Blitz: My Life From Hell by Tellulah Darling (with except & giveaway)

TITLE: My Life From Hell
SERIES: The Blooming Goddess Trilogy #3
AUTHOR: Tellulah Darling
PUBLICATION DATE: March 20, 2014
PUBLISHER: Te Da Media
PAGES: 414 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC
SOURCE: NetGalley
RATING: 5 bows
BUY LINKS: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo

DESCRIPTION

To say that Sophie Bloom is at the top of her game with one only week until spring equinox and the final showdown with Zeus and Hades would be, well, lying. The Goddess of Spring feels more like the Goddess of Bzz Thanks For Playing than the savior of humanity. And could her relationships be any more messed up?

Good times.

Sophie is convinced that things can’t get any worse than crawling back to her mother Demeter and begging for help. But she’s about to find out how very wrong she is.

It’s a race against time for Sophie to implement the big battle strategy in the YA romantic comedy/Greek mythology finale My Life From Hell. Love meets comedy with a whole lot of sass in book three of this teen fantasy romance series. Save herself; save the world. Humanity may be screwed.

EXCERPT

Of all the Prince of Darkness’ powers, his best were his bone-melting super-kisses. Which is why, when my boyfriend Kai, (formally known as Kyrillos, son of Hades, Lord of the Underworld) pushed me up against my bedroom wall with a liplock of mind whacking proportions, I didn’t do much other than grip his shoulders, try to stay in an upright position, and willingly participate.

But as right as it felt, I also knew that it was very very wrong.

“We have to talk,” I gasped as I came up for air.

“Overrated,” Kai murmured, nudging his hips up against mine. Instead of talking, he opted for Plan B, which was pretty much a new and improved version of Plan A. His hand clasped the back of my head to pull me closer.

If I pressed myself any harder against him, I’d be behind him.

Maybe that would be a good thing. Then I wouldn’t be distracted by things like the way his stupidly gorgeously-lashed eyes fixated on me, their normal espresso brown darkened and full of heat.

Kai shook his head, flinging a wayward lock of dark hair out of his eyes. That just made me want to sink my hands into his hair. And like the most pathetic Pavlovian conditioning, one of my hands snaked up to twine my fingers into the curled ends just below his ears.

His breath caught at my caress.

Kai leaned forward and gave me the most fleeting, teasing kiss, his lips brushing mine. My stomach fluttered at hummingbird speed in that split second of connection.

Kissing, touching; our chemistry was off the scale.

Sadly, so was the weight of our baggage.

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.

Writes about: where love meets comedy. Awkwardness ensues.

Tellulah Darling is a firm believer that some of the best stories happen when love meets comedy. Which is why she has so much fun writing young adult romantic comedy novels. Her tales span contemporary, teen fantasy romance, and YA Greek mythology, and range from stand alone books to series. For Tellulah, teen romance is the most passionate, intense, and awkward there is – a comedy goldmine. Plus smart, mouthy, teen girls rock.

Sassy girls. Swoony boys. What could go wrong?

Contact Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

MY REVIEW

This is it, the final showdown is a week away and Sophie must prepare to forever win the battle and be humanity’s savior or die trying…and take everyone on the planet with her when she fails. No pressure, right? Add the stress of that on top of trying to heal from psycho Bethany’s stab wound, trying to get Kai to talk through his feelings, and working through the revelation that Felicity is actually Demeter (AKA Persephone’s mom) in disguise and this poor girl is literally developing stress rashes. Can she get it together and save the world or is humanity doomed?

I intentionally read this slowly trying to make it last longer. As excited as I was to get my hands on it, I was equally sad because I don’t really want Sophie’s journey to come to an end. Well…I do because a longer journey means more conflict and poor Soph has been through enough, but I know I will miss her wit and her charm and her massive amounts of snark. Yes, I can (and probably will) re-read the novels, but it’s not the same, you know? I’m going to try to keep my weepy, maudlin-ness to a minimum, because it won’t do the book justice, but I suspect it might creep in here and there.

If we thought Sophie had been put through the ringer before, we were sorely mistaken. Here, Sophie more or less gets shoved into Persephone’s last week of life and the fall out from having to see Kai loving her or Demeter actually showing affection should be enough to send her over the deep end. Add that to the stress that she still must figure out a way to save humanity and I’m surprised she never seriously contemplated suicide. Not our Soph, though, because she’s too determined and resilient to give up. She’ll save the world or die trying, and force her friends to help, even if they can’t remember who she is.

The Kai we get is a mash-up between book 1 dickhead Kai and book 2 charming and swoony Kai. He’s obviously still not recovered from the knowledge that Persephone planned to betray him and takes a good bit of that frustration out on our undeserving Sophie. He gets better, though, and he’s good-guy side takes over once again. You know all those banners up right now that say “I sigh for Kai” for Wendy Higgins Sweet Evil Trilogy? Well I want one, but for this trilogy because this Kai is beyond sigh-worthy. That speech he makes to Sophie at the end?

The rest of the gang is all present, though we don’t get as much of Hannah and her nerdiness as I would have liked. Theo and Festos are the most adorable couple ever and Hannah’s new found obsession with Pierce is lovable, even if it does make her into one of those girls who is more interested in her boyfriend than anything else. Poor Hannah actually is as human as the rest of us, with hormones and imperfections.

There was a point while reading this when I panicked. Though I won’t say who, someone dies. An important character dies. I HATE character death and I instantly went into a tailspin. I’m going to have to write a negative review. How can I write an negative review about one of Tellulah’s books?!?!? I love her and all her work. I think I even started hyperventilating at the prospect of putting negative thoughts out about an otherwise amazing series. But I hate character death and I can’t not mention it, right? I can’t write a review without being completely honest and I can’t love something where a favorite character bites the dust. Luckily for me (and all of you) this character doesn’t stay permanently dead. We get a perfectly acceptable loophole for him to be…not dead.

Though I am sad to see it end, the ending itself is perfect. I loved the way Sophie saves the world and the uplifting message that leaves you with. I can’t say much more than that without spoilers, but more novels should end with that particular moral in mind. This is everything I wanted when I started it. You get deep emotional drama and trauma along with Sophie’s signature level of snark. You get Kai’s swooniness (though it takes a bit of time to manifest). You get to see all your favorite characters get the happy ending they deserve. The only thing it’s missing is comeuppance for Bethany, but it’s okay because the way the last scene with her is written is better. I can’t express how thrilled I am to have had the opportunity to read this amazing series and how utterly sad I am to see it end. I feel the textbook definition of a book hangover. What am I supposed to do now?

When all is said and done, I truly recommend not only this book and this series, but anything Tellulah Darling plans to write. She will surprise you with her ability to make you laugh and cry. Her ability to write in a realistic teenage voice never fails to surprise. She writes in a way that truly reminds me of Jennifer L Armentrout and that is a compliment of the highest order. Seriously, pick up My Ex From Hell if you haven’t already because it’s exactly what you didn’t know you were looking for and you’ll thank me later.

****Thank you to Tellulah Darling/Te De Media for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review****

COMMENTS

I’m so excited to be able to take part in this. The Blooming Goddess is the funniest series I’ve ever read, with Sophie coming off as an entirely believable snarky girl trying her best to save the world. Tellulah had a virtual book launch Sunday which I (sadly) missed, but I know it was awesome!