Welcome to my tour stop for Lailah by Nikki Kelly!! Talk about an action packed post to go along with an action packed book. My Review, My Dream Cast and a Tour of Nikki's writing cave. (I love seeing authors work spaces don't you!!). Make sure to enter the giveaway as well. Every Tour Stop will be giving away one copy of the book. How great is that, so make sure to enter!!
by Nikki Kelly
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Release Date: October 7th 2014
Read some chapters on Wattpad
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.
SHORT STORIES:
A short story, told from Gabriel’s perspective, set in the Second Dimension (Earth) — 1941.
A short story, told from Jonah’s perspective, detailing his journey to becoming a Second Generation Vampire.
Cessie/Lailah was a character that I didn’t necessarily connect with but I also didn’t dislike either. I was interested in her story and where it was taking her. I liked the fact that there is so much mystery surrounding who she is and in a battle of good and evil she is kind of a gray area. Everyone wants her but nobody seems to have concrete answers to why. Even though the prologue of the book definitely gives us a big ole hint, it’s still hard to connect the dots. There were times I really like her and thought you go girl kick some butt. She seemed pretty capable of taking care of herself for all this time. There were other times that I was like, what are you doing stop acting so young. Ha ha.
So at first I liked Jonah but there were some points when I was definitely disturbed by him. When he was forcing Cessie to show him her scars. What bothered me about this scene is that she is supposedly emotionally traumatized by what a vampire she knew before did to her but another one pushing her around doesn’t send her into a puddle of terror but instead...turns her on a bit? It just left a bad taste in my mouth and then when he sneaks into her room at a very inappropiate time kind of made me feel like he was icky even more so. Besides those things and as the book progresses he turned into be okay.A little on the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde side but I could like him again.
It’s hard to not like Gabriel. The leader who obviously cares deeply for her. She remembers him from her past even though parts of it come across sketchy. He’s the leader of the band of misfits he’s formed by setting Vampires “free” and he has kind of a more mature way about him. Although his handling of Lailah situations are not necessarily flawless, I think he for the most part is pretty honest to her. He doesn’t hide his feelings even though she gets the weird teenagery doubt thing going on.
What I loved about Lailah was the mythology involved with the Angels and Demons. The origin story for the vampires and how it works when someone is turned is also very interesting to me. The difference between the Purebloods and the regulars and how they have different clans. We find out more about the Vampires first and then the Angels get filled in a bit a later in the book. I always like when someone takes something that is more widely known and gives it a new twist.
I was not at all bothered by the love triangle. You knew that there was more history with Gabriel and her then was being revealed. As well as the complication of what the ring is around her neck. Jonah seemed more intrigued which seemed to ignite is infactuation. He wanted to figure her out. I felt like the two of them tugged on the good and evil of her soul.
I liked how everything in the story comes together at the end of the book. Some questions are answered, certain things are revealed and we find Lailah fighting rather than cowering. This book was interesting and enjoyable for me.
This is my cast for the characters. Just a note, I don't pay attention to age always so sometimes you have to think of the person as when they were younger.
LAILAH/CESSIE
Liana Liberato
Honestly it was taking me a while for a Lailah to really surface for me. I was thinking a bunch of different actresses but when I looked at their photos I felt kind of eh. Then for some reason Liana stuck out to me.
GABRIEL
Chris Hemsworth
I don't the minute Gabriel shows up I couldn't get Chris out of my head for the character.
JONAH
Alexander Koch
Welcome to my ‘cave’…
I have a small room that is my dedicated workspace… I’ll give you a tour…
This is my desk in the corner of the room. I had to buy a much bigger wrap-around desk when I started editing, as I needed the extra space to spread out the pages! As you can see from the images, I like to have visuals nearby… At least that’s what I tell my hubby when he questions the Alex Pettyfer and Channing Tatum posters…
I have to hide my sweeties in a desk tidy or my hubby would eat them! Of course the tea tray comes and goes from the room hourly…
Next to my wrap-around desk is yet another desk, only this one is a laptop table – a pretty purple one! I usually move over to this desk if I do any work during the day, as the sun hits this spot of the room! I sometimes use this table to revise printed pages if I just fancy a change of view, from one wall to another!
Above the purple laptop desk is my giant framed Lailah book cover poster!
At the other end of the room, next to the laptop table, is my sofa, which I used to sit on and read. Nowadays it’s piled with Lailah swag!
I also have a small bookcase in the room – here is my favorite shelf!
I always have music on when I am preparing to write – usually motivational soundtrack songs. When I am actually writing, it’s simply orchestral music (often the Doctor Who soundtrack).
My beautiful leather scrapbook also lives in this room; it’s where I collect all the memories!
When I am in ‘re-reading stages’ – so copy edits or ARC read-through – I prefer to go and hide away somewhere very quiet. In this photo I was in a barn conversion in the Quantocks, which is the English countryside, making final and last notes from the Lailah ARC.
I was born and raised only minutes away from the chocolately scent of Cadbury World in Birmingham, England. So it will probably come as no surprise that when I'm not dreaming in Vampires & Angels, I dream in chocolate! For the past ten years I have lived in West London with my hubby and two dogs, Alfie - the Pug & Goose - the Chihuahua.
LAILAH is my debut novel, and first launched in serial form to wattpad, a readers & writers community. Within just 6months, LAILAH had over a million reads and thousands of comments and votes.
Since then, The Styclar Saga has gone on to pick up a traditional deal with Feiwel & Friends, and LAILAH, the first book in the series is due for release on October 7th 2014.
These days I spend my time balancing my amazing job of writing fantasy fiction, with my other, very important role of Chocolate Connoisseur. I like to multitask and do the two together. It makes me happy.
