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Prikazani su postovi s oznakom #giveaway. Prikaži sve postove


Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time since I've started blogging and reviewing books, I've got the honor to review a novel that I've previously been beta-reading. The novel is ready to be published on July 22, so I hope with this review, you will let me say a word or two about it.  
Today, I'm writing about Lost & Found, a debut new adult novel, and the number one in New York Knights series by Croatian indie author Anna B.Doe.

This post brings you a review, an interview with the author and the chance to win one copy of the novel Lost & Found. Enjoy!



If you've ever got the chance to beta-read a novel (find out what beta-reading is here), you know it is, in the same time, a great honor and the great responsibility. You are to give an honest review, to criticize and praise, to look into the smallest detail etc. But the thing is, the novel you're analyzing isn't just a 'book', it's somebody's hopes and dreams you're reading, somebody's open heart you're commenting on. You start to see those novels differently from the ones already published, already read by others. You realize you are special to be chosen to read it, and the novel is special to be, in a way, raw and unpolished, and offered to you as such. That makes you appreciate it more. And when it actually gets published, there's that special kind of feeling- pride.
Today, I'm so proud of Anna. I don't know her personally (we didn't want to get to know each other before reading so our relationship wouldn't influence my reading), but today I'm proud of her.





Anabel is a young student who finds herself wondering about the choices she has made in life. Her life is good, but she just isn't happy anymore. 
That's why Anabel makes a decision to move to USA for a year to work as an au pair.
And she meets him. William Price. 
He has it all. Fame and money. Girls and wealth. 
The only thing he's missing is a Super Bowl ring.
Or not...
They meet and they fall in love.
They finally find each other.
But they come from two different worlds.
Can they stay together or will their love cost them more than they are ready to risk?



After reading only a few pages of Lost & Found, I felt it: envy. That spark of jealousy that made my blood flow faster, made me burn, made me work more, try harder- try to be as good as reviewer as Anna is writer. It was a felling that, ultimatelly, inspired me.

 Anna created a story about growing up and maturing, about the struggles and questions that all of us who lived a college life could relate to, sooner or later. Who am I? What am I? What do I want to be? Who will I disappoint? Is it all worth it?
What do we do after everything we thought we wanted changes? After we lost?
Who will help us find our way?


And then again, this is the story of taking risks. The step into the unknown. So it gets more complicated. The love is born. Yet again, all the plans, everything changes.

I'm Anna's character. You are too. All of us who changed during the time when we were supposed to know what we were doing, we're all Anabel.


This warm, beautiful love story between two young people who weren't happy with the way they lived, will make you question the power of true love.





This is where you can find Anna and read more about her novel:


Email: annabdoe@gmail.com





After reading the review, I'm sure you still have many questions about both the novel and the author herself, so I'm happy to be bringing you the exclusive interview with Anna B.Doe.


Anna, you were born in Croatia, and you live here. Why did you decide to write a novel in English?
Writing in English seemed like a logical next step. When I was younger, I've written two YA novels in Croatian, and send one of them to various Croatian publishers, but I've never got an answer from any of them. So unfortunatelly, or luckyly, depending on how you see it, non of those novels were ever published.
After I've read everything there was to read in my local library, I've started reading in English. I've been studiing English since forever, so I said myself: "If not in Croatian, why not try to write in English?" I thoght more people could read my novels that way, and since in Croatia it was impossible to find a publisher, maybe I could succeed as an indie author, so that was what I did. 

Who are your ideal readers?
Everyone is. My book is for all of those who like to read. It's a New Adult novel about two people trying to find their place in this world.

Can we expect the novel to be published in paperback?
The ebook will be available on Amazon and Kindle Direct Publishing and the paperback on CreateSpace :)  

Is there anything you would recommend for the new aspiring authors?
Honestly, I don't know what to say. It's very hard to find a publisher here in Croatia. But I believe every story should be told, and there are many ways for people to share them with the world (blogs, Facebook, Wattpad...).

Are you planing any project related to the publishing of Lost & Found?
I don't have any official plans right now, since this whole situation is so new to me right now, but I'm always open for suggestions. 


What was the hardest part of making this novel see the light of day?

Definitely editing. I'm a perfectionist so I couldalways find a thing or two that should somehow be changed or made better. Besides, Lost & Foundis my first novel written in English, so I had a few problems with finding the right way to express the thing I wanted to say.

As an author and a book lover, you must have met many people that share your love for literature. Could you count on their support and help while writing this novel?
It's very hard for an author to share their work with other people. I can rarely say I'm 100% happy with what I write. I can be satisfied with a chapter or with a character, but will never be completely happy with the whole novel. There are always doubt and insecurities about different kind of things, descriptions, dialogues et. So it's always useful to hearanother opinion. You and Nina (Life of a Bookworm) were of great help with the comments you've send me. So were some of my friends who have read the book or listened to me continuously talk about it. But I was really positively surprised with how bloggers and other authors werealways ready to help. All of them invited me into their society open handedly.

Where can bloggers get their free copy of the Lost & Found?
They can always contact me on my Facebook profile and page or via email. Every blogger tah wants to read and review my novel is more than welcome because they mean so much to me because it helps sell my novel.

Is there anything you would like to say to your readers?
Only that I hope you'll like the novel. It took so much time, effort, emotions, doubt and hopes to finish it. A lot of myself. I hope you find it interesting and come back for more.


*GIVEAWAY*


You can win an electronic copy of Lost & Found for your Kindle device (you need to have a kindle account) if you:

1. add Lost & Found on your TBR list on Goodreads
2. follow Anna B. Doe on at least one platform (links are above the Interview with the author)
3. like 'Kljuc za knjigu' on Facebook or follow 'Kljuc za knjigu' on Instagram
4. comment this post with 'done' after performing all of the steps and send me a message on Facebok (this is necessary because some people use different user names on different platforms and I can't know who did what without cheking it first)
5. do all of this steps until midnight July 26. This giveaway is international.




Be sure to get your copy of Lost & Found ASAP, and leave us a comment afterwards. 
Have fun reading and good luck!

Rose??
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Recenzija na hrvatskom nalazi se ispod recenzije na engleskom ?



There have been plenty of reviews of romantic novels lately on this blog, don't you think? Why not to mix it up a little?
Here's one a bit different ??
I've read reviews that compared this series with Divergent and Hunger Games, and that was enough for me to pick it up. I was, for a long while, looking for a book series with both fantastic and romantic elements so this dystopian one looked like the right choice.

Today I'm writing about the first three novels in The Gender Game series: The Gender Game, The Gender Secret and The Gender Lie.




The world Violet Bates lives in has long ago been divided to East and West. In East, there lies kingdom of Matrus, where women rule. In West, there's Patrus, the land of men. Between them, there is a river nobody ever crosses on their own.
The men who live in Matrus must submit to the laws of women. The only thing they can ever do is work physically. The women who live in Patrus have no rights but the ones men give them. 
We meet young Violet, a girl who tries to send her brother across the river, where, as a boy, he could have a chance for a better life. But her plan fails, her brother gets taken away and the first chance she gets to see him again she gets many years later.
This is where our story begins.
Violet must move to Patrus, marry a man and retrieve a certain Matrus' possession that has been stolen. She must do all of that in a society that prohibits any woman to work or even get out of her house alone.
If she fails, there will be war. If she fails, she'll  never see her brother again.


This story sounds amazing, new, different. Finally somebody has found a unique way to try and give an answer to the question many were asking for a long time. Who is better, smarter, stronger? Men or women?
Our heroine decides to enter the world that, as a woman, restricts her in every way possible and has to be ready to sacrifice lives of innocent people, lie to the man she's going to use and then set him up with a crime, all for, as they say in Matrus, the greater good.

The most interesting part of this story is, as usual, love. Love between a man born in Patrus and a woman of Matrus. Love between two opposites. Love that speaks about what connects us and not what divides us.


This series poses another question: what should we do when the world we know is the one who is set to destroy us?
Whom to trust? What to believe?
Is there somebody to be loyal to or should we only trust ourselves?

This is the story of the truth. Nobody's perfect. We all hide some secrets, we make mistakes, we all have weaknesses. We're cruel and we can be generous. It's a choice we make.
As J.Locke says: we are born as tabula rasa, and we become what society makes of us. We are what we learn to be. We are the product of the effort society puts in educating us.


Besides the three mentioned novels, there are two more already published, The Gender War and The Gender Fall and two more yet to be, The Gender Plan and The Gender End. 
I suppose now you're wondering why haven't I read and commented on those other two published ones.

Because, well, descriptions. As interesting as it was the plot, I cannot (and won't) read books that explain to me, in greatest detail, every single move somebody makes. She was running left, then took a turn right, and there she saw she couldn't jump to the other side, so she returned to the main path...The author makes a big deal of every single step (literally every step) the character makes. And, truthfully, who cares! 
I know, I know, we do need descriptions to know how a world different from ours looks like, but the only reason I should read about how a forest looks like is if every single tree in it matters somehow. 
The more she tries to illustrate the world, the less I care. 
Then, there's a lot of repititon. They have some kind of venomous flies in that world and those creatures are everywhere. It's like the author's thinking hmm, how can we make it dangerous? Oh, I know, let's put some flies in there. Hmm, how to make this scene even more dangerous? Uuuuh, let's add more flies! 
Stahaaaap, please!

OK, now I'm stopping too.

Please, if you don't mind descriptions of that kind, or you even love it, read this series. This is one truly amazing story that I would genuinely love very much in every other case. 


After reading, or if you already did, be sure to leave your comment and share your opinion.
See you next week,

Rose ??






Tko je za malo fantastike? Ja znam da ja jesam ??
Na serijal The Gender Games nai�la sam u jednoj recenziji koja ga je uspore�ivala s Igrama gladi i Razli�itom, a ja sam jedva �ekala napokon se do�epati nekog serijala s bilo kakvom fantasti�nom, paranormalnom temom, jer doma�i izdava�i taj �anr prevode �alosno malo. Jesu li samo lijeni ili �ele biti okrutni? U svakom slu�aju, ako me koji �uje, nek' se smiluje! ??

Danas vam donosim recenziju prva tri romana iz serijala: The Gender Game, The Gender Secret i The Gender Lie.
(Serijal nije preveden.)


Svijet koji Violet Bates poznaje podijeljen je na Istok i Zapad. Na Istoku vladaju �ene, u kraljevstvu Matrus, na Zapadu, u Patrusu, vladaju mu�karci. Dijeli ih rijeka koja se ne prelazi.
Mu�karci koji �ive u Matrusu pokoravaju se pravilima dru�tva u kojem nadmo� imaju �ene, a zakonom im je dozvoljeno baviti se samo fizi�kim radom. �ene koje �ive u Patrusu pate od iste sudbine. Potpuno su u vlasni�tvu svojih mu�karaca i nemaju nikakvih prava osim onih koje im oni daju.
Pri�a po�inje da dan kada mlada Violet poku�a pre�vercati brata preko rijeke kako bi ga poslala u dru�tvo koje �titi mu�karce i po�tedila te�kog �ivota koji ga �eka ako ostane u Matrusu. Njezin plan propada, ona i njezin brat su razdvojeni, a prvu priliku da ga vidi dobiva tek puno godina kasnije.
Jedino �to mora u�initi kako bi ostvarila to pravo je oti�i u Patrus, udati se za njihovog mu�karca, i u dru�tvu u kojem nema apsolutno nikakve slobode ili prava, izigravati �pijuna kako bi povratila vlasni�tvo koje je otu�eno iz Matrusa. Tu po�inje na�a pri�a. 
Ako Violet ne uspije, izbit �e rat izme�u spolova, a ona �e biti jedini krivac. Ako ne uspije, nikad vi�e ne�e vidjeti brata.



Opis ove pri�e zvu�i nevjerojatno, novo, jo� nevi�eno. Napokon je netko na inovativan na�in obradio vje�no pitanje o nadmo�i spolova i krajnosti u koje su oba spola spremna i�i kako bi je dokazali. Tko je ja�i, pametniji, bolji? Mu�karci ili �ene? 
Na�a heroina dobrovoljno je u�la u dru�tvo koje od nje tra�i da na ulicu izlazi isklju�ivo u pratnji mu�karca, a njezino vlastito dru�tvo od nje je zahtijevalo da �rtvuje �ivote nevinih ljudi i zlo�in smjesti jo� nevinijem mu�karcu, rekli su, za op�e dobro.
Ono �to mi je posebno zanimljivo u serijalu u kojem se suprotstavljaju �enski i mu�ki rod iz dva razli�ita svijeta, je, poga�ate, ljubav. Ona koja umjesto razli�itosti isti�e ljudske sli�nosti. Ona koja odgovara na pitanje kako �e se njihovi svjetovi okrenuti kad se ljudi iz dvije razli�ite kulture zaljube.


Drugo va�no pitanje koje ovaj serijal postavlja je �to u�initi kada je njihov vlastiti svijet taj koji uni�tava njihovu obitelj? 
Kome ostati vjeran, odan, lojalan? �to u�initi kada se svijet koji smo poznavali okrene naglava�ke?
Postoji li itko kome mo�emo vjerovati ili smo zaista sami?

Ovo je pri�a o istini. Nitko nije savr�en, svi mi skrivamo tajne, svi grije�imo i svi imamo svoje slabosti. Svi smo mi okrutni i svi mo�emo biti velikodu�ni. Sve je samo stvar odabira. Slo�ila bih se ovdje s  tvrnjom J.Lockea, �ovjek se rodi kao tabula rasa, a dru�tvo je ono koje od njega (ne)obrazovanjem u�ini �ovjeka ili �udovi�te.


Uz tri nastavka koje sam u ovom tekstu ukratko prokomentirala za sada su objavljena jo� dva, The Gender War i The Gender Fall, a o�ekuju se jo� The Gender Plan i The Gender End. Pitate se za�to sam prokomentirala smo tri od njih pet?

Zbog, hmm. tehni�kih problema. �ak i uz posebno zanimljivu temu ovog serijala, nisam mogla pretrpjeti naporan na�in pisanja. Pod naporan mislim predetaljan, a ve� sam odavno shvatila da taj problem imam sa svakom distopijskom knjigom koju uzmem u ruke. Okej, razumijem, treba do�arati taj univerzum, ali zaista ne treba opisivati svaku sitnicu. Da, trebamo znati kako taj novi svijet izgleda ako je to svijet druga�iji od na�eg, ali zar zaista trebamo �itati o svakom detalju i zar ga stvarno treba opisivati taman kad lik tr�i kako bi spasio �ivot? (Nepotrebni?) opisi koji razvodnjuju radnju, razvodnjuju i moje zanimanje. Detaljni izvje�taj izgleda krajolika kojim netko �e�e nikome nije od va�nosti, pa i da je okupan �istim zlatom, ako nije bitan za radnju. Dosad ste me ve� upoznali pa znate da nemam ja vremena za to. Previ�e me knjiga �eka. Tako da, unato� tome �to me zanima kako �e ovaj serijal zavr�iti, ne�u �itati dalje od tre�eg nastavka. 

Ah, da, tu su i muhe. Skoro sam zaboravila na muhe. Muhe su otrovne i privla�i ih krv pa je ta jadna �ivina doslovno svugdje. Taman kad je scena sama po sebi opasna, ajd' pogodite, autorici ba� sad trebaju jo� i muhe.

Dobro, dosta, gasim se.

Ako imate vi�e �ivaca od mene i ne smetaju vas opisi, ili pak je to upravo �to smatrate pravom �ari ovakvog �anra, onda ovaj serijal toplo preporu�ujem. Da me ne smeta ono �to me smeta, ja bih se u njega odmah zaljubila. 

Sad kre�em u potragu za novim paranormalnim naslovom i nadam se da �e me taj sljede�i oboriti s nogu. Do tada, komentirajte i �itajte...

Rose ?? 





P.S. hajdemo nabaciti jednu nagradnu ????
Prve dvije osobe koje komentiraju ovaj post (komentar ne mo�e biti anoniman) osvajaju svaka po jednu knjigu sa slike. Tko prvi komentira, bira knjigu.



U darivanju mo�e sudjelovati bilo tko, ali zbog po�tarine, knjige �aljem samo na adresu u Hrvatskoj. U obzir se uzimaju samo prva dva komentara na ovom postu (ne na fejsu!). Nakon �to objavite komentar, javite mi se u inbox :)
(Darivanje vrijedi do 22.6.2017.)

Sretno svima!
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