majesty's became down right too much for me.  It's not that she obsessed but more to the fact that it was always one person or another at all times.  Even when you thought that she would be more worried about the goings on around her there would be a boy that would pop into her mind or a reason for her to trust or not trust the one that she finally decided that she liked.
 
For the lusty guys there was Alec, Derek and Preston.  These are the ones to watch really.  The puzzle pieces that you want to fit in somewhere but can never quite figure out where.  However Preston is very loosely in this category.  It's more Alec and Derek, who just happen to be Majesty's two best friends.  Also as it turns out these are the guys that she will fight to figure out what her true feelings are and if she can really trust them.  Derek coming from a hard background himself and the kind of guy that all parents warn their daughters about.  You know good looking but not the kind of guy that sticks around for long.  Then you go to Alec the steady one that is always there when you truly need him.  This also means he is the one that you over look and don't really see until something happens and you are forced to look at them from a different light.  Preston is kind of thrown in here as a wild card.  The popular guy that never really looks at you until one day that changes and you cant help but wonder is it is a cruel joke or a prank that will come crashing down at the last moment.

 Despite how everything looks in this book I learned that you have to look past what you think you see and find what you don't.  That is really part of the appeal of this book.  It is one of the least predictable books that I have ever read and is written in such a way that even if at times you are confused you feel a need to know!  As I stated to start rather than in the start when I was confused as to where everything was headed I was compelled to continue reading.  This book just grabs a hold of you and keeps pulling you with such vigor you don't want to stop until you finish!! Every time you think you have it figured out and can put it down Courtney throws a new twist in or something to make you question everything.  Trust when I say stick with this book through what I felt to be a rough start and you wont be able to stop, it is a highly addictive and original read!!!

3.5/5


Guest Post

I am lucky enough that the lovely Courtney Vail has done a fun guest post for me to put up on the blog!! So I wont hold you back any longer with my chatter and will pass you on to the Leading Lady of the day: Courtney Vail!!!!

The Top 10 Secrets in Cedar Creek

Cedar Creek, the semi-small rich town that serves as the backdrop for my YA novel, Kings & Queens, is chock full of secrets and mysteries for readers to discover. Here are the Top 10.

1. After overhearing two fellow students planning a church massacre, Majesty learns baseball is not the most popular game in town, even with the team she manages so close to another championship win. Violence has become the new celebrated pastime.

2. Derek was abused by his senator dad for six years. And although it’s been 3 years since the last pummeling on his 14th birthday, he still fears for the next stealth attack.

3. Everyone chalks it up to either some random perv or the Spooks of urban legend, but Derek knows what really happened to the young girl who disappeared in the woods. And it haunts his dreams … especially since he is not allowed to speak of it.

4. Majesty was nearly raped at a frat party, managing to get away, and has never told a soul.

5. The key to everything is right in Majesty’s pocket.

6. In this living chess match, the roles of King, Queen and Pawn are constantly in flux, and those who think they’re in control may not be at all.

7. Majesty’s close bond with her mom has been severed due to her mom’s way-too-soon relationship with another man right on the heels of her father’s death, but she has no clue her mom was once abused by her uncle and doesn’t own the strength to be alone.

8. Alec would do anything in the name of love ... even break his own heart.

9. Derek was the result of an affair and has no clue he has a half-brother out there somewhere and that the dude who’s been wailing on him for years is not even his real father.

10. Majesty wants Alec more than air, but she’s too busy running to see it.

This concludes my stop on this blog hop!! Thanks for stopping by and make sure you check out the
other stops on the tour!!

 

 

April 1 - Turning the Pages *interview

April 2 - Geek Girl Review * Guest Spot

April 3 - Insightful Minds *Review & Interview

April 4 - A Bibliophile's Thoughts on Books *Review & Guest Spot

April 5 - Escaping... One Book @ a Time - Guest Post & Review

April 6 - The Reading Housewives *interview

April 12 - Shiirleyy's Bookshelf *Review

April 13 - Lovey Dovey Books *Review

April 15 - BlookGirl *Review & Guest Spot

April 16 - The Bookish Brunette *Guest Spot

April 19 - Sweet Southern Home *Interview

April 20 - Sweet Southern Home *Review

April 23 - Shiirleyy's Bookshelf *Guest Spot

April 26 - Book Loving Mom *Review & Interview

April 27 - Bianca's Book Zone *Review & Q/A

April 28 - Book Travels *Review & Guest Post

April 29 - Always YA at Heart *Review

April 30 - An Avid Reader's Musings *Character Interview

May -

May 1 - Waiting on Sunday to Drown *Review & Guest Spot

May 2 - Nicole's Library *Interview & Review

May 3 - An Avid Reader's Musings *Review

May 5 - A Life Pixelated *Review & Guest Spot

May 7 - Moonlight Book Reviews *review and promotional

May 8 - Novels On The Run *Guest Spot & Review

May 9 - The Book Barbies *Review

May 11 - Read My Mind *Review / Promo Excerpt

May 16 - FireStarBooks *Review & Guest Post

May 18 - Mother/Gamer/Writer *Review & Guest Post

May 21 - Jenns's Book Blog *Review

May 24 - Chapter by Chapter *Review & Excerpt

May 26 - Geek Girl Review *Review

May 29 - Dreaming Dreams No Mortal Ever Dared *Review

May 31 - SupaGurl Books *Review & Tour Wrap-Up