Shudder by Samantha Durante Blog Tour and Giveaway

Today the Shudder Book Tour is stopping on the blog, hosted by CBL Tours, I hope you all enjoy!

Title: Shudder
Author: Samantha Durante
Published: June 15th, 2013 by Samantha Durante
Book rating: 4 stars
Cover rating: 4 stars
Format: eARC, 348 pages
Source: Author

It's only been three days, and already everything is different.
Paragon is behind her, but somehow Alessa's life may actually have gotten worse. In a wrenching twist of fate, she traded the safety and companionship of her sister for that of her true love, losing a vital partner she'd counted on for the ordeal ahead. Her comfortable university life is but a distant memory, as she faces the prospect of surviving a bleak winter on the meager remains of a ravaged world. And if she'd thought she'd tasted fear upon seeing a ghost, she was wrong; now she's discovering new depths of terror while being hunted by a deadly virus and a terrifying pack of superhuman creatures thirsting for blood.
And then there are the visions.
The memory-altering "stitch" unlocked something in Alessa's mind, and now she can't shake the constant flood of alien feelings ransacking her emotions. Haunting memories of an old flame are driving a deep and painful rift into her once-secure relationship. And a series of staggering revelations about the treacherous Engineers - and the bone-chilling deceit shrouding her world's sorry history - will soon leave Alessa reeling...
The second installment in the electrifying Stitch Trilogy, Shudder follows Samantha Durante's shocking and innovative debut with a heart-pounding, paranormal-dusted dystopian adventure sure to keep the pages turning.

When I read Stitch, the first book in this series, back in February I was pleasantly surprised and absolutely loved it. Going so far to call it one of my favorite reads of 2013, which is still true. I was extremely excited to read Shudder, I wasn't completely disappointed but it wasn't all that I wanted it to be. 

Shudder starts off almost immediately after Stitch ended, with both Issac and Alessa outside of Paragon searching for a good home base for the rebels that isn't surrounded by the bad guys or actually inside of the bad guys home base. Outside of Paragon there are several dangers Alessa and Issac must face; the possibility of the virus still being out there, the possibility of dying from starvation, and the possibility of getting eaten by some psycho monster things they run into. Yup, that's right. From some unknown place, crazy blood thirsty monsters have appeared and they're hunting Alessa and Issac outside of Paragon. As you can see Alessa and Issac obviously go through a lot on this trying journey to help push the rebel plan forward but it might end up being worth it. 

Alessa struggles a lot in this book, she starts thinking about Joe again and has to face her feelings about losing him. She has to deal with a new sort of ability she develops, which was a really fun twist to the story, and she has trouble facing the fact that even though she's already been through so much and done so much the fight has just begun. She even goes so far to think she might just run away, you can tell she's really having a rough time. I really liked seeing this vulnerable side of Alessa and getting to know her on a more personal level. I loved seeing her take care of Issac throughout this book too, because that allowed us to watch them grow closer and to also see his vulnerable side. I think we get to really know both of these characters on a personal level because of this, but don't let all of this vulnerability fool you. They're both still badass rebels.

I think my favorite moments throughout this book were when Issac and Alessa just got to relax and not worry for awhile. I loved seeing them just love each other and be okay, even if the moment was fleeting. I think it was key for them to survive a lot that they went through or are going to go through. Shudder also gave us a lot of background information on Paragon and The Engineers. We got to learn how exactly it formed and came to be and where the virus came from. At times I felt this book got a little boring in a few parts, but when the action happened it was pretty awesome. It showed us just how awesome and kick ass these characters can be and proved to us just how passionate all of them are about making things right. 

The ending to this book just about killed me, I suspected it but I didn't want it to be true so when my fears were confirmed it broke my heart. I am now dying to know what this means and if they can fix it. Overall I really enjoyed Shudder, I'm really excited for the third book to see how exactly this trilogy wraps up.

Purchase this book on

Amazon 

ENTER TOUR GIVEAWAY HERE (US & INT)

Samantha Durante lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband, Sudeep, and her cat, Gio. Formerly an engineer at Microsoft, Samantha left the world of software in 2010 to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams and a lifelong love of writing. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, Samantha is currently working full time for her company Medley Media Associates as a freelance business writer and communications consultant. The Stitch Trilogy is her debut series. Learn more about Samantha at www.samanthadurante.com.