Gabriel by Nikki Kelly

Despite my minor issues with the first book of this series, I thought I would give it another try. I thought the first book had too many clichés and the writing lacked a bit of maturity, but personally, Gabriel exceeded my expectation. The writing improved, the story and the world felt a little more developed and I enjoyed getting to know the characters a little bit more.

Lailah might not be my favourite heroine, but she is quite interesting. As a half vampire and half angel hybrid there's still a lot to learn about her abilities and her destiny. The love triangle that existed in the first book is only somewhat present now because for some mysterious reason, Lailah can't remember anything about Jonah. She remembers her angel pair Gabriel just fine, and she hasn't forgotten anything about other vampires, but for some odd reason, she can't recall anything about the vampire Jonah. Which is sad because Jonah was the most interesting character in the first book, in my opinion. On the other hand, Gabriel is moody and I feel like he's hiding so many things from Lailah that he can't really be trusted. As much as I liked Gabriel in the first book, I didn't like him in this one.

Gabriel was a character building book, where we learn more about the main characters, especially about Gabriel and Lailah. Despite their strong feeling for one another, they are still conflicted about their relationship, mostly because both of them have a hard time accepting Lailah's dark vampire side. Lailah refuses to drink blood despite weakening from lack of it, and Gabriel is too oblivious to realize that by ignoring Lailah's hunger, she's only hurting herself. Lailah has a long way to go before she fully accepts who she is, what she's capable of, and what she will do with her abilities. As for Jonah, Lailah still feels something but has not memory of their past. She feels responsible for Jonah and would do anything to help him, because she know he would do the same for her. Despite his bad boy persona, Jonah is very likeable. Especially when you compare him to Gabriel in this book.

I'm a sucker for a good story about good vs. evil, and this series definitely delivers that. Lailah might be the one to balance out good and evil, but this war has been going on for many centuries. A young band of generational vampire hunters join the fight and although they might be a little naive when it comes to the origin of vampires, they are still trying to do the right thing, for the most part. The author throws us quite a twist when it comes to these hunters, which I definitely didn't see coming.

Gabriel is an easy to read, fast paced book. I like this book more than the first one, probably because so many of my questions were answered. I also appreciate the fact the author refined her writing so that the story doesn't feel as rushed anymore. Lovers of paranormal romance will appreciate this one, but make sure to be prepared for a love triangle, strong feelings and complicated characters.

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Posted by Tynga at 03:26

 angels, Feiwel amp; Friends, love triangle, Macmillan, Nikki Kelly, Paranormal Romance, Purchased, Review, The Styclar Saga, vampires, young adult  Leave your mark

PHE - Interview with Nikki Kelly + Giveaway

I'm really happy to welcome Nikki Kelly to the blog today to celebrate her newly published novel, LAILAH. It was released earlier this month by the publisher Feiwel and Friends, but as a Wattpad sensation, LAILAH already had a following. Nikki Kelly joins us today to answer a few questions and discuss her book. Also, don't forget to check out the giveaway at the bottom of the post.

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Hello Nikki and welcome to the blog.  I'm glad we can chat about your newly published novel, "Lailah". To someone who doesn't know what to expect, how would you best describe your debut novel?

Lailah is the first book in The Styclar Saga and is YA PNR.

The story focuses on Lailah as she goes on a journey of self-discovery, uncovering the truth of ‘what’ she is, while trying to figure out ‘who’ she is. The novel is full of mystery and action, and there is a heavy romance at the center of the story, but Lailah’s existence and her world is veiled with dark undertones.

There are themes of light and dark, and it goes some way to challenge preconceptions and assumptions that we make about people and the world. The ideas around the worlds/dimensions in the story are a spin on traditional mythology and the concept of Heaven and Hell.

The synopsis of Lailah sounds quite dark and the cover looks creepy (but beautiful). Do you think your novel can be read by anyone, or will dark themes deter some readers?

I am ecstatic about the cover! It would have been all too easy for the designers to put an uber-pretty girl in a big dress in the middle, so I was thrilled that the fantastic creative team came up with the cover that they did. It perfectly depicts the tone of the story, with our heroine at the center, dressed normally, and with a light cascading down from above, but creepy hands grabbing her from below. If a picture speaks a thousand words, then this cover surpasses that and manages to encapsulate the entire 115,000 words of the story!

To answer your question about darker themes, I look at it like this: To know happiness, to a degree you have to experience sadness in your life, which in turn makes the highs so much higher. To a degree the same can be said for the darkness in this book. To truly appreciate the idea of light and what that means, we have to experience and know the opposite end of the spectrum. While there are some dark moments, they are crucial to the story. I don’t think it should deter readers; the book has gone through an editorial process and been categorized as YA, and the professionals know what is ‘too much’ or if something goes ‘too far’, so I trust their judgment on keeping the darker themes well-balanced.

Lailah is the first book of The Styclar Saga. What exactly is "Styclar"? And how many books do you anticipate the Saga will have?

In the books, Styclar-Plena is the name of the ‘First Dimension’ – a world created by and existing in light, born from a crystal that sits at the center of the world. Styclar-Plena is an anagram of the words ‘Crystal Plane’. It was only right to name The Saga after the First Dimension; to a point, everything that has happened and will happen has spawned from the actions of the beings from that world.

The Saga is set to be three books. Book 2 (Gabriel) is due for release Fall ‘15 and Book 3 (Untitled) is due Fall ‘16. In addition I have been writing various short stories, both for digital release and for print release, to go along with the main titles.

Is Halloween recognized in the paranormal world you created for Lailah? If so, how do people celebrate?

Lailah is actually set over the month of December and over the Christmas period, so we just missed Halloween! In the first book Lailah stays in the Second Dimension, which is Earth as we know it in current times, so it would be a recognized holiday.

Were there any special challenges when writing about total opposites like Vampires and Angels?

My Vampires and Angels are a little different to what has come before. In fact, the very idea of what a ‘Vampire’ and what an ‘Angel’ is – what our preconception of those beings are – is exactly the reason I wanted to include them. One is traditionally very ‘dark’ (there are different generations of Vampires in my books) and the other is traditionally celestial and ethereal, which is perfect, because it gave me the opportunity to explore the dark, the light and the shades of grey in-between, while putting a new spin on the beings themselves and the worlds from which they emerged.

Your experience from a self-published author on Wattpad to an author published with Feiwel and Friends is impressive and admirable. In short, can you describe the process? Also, if you had to do it over again, would you change anything?

Awww that’s very kind of you to say! I wrote my story over 18 months in my spare time. It was shortly after that I discovered Wattpad, and I uploaded my story serially in blocks of seven chapters a week over the month of December, so the readers would feel as though they were in ‘real time’ with the events in the story. The book became popular very quickly and within six months had over a million reads and thousands upon thousands of votes and comments! This was amazing for me and made me feel more confident with what I had written, due to all the love being sent my way through the magical wires of wi-fi! Growing an audience early on really helped, and in many ways it gave some assurance to the traditional publisher –Feiwel & Friends, who picked it up – that despite the ‘supernatural trend’ falling out of favor, there was still very much an audience who still wanted to read about these types of beings! If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change a single thing.

 

Now on to some personal Halloween questions:

What's your favourite part of fall/autumn?

The leaves, when they fall off the tree! Crisp and golden, I enjoy kicking them and watching my Pug and Chihuahua roll around the piles in the park!   

What is your most memorable Halloween costume?

I’m English, and we don’t celebrate Halloween the same way the US and Canada do! In fact, sadly, it’s not really a big thing here at all. That said, I think the costume I probably dressed in most growing up was a witch with a broomstick! Having said all that, as I became a teen and went to Halloween parties, I often dressed up as pop stars, such as Baby Spice!

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Thank you Nikki for stopping by and answering my nosy questions!

Here's the scoop on LAILAH:

The girl knows she’s different. She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel.

On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely ally – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel.

In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom?

Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is.

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

My Review

About the author

NIKKI KELLY was born and raised only minutes away from the chocolately scent of Cadbury World in Birmingham, England. Lailah was first launched to wattpad, an online readers and writers community. Within six months, the novel had over one million reads. Lailah is Nikki’s debut novel, and the first book in The Styclar Saga. She lives in London with her husband and their dogs, Alfie (a pug) and Goose (a Chihuahua).

Connect with Nikki:

Website | Twitter | tumblr | Facebook

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Nikki's publicist at MacMillan is offering one (1) harcover copy of LAILAH.

Open to USA and Canada only. Giveaway ends on November 7, 2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Posted by Tynga at 02:55

 angels, giveaway, Interview, Macmillan, Nikki Kelly, Paranorm'All Hallows Eve, PHE, vampires  23 People left their mark

Lailah by Nikki Kelly

At first glance, LAILAH is a YA paranormal book, but deep down, it's really a book about self-discovery. When I first read the synopsis, I was intrigued by the mystery behind the story and the characters. I was even more interested when I realized that the story was originally posted on Wattpad, and eventually got picked up by a major publishing company. I've never read anything on Wattpad because I don't really have the time to read unedited books, but with a huge following on Wattpad, and a publisher that could polish and enhance the writing, I just couldn't stay away from LAILAH. Although it fell a little bit short of my high expectations, I still enjoyed the story quite a bit.

The main character's story is what really had me interested in the book. Francesca (or Cessie), or Lailah as she was known in her 'past life', isn't an ordinary girl. She doesn't know who she is, or what she is because she seems to be immortal and forever young. She explains her situation as best she can when she says, "Every time I die, I wake up. I don't remember anything about the past. I have some fragile recollection of who I am, who I was... The memories, the visions are the only insight I have. Some days, they seem more of a curse than a gift." (ARC p. 275) Obviously, because of the title, this book is her story, discovering why she's immortal and why both vampires and angels are after her. Character-wise, I find her very apathetic, despite being very mysterious. I would assume that someone who's known for a long time that they're immortal would want to know more about themselves and why they 'resurrect', especially since that someone barely remembers anything about her past lives. Eventually we learn that this has been going on for over 200 years without her finding out the truth. Don't get me wrong, I love learning things through characters, but this doesn't seem realistic because human nature would have her asking questions way before.

The whole story begins when Lailah saves a vampire and then meets an angel. They seem to hold the key to finding out more about her, especially since associating with them has brought her a lot of attention. Now, a large bunch of vampires and angels are after her, although we don't really know why they're interested. Gabriel, an angel of Death, Jonah, a new-ish vampire, and a few other vampires form a group that are trying to fight darkness and evil vampires. They more or less adopt Lailah to their little group, because most of them seem to really care about her, and want to help her survive against the dark vampires.

The mystery girl, the vampire and the angel end up forming a messy love triangle. I'm a fan of love triangle when done right, but in this case, it was quite typical. For most of the the novel, Lailah is pretty indecisive, and obviously with an angel and a vampire, you have the clichéd good boy vs. bad boy struggle. One thing I did like, however, is the fact that one love interest is completely new, and the other is someone she has known forever, but has forgotten almost everything about him because of her weird resurrection situation.

Many other clichés are found throughout the book, like the heroine always running away when faced with danger, the insta-love between characters, the one character that holds the answer to almost everything (Gabriel) but doesn't want to reveal too much, the character that is so special and has amazing powers and strength but doesn't know why (Lailah), the female lead always being told what to do by the male lead (or any male in general), and many others. I was also annoyed by the amount of time talking shopping and doing the actual shopping. I'm a big fan of that activity, don't get me wrong, but there's no sense in being overly repetitive.

I wish the author could have avoided some of the clichés, or at least toned them down a little. Despite all these little quirks I had with the book, I really did enjoy the story. The interactions between the characters and the overall mystery was exceptional. I didn't even mention the wonderful world Nikki Kelly created, which balanced mythology and original concept perfectly. Each chapter leads to more suspense and intrigue. The numerous and stimulating secrets will have you binge read this book because you won't be able to put it down without learning more. I'm definitely interested in finding out what happens next in this saga because I truly expect this series will continue to fascinate readers.

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Posted by Tynga at 02:54

 angels, Macmillan, Nikki Kelly, Paranormal, Review, The Styclar Saga, Vampire, young adult  Leave your mark