The Bookworm: Review: Extraordinary October by Diana Wagman + GIVEAWAY! (CLOSED)

Hello, my lovely readers! Today is my stop on the blog tour for Extraordinary October by Diana Wagman hosted by Xpresso Book Tours and I'm really happy to be reviewing this book for you all! It's quite fitting that I'm posting this review in October since, well, it's actually been quite a fun month for me so far!

As always, we'll start off with the disclaimer: I was sent an e-copy of the book in exchange for an honest review as part of this blog tour. There is also a GIVEAWAY down below for a really cool prize that I really want myself so be sure to enter! Now onto the review!

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Rating: PG

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Score: 3.5

Page Count: 265

Stand Alone

Publisher: Ig Publishing

Published: October 11th, 2016

October is an ordinary girl. From her plain looks to her average grades, there seems to be nothing special about her. Then, three days before her eighteenth birthday, she develops a strange itch that won’t go away, and her life is turned upside down. Suddenly, she can hear dogs talk, make crows fly, and two new and very handsome boys at school are vying for her affections. After she starts “transplanting” herself through solid rock, October learns that she is not ordinary at all, but the daughter of a troll princess and a fairy prince, and a pawn in a deadly war between the trolls and the fairies. Now October will have to use all of her growing powers to save her family, and stop a mysterious evil that threatens to destroy the fairy world.

In the fantastical vein of authors such as Julie Kagawa and Holly Black, Extraordinary October takes us on a magical journey from the streets of Los Angeles to the beautiful and mythical underground fairy kingdom.

Rating:

PROS:

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1. I was first interested in this book when I first saw the beautiful, colorful, cover and the idea of a fun story about fairies, trolls, and an evil queen sounded like it would be a really interesting book to relax with. Before I ramble on too much, let's just get right into the review.

2. I thought the story was solid and had a nice pace. There was definitely a lot of magical elements with the fairies, trolls, and history about both and their different abilities. I thought it was a lot of fun to learn about the different species in the book and also was a fun adventure to follow as things in October's life were pretty much turned upside down when the fantasy world invades her own seemingly overnight.

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3. The writing was great and very descriptive without being info-dumpy and I was pretty fascinated in the events that take place throughout the book with the 'transplanting' and different powers that October finds herself having. The book wasn't much of an original story line but it was still fun to read and the fantasy was that of Harry Potter and The Iron Fey series mixed in with a little bit of Bridge To Terabithia. It has a lot to offer as a fantasy story and I think it was quite enjoyable and laid back.

CONS:

1. I didn't really connect with the characters in this book, however, which I was a little disappointed in. October, while with a unique history and name, was a very blank slate of a character and lacked any confidence in herself. She was a character that had a lot of things written on her and there wasn't much character development. She referred to herself plenty of times throughout the book as being plain which got a little annoying. She didn't seem to have any talents or interests which prevented me from connecting with her at all. I also didn't care for either love interest since they both seemed like a very trope-y type love interest and I just didn't really feel like they were interesting.

Overall, this book wasn't great but it wasn't horrible either. There's honestly not a lot I can say about this book other than it was a laid back but fun fantasy story that was a quick read and could easily become someone's favorite book. Personally, I needed a little more to really hook me and make me love the book but I just didn't get what I was looking for. I think if you're looking for something different and creative in a sense, try picking this one up and see what this story does for you.

You Can Purchase The Book Here:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo Books

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About The Author:

I have always written and always wanted to be a writer, but didn’t think I could make a living at it. So I became a mime. (You can imagine what my father had to say about that.) I worked on the streets of NYC with two partners, stopping traffic in front of the Met and annoying tourists. When, to my great surprise, that didn’t work out, I returned to school in film–thinking screenwriters made a living. And when I had ten scripts and my agent had stopped returning my calls, I wrote a novel. I did it just because I wanted to love writing again and not think about selling or casting or marketability. That novel was Skin Deep, and it’s a testament to writing from your heart that the first person to read it, bought it. I’ve been trying to write from the heart ever since.

Author Links:

Website

Twitter

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