Book Tour & Review: The Summer of Shambles (Giveaway)

Welcome to the Summer of Shambles blog tour!! This book is a Young Adult Comedic Paranormal Romance book! It was published June 1, 2013.

The Summer of Shambles by Ebony McKenna
Dive into this wonderfully witty young adult series from author Ebony McKenna, set in the far off European country of Brugel.

15-year-old Ondine is struggling to fit in at Psychic Summercamp and doubts she possesses any of her family’s magical abilities. She resolves to leave, determined to follow her own path and be a normal teenager. Whatever normal is in a place like Brugel.

On the way home Ondine is shocked when her pet ferret Shambles starts talking – in a cheeky Scottish accent no less! He is in fact a young man trapped in a witch’s curse. When he briefly transforms into his human self, Ondine is smitten. If only she can break the spell for good, Shambles can be handsomely human on a full-time basis.

During the summer, these two misfits uncover a plot to assassinate a member of the royal family and discover a secret treasure that has remained hidden for decades. This attracts the attention of the arrogant Lord Vincent, and Ondine can’t help being drawn in by his bad-boy charm.

With so many demands on Ondine’s attentions – and affections – normal has never seemed so far away.

The Summer of Shambles is the first in the four-part ONDINE series. Fans of The Princess Bride or the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series will love this delightfully quirky fairytale.
Series: Ondine, #1
Age: Young Adult; 13 years and up
Review: 3.5 butterflies
I was actually really excited to read this book. It’s not often you get a young adult comedic paranormal romance (that was a mouthful!). And luckily, the book was able to live up to my expectations.

The story is written in third person, but is mostly in Ondine’s point of view, though sometimes it’d veer off and mention something about someone else that Ondine could not have possibly known. It was slightly confusing at first, but once you get sucked into the plot, it quickly becomes a cool quirk to the novel.

Shambles—or Hamish, as we’re soon to find out—is a great character. Though he’s not really fleshed out until around the second half of the novel, he makes up for it by being the comic relief to the drama that is Ondine’s life.

Ondine, on the other hand, is full of teenage drama. I soon found myself forgetting that she is supposed to be fifteen years old because of all the circumstances, and then quickly remembering when she acted like a fifteen-year-old. Not that I minded, because now-a-days you find a bunch of sixteen-year-olds acting like twenty-year-olds in books and this was a nice, refreshing change of pace.

At first, the amount of footnotes distracted me from the novel. I had to press the number, read the footnote, and then keep on with the story. Though the footnotes were interesting pieces of information about the world that the book was set in, they distracted from the plot and it ended up being a bit tedious to have to stop, click, read, and head back to the novel. After a while, however, I ended up not reading the footnotes during the chapter—or reading them briefly—and then reading them after the chapter ended (they’re all gathered at the end of the chapter). I do want to point out I had the .mobi version, so other versions might be different.
 
Though the book is a romance novel, romance is not the only thing happening. There is enough of everything else that the romance isn’t overbearing, so even those who don’t love romance can enjoy it.

The book is full of teenage drama—as well as some intrigue here and there—and is fun and quirky. I had, however, not realized that this is the first of a series, and I was left with the curiosity of what was going to happen in Ondine’s life—as well as Hamish’s. The book doesn’t necessarily end up with a huge cliffhanger, but there’s enough of one that not all plot points are resolved.

I recommend this book for those who want a fun, light, and quirky novel full of talking ferrets, witches, and romance.

A free copy of this book was provided by the author via Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.
Book links: Goodreads * Amazon * B&N * iTunes * Kobo
For all other territories and formats please go to this page.

About the Author

Ebony McKenna lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and son.
She has worked as a journalist, market researcher, website editor, and company director.
As a teenager, she lived in a family-run restaurant. This provided the inspiration for Ondine's family, as Ebony has also waitressed, prepared food and yep, she washed dishes. So many dishes.
Now she writes novels for a living, so her hands are dry. Except for when her characters are making her laugh too much and she has to wipe tears away so she can see the keyboard.

She's always loved trivia nights and the Eurovision Song Contest, and wishes she'd put money on Conchita Wurst winning this year.

Website * Goodreads * Facebook * Twitter

By entering the giveaway, you are accepting my giveaway policy.
Tour-wide giveaway (INTL)
Cute swag pack including a ferret pin, a tree ornament, some cute note cards and envelopes
Ebooks of the Ondine series
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Follow the rest of the tour here.

Yours,




This book tour was organized by Xpresso Book Tours. The giveaway is sponsored and administered by the author.

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