Read the rest of the review here on Bibliodaze.
3.5 Stars Rounded down to Three
Do you ever have that tiny little feeling in the back of your head when you just know something’s going to disappoint? It doesn’t even have to be bad, just a small little spark of interest that gets dimmed, like when you have this great, hilarious conversation with someone, but all of a sudden you just stop caring?
This was Soulbound for me. I’m making it seem worse than it actually is, because I was super impressed for most of the book. Callihan’s writing has definitely improved since her first novel, and Adam was, *cough* not bad looking, not bad looking at all *cough*. It was interesting learning about Adam’s history and the world of the fairies, but something around 3/4s through the novel vanished.
3.5 Stars Rounded down to Three
Do you ever have that tiny little feeling in the back of your head when you just know something’s going to disappoint? It doesn’t even have to be bad, just a small little spark of interest that gets dimmed, like when you have this great, hilarious conversation with someone, but all of a sudden you just stop caring?
This was Soulbound for me. I’m making it seem worse than it actually is, because I was super impressed for most of the book. Callihan’s writing has definitely improved since her first novel, and Adam was, *cough* not bad looking, not bad looking at all *cough*. It was interesting learning about Adam’s history and the world of the fairies, but something around 3/4s through the novel vanished.
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
Thank you, Edelweiss, for giving me the opportunity of reviewing this book.
Hello Dear Killer,
Seeing as the one of the main reasons Kit does anything slightly important in this book (except for one person) is because of a letter, I'll write one in the hopes that this book will be one of the killed.
I know that many people think it's impossible for there to be a teen killer. Fortunately for you, I'm not one of them. Sure, they're rare (Most serial killers are between the ages of 18-30), but Armadeep Sada was an eight year old serial killer. I can even believe that you started killing when you were tiny, because female serial killers don't get caught until much later and Miranda Barbour was recently caught.
Killing over fifty people? Very unbelievable, but then, Pedro Alonso López is known to have killed over 300 people, and he's still not in jail.
Seventeen year old killer? Believable. Female serial killer, even though only 15% of serial killers are women? Fine, whatever. Killing over 50 people even though the female average is nine? Not as believable, but whatever, it's fiction.
But for Ctullu's sake, do some research, book! Kit's supposed to be the only terrifying serial killer in England, after Jack the Ripper (who, by the way, only killed five people), but a simple Wikepedia search shows so many more.
Okay, fine. You don't want to do the work of actually googling things. I get it. Hey, how about that show more TV show that's extremely popular called Criminal Minds? It's not the most completely accurate thing that details about serial killers, but whatever. Anything would be better than this trainwreck.
Did you know, Dear Killer, that I had a great year of books before you? And then you came, with your interesting cover and your interesting synopsis, and I ignored my basic instincts that told me that teen serial killers were the new thing in YA, which therefore would make this horrible. But I didn't listen to the instincts that kept humanity alive for millions of years. I decided to get you from Edelweiss, and look how horrible you were.
Do you know how much I tried to like you? I mean, your first couple of pages were amazing, and I was so excited to finally get an actually good YA thriller. I was even ignored the other books that I wanted to read to get to you. And you know how you acted to me? Just. Like. This:
So instead of reading actually decent books, I was stuck reading you. Do you want to know why I didn't stop. Because I had faith in your getting better.
Oh yes, Dear Killer, I was one of those horrible main characters that would stick with the heroine even though he was a complete and utterly unredeemable... jerk. Yes, I have decided that I should really come up with better insults. Anyways, I was one of those terrible heroines. Look at what you have made me become!
You know what Kit leaves as her signature? Letters. And not just any letters. Letters that people write to her when they want her to kill somebody. How stupid can you be?
Oh, and do you know where the people put the letters? In a mailbox, as if the police isn't going to catch that.
Okay, fine. I get it. Occasionally, the police mess up. That does not mean they're that bad at their job every single time. Similarly, it does not mean that it'll be simple to take part in a police investigation and feed them the information you want them to know. If you freaking walk up to the police station and start declaring all these facts about the investigation, they're not going to believe you're a little bright. They're going to do the magical thing called arresting you for suspicion of murder.
And you know what else? They don't used media-inspired names, for obvious reasons.
If you couldn't tell, I really like studying serial killers. And guess what? Kit. Is. Not. A. Serial. Killer. Serial killers don't just kill a lot of people. A serial killer is a person that kills three or more people in an extended period of time with a cooling off period in between. This "cooling off" period is a time where said serial killer keeps an emotional distance. And then they have an urge to kill again. Did this happen, Dear Killer?
The answer, by the way, is no.
Were you supposed to be creepy, Dear Killer? Weren't you supposed to give me nightmares? Wasn't I supposed to lock all my doors and windows and huddle in a corner? Well, do you know how much coffee I had to drink in order to stay awake through this?
Please, a "perfect" kill? Every single time, which, by the way, is over fifty times? This just falls into the realm of unbelievable. Kit messes up so many times, it's turns hysterical. Anyone reading you, Dear Killer, can see how obviously bad Kit is at killing.
Maybe if Kit was more careful, I might have believed that she could get away with over fifty kills. But of course not. She's one of those narcissistic characters who believe they do everything correct. Usually, something will happen to one of these characters to change this thought, but no. Nothing really happens to Kit and she just continues her narcissism until the end.
The mother-daughter dynamic was laughable. It was supposed to make me feel pity for Kit and everything she went through, but the way she was raised was really badly written.
And I'm not even going to bring up Alex, who, by the way is the love interest. While it wasn't instantaneous love, it was an instant attraction, which was bad enough. He's nine years older than Kit, and he's just completely weak. I mean, there's the typical romance alpha male who just pushes everything on the heroine, and then there are people like Alex, who sit back and whine and let everything happen to them instead of actually controlling the events around him.
Also, does this take place in the U. K.? Because I never would have guessed if it wasn't told to me so many times. I mean, don't completely throw stereotypes at me, but give me a few hints as to where this is located other than Kit's incurable first person narrative.
There is no plot in you, Dear Killer. It's just a lot of events that are barely aligned in chronological order. Congratulations on maintaining a semblance of control of time.
At first, I gave you 2 stars, but now that I'm actually writing about you, I've decided that you're a horrible book.
But hey, at least there's no love triangle. Also, read Nenia Campbell's Horrorscape trilogy for an actually good thriller.
Signed,
A Very Pissed off Reader
(Alisa, by the way) show less
Thank you, Edelweiss, for giving me the opportunity of reviewing this book.
Hello Dear Killer,
Seeing as the one of the main reasons Kit does anything slightly important in this book (except for one person) is because of a letter, I'll write one in the hopes that this book will be one of the killed.
I know that many people think it's impossible for there to be a teen killer. Fortunately for you, I'm not one of them. Sure, they're rare (Most serial killers are between the ages of 18-30), but Armadeep Sada was an eight year old serial killer. I can even believe that you started killing when you were tiny, because female serial killers don't get caught until much later and Miranda Barbour was recently caught.
Killing over fifty people? Very unbelievable, but then, Pedro Alonso López is known to have killed over 300 people, and he's still not in jail.
Seventeen year old killer? Believable. Female serial killer, even though only 15% of serial killers are women? Fine, whatever. Killing over 50 people even though the female average is nine? Not as believable, but whatever, it's fiction.
But for Ctullu's sake, do some research, book! Kit's supposed to be the only terrifying serial killer in England, after Jack the Ripper (who, by the way, only killed five people), but a simple Wikepedia search shows so many more.
Okay, fine. You don't want to do the work of actually googling things. I get it. Hey, how about that show more TV show that's extremely popular called Criminal Minds? It's not the most completely accurate thing that details about serial killers, but whatever. Anything would be better than this trainwreck.
Did you know, Dear Killer, that I had a great year of books before you? And then you came, with your interesting cover and your interesting synopsis, and I ignored my basic instincts that told me that teen serial killers were the new thing in YA, which therefore would make this horrible. But I didn't listen to the instincts that kept humanity alive for millions of years. I decided to get you from Edelweiss, and look how horrible you were.
Do you know how much I tried to like you? I mean, your first couple of pages were amazing, and I was so excited to finally get an actually good YA thriller. I was even ignored the other books that I wanted to read to get to you. And you know how you acted to me? Just. Like. This:
So instead of reading actually decent books, I was stuck reading you. Do you want to know why I didn't stop. Because I had faith in your getting better.
Oh yes, Dear Killer, I was one of those horrible main characters that would stick with the heroine even though he was a complete and utterly unredeemable... jerk. Yes, I have decided that I should really come up with better insults. Anyways, I was one of those terrible heroines. Look at what you have made me become!
You know what Kit leaves as her signature? Letters. And not just any letters. Letters that people write to her when they want her to kill somebody. How stupid can you be?
Oh, and do you know where the people put the letters? In a mailbox, as if the police isn't going to catch that.
Okay, fine. I get it. Occasionally, the police mess up. That does not mean they're that bad at their job every single time. Similarly, it does not mean that it'll be simple to take part in a police investigation and feed them the information you want them to know. If you freaking walk up to the police station and start declaring all these facts about the investigation, they're not going to believe you're a little bright. They're going to do the magical thing called arresting you for suspicion of murder.
And you know what else? They don't used media-inspired names, for obvious reasons.
If you couldn't tell, I really like studying serial killers. And guess what? Kit. Is. Not. A. Serial. Killer. Serial killers don't just kill a lot of people. A serial killer is a person that kills three or more people in an extended period of time with a cooling off period in between. This "cooling off" period is a time where said serial killer keeps an emotional distance. And then they have an urge to kill again. Did this happen, Dear Killer?
The answer, by the way, is no.
Were you supposed to be creepy, Dear Killer? Weren't you supposed to give me nightmares? Wasn't I supposed to lock all my doors and windows and huddle in a corner? Well, do you know how much coffee I had to drink in order to stay awake through this?
Please, a "perfect" kill? Every single time, which, by the way, is over fifty times? This just falls into the realm of unbelievable. Kit messes up so many times, it's turns hysterical. Anyone reading you, Dear Killer, can see how obviously bad Kit is at killing.
Maybe if Kit was more careful, I might have believed that she could get away with over fifty kills. But of course not. She's one of those narcissistic characters who believe they do everything correct. Usually, something will happen to one of these characters to change this thought, but no. Nothing really happens to Kit and she just continues her narcissism until the end.
The mother-daughter dynamic was laughable. It was supposed to make me feel pity for Kit and everything she went through, but the way she was raised was really badly written.
And I'm not even going to bring up Alex, who, by the way is the love interest. While it wasn't instantaneous love, it was an instant attraction, which was bad enough. He's nine years older than Kit, and he's just completely weak. I mean, there's the typical romance alpha male who just pushes everything on the heroine, and then there are people like Alex, who sit back and whine and let everything happen to them instead of actually controlling the events around him.
Also, does this take place in the U. K.? Because I never would have guessed if it wasn't told to me so many times. I mean, don't completely throw stereotypes at me, but give me a few hints as to where this is located other than Kit's incurable first person narrative.
There is no plot in you, Dear Killer. It's just a lot of events that are barely aligned in chronological order. Congratulations on maintaining a semblance of control of time.
At first, I gave you 2 stars, but now that I'm actually writing about you, I've decided that you're a horrible book.
But hey, at least there's no love triangle. Also, read Nenia Campbell's Horrorscape trilogy for an actually good thriller.
Signed,
A Very Pissed off Reader
(Alisa, by the way) show less
4.5 Stars Rounded Down
ARC received through Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
First of all, look at the Goodreads average rating. 4.5 ish stars. Whenever this happens, I'm immediately wary of what would probably make me the only person to not love the book. But this isn't the case, though. I actually loved this!
Now look at the cover. This is the part where I know I'm not going to like the book. It's a girl in a dress, which is basically all YA fantasy. And most YA fantasy isn't that likeable. Therefore, this is a book that I wouldn't love, right?
Wrong. Because what I failed to look at was the background, which is a cave, which is a setting in YA that's barely ever used.
This book lacks several aspects that makes up the typical YA:
-Instantaneous love between the two protagonists the very second they ever see each other
-A plot disappearing the very second that there is a semblance of sense
-A boring main character
-Slut shaming
-A setting that's almost nonexistent
-A creepy hero that just knows that the main character loves him
-Other typical stuff
Cecile, as you can tell from the title, sings. And she's really good at it. She was even going to go sing at some opera place. But one day she was kidnapped and taken to Trollus, which, as you can tell by the name, has trolls. And she's their only hope. So of course she wins at everything!
Well, not quite. She's actually horrible at show more whatever she was supposed to do. Well, not horrible, but she doesn't win at everything. She just sorts of... doesn't succeeds? At all?
But hey, that's only the beginning! Yay!
Tristan's the troll prince that she was supposed to marry and save everyone with, and he's- wait. Did I forget to mention him? Yeah, I'm quite horrible at this, aren't I? Anyways, what I forgot to say was that Cecile was supposed to do this weird marriage thing with Tristan and save the world and stuff. Only it's not as unlikeable as my one sentence makes it seem. Just read the book. You'll understand what I'm talking about.
Alright, back to Tristan. He's actually why I didn't round this book up to five stars. I just didn't like him. At all. And there were all these reasons of why he acted the way he did (aka, being a horriblehuman being living thing to Cecile), but you see: I. Just. Don't. Care. Basically, he was the typical YA love interest, just with a reason. That reason- and this isn't a spoiler because it's in the actual summary so don't kill me because of this- is that he's a leader of a rebellion. And he's protecting her from being killed by acting horrible and all these bad reasons and such.
Unfortunately, since this is a young adult book, there is a love triangle. Kind of. But it doesn't take precedence over the plot, which is awesome.
The bottom line of this sort-of-coherent review is that you should definitely read the book and not be skeptical like me. show less
ARC received through Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
First of all, look at the Goodreads average rating. 4.5 ish stars. Whenever this happens, I'm immediately wary of what would probably make me the only person to not love the book. But this isn't the case, though. I actually loved this!
Now look at the cover. This is the part where I know I'm not going to like the book. It's a girl in a dress, which is basically all YA fantasy. And most YA fantasy isn't that likeable. Therefore, this is a book that I wouldn't love, right?
Wrong. Because what I failed to look at was the background, which is a cave, which is a setting in YA that's barely ever used.
This book lacks several aspects that makes up the typical YA:
-Instantaneous love between the two protagonists the very second they ever see each other
-A plot disappearing the very second that there is a semblance of sense
-A boring main character
-Slut shaming
-A setting that's almost nonexistent
-A creepy hero that just knows that the main character loves him
-Other typical stuff
Cecile, as you can tell from the title, sings. And she's really good at it. She was even going to go sing at some opera place. But one day she was kidnapped and taken to Trollus, which, as you can tell by the name, has trolls. And she's their only hope. So of course she wins at everything!
Well, not quite. She's actually horrible at show more whatever she was supposed to do. Well, not horrible, but she doesn't win at everything. She just sorts of... doesn't succeeds? At all?
But hey, that's only the beginning! Yay!
Tristan's the troll prince that she was supposed to marry and save everyone with, and he's- wait. Did I forget to mention him? Yeah, I'm quite horrible at this, aren't I? Anyways, what I forgot to say was that Cecile was supposed to do this weird marriage thing with Tristan and save the world and stuff. Only it's not as unlikeable as my one sentence makes it seem. Just read the book. You'll understand what I'm talking about.
Alright, back to Tristan. He's actually why I didn't round this book up to five stars. I just didn't like him. At all. And there were all these reasons of why he acted the way he did (aka, being a horrible
Unfortunately, since this is a young adult book, there is a love triangle. Kind of. But it doesn't take precedence over the plot, which is awesome.
The bottom line of this sort-of-coherent review is that you should definitely read the book and not be skeptical like me. show less
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
Seventy-Thousand-Billion Stars out of Five Stars
This is the cover of one of the most brilliant and hilarious books of our time.
This is what the summary says:
This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative--like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it--but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:
Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*
*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!
Have you read a better summary than that? Now, add these lumpy creatures that are humans and vivid and detailed creatures that are animals. Also, it's hilarious. That's all I can say that's slightly coherent. Just trust me and stop everything you've ever done and read Hyperbole and a Half.
Thank you, Edelweiss, for giving me the amazing opportunity of reviewing this book, even though it took me months to actually gather my thoughts together.
Seventy-Thousand-Billion Stars out of Five Stars
This is the cover of one of the most brilliant and hilarious books of our time.
This is what the summary says:
This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative--like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it--but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:
Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*
*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!
Have you read a better summary than that? Now, add these lumpy creatures that are humans and vivid and detailed creatures that are animals. Also, it's hilarious. That's all I can say that's slightly coherent. Just trust me and stop everything you've ever done and read Hyperbole and a Half.
Thank you, Edelweiss, for giving me the amazing opportunity of reviewing this book, even though it took me months to actually gather my thoughts together.
Thank you, Edelweiss, for giving me the opportunity of reading and review this book.
One Star
It's no secret I politely enjoy novels fairies in a non-obsessive way that does not freak everyone around me out. I blame the Fever series for this. But really, can you say no to this:
And the books are even better than Jericho Barrons.
So when I heard about All that Glows being on Edelweiss, I snatched it up. When none of the reviews were up yet. Which is a horrible, horrible idea that I always end up doing. A few days later, multiple reviews pop up. And, of course, most of the people I followed hated it. Because I didn't want to start 2014 with a bad book, I decided not to read it. Good choice, right?
But alas, the universe hates me. Somehow, I ended up reading it. I have no idea how, but I did. And I hated it.
Based on my deductions, this is either a hilarious parody of Young Adult books, or just a terrible book, with all the YA faults. Unfortunately, it seems like the latter. Maybe it's just me being the typical disbelieving me.
Basically, what All That Glows is about is some ancient faery instantly falling in love with a prince. And describing how she feels with many annoying metaphors.
The setting is in England, with horrible research. The characters besides "Embers", as Richard so unimaginably calls her, and Richard exist for the sole reason of doing nothing except for information. And yes, I can sort of live with that, but if this books is about fairies, and I come show more out of it learning nothing except for the fact that Emrys is so totally awesome and Richard is so hot, I'm going to get a little annoyed.
The narrative? What narrative? It's supposed to be first person, which is supposed to not act like a boring textbook. And if the main character is a faery who you'd think would be awesome, it just irritates me when I almost fall asleep reading.
Bottom line, don't read it, no matter how pretty the cover is and how awesome the book trailer is. show less
One Star
It's no secret I politely enjoy novels fairies in a non-obsessive way that does not freak everyone around me out. I blame the Fever series for this. But really, can you say no to this:
And the books are even better than Jericho Barrons.
So when I heard about All that Glows being on Edelweiss, I snatched it up. When none of the reviews were up yet. Which is a horrible, horrible idea that I always end up doing. A few days later, multiple reviews pop up. And, of course, most of the people I followed hated it. Because I didn't want to start 2014 with a bad book, I decided not to read it. Good choice, right?
But alas, the universe hates me. Somehow, I ended up reading it. I have no idea how, but I did. And I hated it.
Based on my deductions, this is either a hilarious parody of Young Adult books, or just a terrible book, with all the YA faults. Unfortunately, it seems like the latter. Maybe it's just me being the typical disbelieving me.
Basically, what All That Glows is about is some ancient faery instantly falling in love with a prince. And describing how she feels with many annoying metaphors.
The setting is in England, with horrible research. The characters besides "Embers", as Richard so unimaginably calls her, and Richard exist for the sole reason of doing nothing except for information. And yes, I can sort of live with that, but if this books is about fairies, and I come show more out of it learning nothing except for the fact that Emrys is so totally awesome and Richard is so hot, I'm going to get a little annoyed.
The narrative? What narrative? It's supposed to be first person, which is supposed to not act like a boring textbook. And if the main character is a faery who you'd think would be awesome, it just irritates me when I almost fall asleep reading.
Bottom line, don't read it, no matter how pretty the cover is and how awesome the book trailer is. show less
ARC received from the author. There is no bias in this review.
My favorite part about Clean Sweep wasn't the awesome main character named Dina. It wasn't the amazing werewolf called Sean Evans or the vampire Arland. It wasn't even the completely brilliant setting of the Inn. It was the fact that there was a shih tzu that made me love this book. That's right. I'm so shallow that a shih tzu named Beast changed this book from a 4.99 to a 5 star review. But really, can you say no to this face?
If you can, you have no soul.
Something's killing dogs near Dina's Bed & Breakfast. She suspects the werewolf, Sean, for a while, before coming across one of the killers. And that's basically all I can say about the plot without spoilers.
The characters are like Ilona Andrew's other characters: unique and enjoyable. There's a love triangle, but it's not relevant to the book. This makes Clean Sweep of the few books to have a love triangle not be annoying.
The inn is my second favorite part of Clean Sweep. Well, all the magic in this book is the second best part of it. It's just so imaginative and well-written.
There's really nothing in this book I don't like, so this is a short review. The only thing I can really say is that if there's no sequel, I just won't function in everyday life.
My favorite part about Clean Sweep wasn't the awesome main character named Dina. It wasn't the amazing werewolf called Sean Evans or the vampire Arland. It wasn't even the completely brilliant setting of the Inn. It was the fact that there was a shih tzu that made me love this book. That's right. I'm so shallow that a shih tzu named Beast changed this book from a 4.99 to a 5 star review. But really, can you say no to this face?
If you can, you have no soul.
Something's killing dogs near Dina's Bed & Breakfast. She suspects the werewolf, Sean, for a while, before coming across one of the killers. And that's basically all I can say about the plot without spoilers.
The characters are like Ilona Andrew's other characters: unique and enjoyable. There's a love triangle, but it's not relevant to the book. This makes Clean Sweep of the few books to have a love triangle not be annoying.
The inn is my second favorite part of Clean Sweep. Well, all the magic in this book is the second best part of it. It's just so imaginative and well-written.
There's really nothing in this book I don't like, so this is a short review. The only thing I can really say is that if there's no sequel, I just won't function in everyday life.
ARC received from publisher. There is no bias in this review.
3.5 Stars, Rounded Up
Do you know what's horrible? The fact that in the title, the "i" is not capitalized, but all the other letters are. It's terrible, and I almost didn't read it for that capitalization error alone, but come on, it was a Victoria Scott novel, and that woman is an amazing writer. But fear not! What's inside the book makes up for that "i". Kind of.
So a while ago, there was a huge craze about this book. It's died down since then. But what always confused me was what a Pandora was. Maybe it was just me being the typically ignorant me, and Victoria and everyone in the blogging community specifically defined it, but I never really understood what it was until after I read the book. And no, this isn't a spoiler, since it's in the first fifty-ish pages. For all you people out there that are like me, a Pandora is a genetically-engineered animal companion in the Brimstone Bleed. It's a different animal for everyone. For Tella, however, it's a fox. A really, really, REALLY cute fox. One that you just want to snuggle with and pet and play with. All the Pandoras have special powers and are basically amazing.
The plot is like in the Hunger Games. Actually, it is the Hunger Games. There's a teenage girl who needs to save her younger sibling and the only way to do so is to join a tournament where only one can survive. Add in a few extra characters and plot points, and ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show more Brimstone Bleed!
Fire & Flood is basically the Hunger Games, but better. Tella isn't as whiny or ignorant as Katniss, there's no love triangle, and the writing's just better. Victoria Scott has this imaginative way of writing that's snarky and relatable.
Since this book is targeted for teens, there's automatically going to be a romance aspect to it. An awesome thing about this book is that there's no instant attraction between the two main characters. In fact, it's like they don't really care for each other. For part of the book, at least. And then, with little to no warning at all, both of them just become like every other teen couple in YA,
The descriptions and the settings of Fire & Flood were insanely vivid and interesting. Though I'd hate to be in the Brimstone Bleed, I can relate to Tella and how she manages to pull through every challenge the tournament throws at her. She had some of the idiotic teenage moments, though, which really annoyed me.
This novel immediately hooked me in from the beginning, but then it drags towards the middle. The end of Fire & Flood is better than the beginning, though.
If not for all the similarities to the Hunger Games, this would have easily been a four point five, maybe even a five star read,
Thank you, Scholastic Publishing, for giving me the opportunity of reading and reviewing Fire & Flood. show less
3.5 Stars, Rounded Up
Do you know what's horrible? The fact that in the title, the "i" is not capitalized, but all the other letters are. It's terrible, and I almost didn't read it for that capitalization error alone, but come on, it was a Victoria Scott novel, and that woman is an amazing writer. But fear not! What's inside the book makes up for that "i". Kind of.
So a while ago, there was a huge craze about this book. It's died down since then. But what always confused me was what a Pandora was. Maybe it was just me being the typically ignorant me, and Victoria and everyone in the blogging community specifically defined it, but I never really understood what it was until after I read the book. And no, this isn't a spoiler, since it's in the first fifty-ish pages. For all you people out there that are like me, a Pandora is a genetically-engineered animal companion in the Brimstone Bleed. It's a different animal for everyone. For Tella, however, it's a fox. A really, really, REALLY cute fox. One that you just want to snuggle with and pet and play with. All the Pandoras have special powers and are basically amazing.
The plot is like in the Hunger Games. Actually, it is the Hunger Games. There's a teenage girl who needs to save her younger sibling and the only way to do so is to join a tournament where only one can survive. Add in a few extra characters and plot points, and ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show more Brimstone Bleed!
Fire & Flood is basically the Hunger Games, but better. Tella isn't as whiny or ignorant as Katniss, there's no love triangle, and the writing's just better. Victoria Scott has this imaginative way of writing that's snarky and relatable.
Since this book is targeted for teens, there's automatically going to be a romance aspect to it. An awesome thing about this book is that there's no instant attraction between the two main characters. In fact, it's like they don't really care for each other. For part of the book, at least. And then, with little to no warning at all, both of them just become like every other teen couple in YA,
The descriptions and the settings of Fire & Flood were insanely vivid and interesting. Though I'd hate to be in the Brimstone Bleed, I can relate to Tella and how she manages to pull through every challenge the tournament throws at her. She had some of the idiotic teenage moments, though, which really annoyed me.
This novel immediately hooked me in from the beginning, but then it drags towards the middle. The end of Fire & Flood is better than the beginning, though.
If not for all the similarities to the Hunger Games, this would have easily been a four point five, maybe even a five star read,
Thank you, Scholastic Publishing, for giving me the opportunity of reading and reviewing Fire & Flood. show less
ARC received from Harlequin TEEN. There is no bias in this review.
As with the Obsidian and the Covenant series, Jennifer Armentrout's next Young Adult series starts out with a novella featuring a paranormal creature everyone has heard of, but never really thought about. Instead of only being around twenty pages or so, it's slightly over a hundred, which makes it more satisfying. The best part about this, though, is that I can actually write a (kind of) full review instead of a few sentences.
Three years ago, Jas's friend/ love/ boyfriend/ typical romance character disappeared. Because she's an awesome character, she gets over it for the most part. Then, he comes back and wants to become mated with her. I swear, this isn't as dirty as it sounds. They have seven days before Jas has to make a choice between accepting or declining said ma- I can't even type out this word without snickering. She proposes a deal consisting of Dez taking her out to feel human in exchange for considering him.
This novella is possibly my favorite of JLA novellas- not that there are many of them. It sets up the storyline for the next book, White Hot Kiss, perfectly and doesn't give too much away.
As with the rest of her books, Jennifer Armentrout creates a beautifully descriptive world similar to ours. When she adds her awesome characters, it just intensifies the amazingness of it.
There isn't a hugely convoluted plot to this books; it's a simple romance story that puts a smile on your face. There show more are no strange plot twists or many subplots, so it's a good novella to read when your in a sad mood. It's very predictable, but in a way that automatically makes you happier.
The reason Bitter Sweet Love isn't five stars is because it's too short to reach all the expectations of a five star rating.
If you've never read a book by Jennifer Armentrout, this is a good work to start out with. It's not too complicated and is snarky and basically awesome.
Thank you again, Harlequin Teen, for giving me the opportunity of reading this prequel early. And the first book. Yes, people, I get an ARC of White Hot Kiss. Everyone be jealous of my awesomeness. show less
As with the Obsidian and the Covenant series, Jennifer Armentrout's next Young Adult series starts out with a novella featuring a paranormal creature everyone has heard of, but never really thought about. Instead of only being around twenty pages or so, it's slightly over a hundred, which makes it more satisfying. The best part about this, though, is that I can actually write a (kind of) full review instead of a few sentences.
Three years ago, Jas's friend/ love/ boyfriend/ typical romance character disappeared. Because she's an awesome character, she gets over it for the most part. Then, he comes back and wants to become mated with her. I swear, this isn't as dirty as it sounds. They have seven days before Jas has to make a choice between accepting or declining said ma- I can't even type out this word without snickering. She proposes a deal consisting of Dez taking her out to feel human in exchange for considering him.
This novella is possibly my favorite of JLA novellas- not that there are many of them. It sets up the storyline for the next book, White Hot Kiss, perfectly and doesn't give too much away.
As with the rest of her books, Jennifer Armentrout creates a beautifully descriptive world similar to ours. When she adds her awesome characters, it just intensifies the amazingness of it.
There isn't a hugely convoluted plot to this books; it's a simple romance story that puts a smile on your face. There show more are no strange plot twists or many subplots, so it's a good novella to read when your in a sad mood. It's very predictable, but in a way that automatically makes you happier.
The reason Bitter Sweet Love isn't five stars is because it's too short to reach all the expectations of a five star rating.
If you've never read a book by Jennifer Armentrout, this is a good work to start out with. It's not too complicated and is snarky and basically awesome.
Thank you again, Harlequin Teen, for giving me the opportunity of reading this prequel early. And the first book. Yes, people, I get an ARC of White Hot Kiss. Everyone be jealous of my awesomeness. show less
Read more like this at The Reading Obsession.
Three-Point-Five Stars, Rounded Down to Three
ARC received from Netgalley
I might be the only female above, like, ten who hasn't read, or even watched, Pride and Prejudice. I know, I know, it's strange and unnatural, but I watched the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, if that slightly elevates your opinion of me.
Retellings are extremely difficult to write, and I usually find myself angry at them, since most of the time, they don't follow the source material well enough, and I've always wondered what it would be like if I didn't read the source material first.
Spring is a student in Environment Science, and needs help on her thesis project. Fortunately for her, Henry just moved in across the street. There's an instant attraction between them, but of course, Spring hates Henry right away.which is definitely not like any other New Adult book.
I found the romance way too quick, and yet, it was somehow very cute to watch.
A few times, I became bored and switched to a different book, but these were far between.
Like The Summer I Became a Nerd, one of the few words I can think of this novel is "fluffy". If you're between depressing books and want something more upbeat, this is the story for you.
Three-Point-Five Stars, Rounded Down to Three
ARC received from Netgalley
I might be the only female above, like, ten who hasn't read, or even watched, Pride and Prejudice. I know, I know, it's strange and unnatural, but I watched the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, if that slightly elevates your opinion of me.
Retellings are extremely difficult to write, and I usually find myself angry at them, since most of the time, they don't follow the source material well enough, and I've always wondered what it would be like if I didn't read the source material first.
Spring is a student in Environment Science, and needs help on her thesis project. Fortunately for her, Henry just moved in across the street. There's an instant attraction between them, but of course, Spring hates Henry right away.which is definitely not like any other New Adult book.
I found the romance way too quick, and yet, it was somehow very cute to watch.
A few times, I became bored and switched to a different book, but these were far between.
Like The Summer I Became a Nerd, one of the few words I can think of this novel is "fluffy". If you're between depressing books and want something more upbeat, this is the story for you.
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com. Go. Click it. You know you want to.
Unmarked spoilers, because, frankly, it's so easily guessed that this doesn't even matter anymore.
Don't be fooled by the pretty dress. Or the hot guy standing behind her. Just think that he looks like a creeper, because that's what he is.
"But Alisa!" you cry. "Look at that hair! And that dress! And the fact that the girl's so pretty! What could possibly be wrong with that?"
Everything, naive reader. Every possible thing is screwed up.
Let me start out with this book. There's a serial killer luring all the surviving women to his house to kill them. But first, he gets their stories down. Interesting, right?
A girl called Evie comes in, and she begins telling her story. Still interesting?
Let's begin:
Evie is an ordinary girl- definitely not like any other bad YA novel, trying to find her place in the world. No one understands her! Nevermind the fact that she was sent to a mental institution that year and still has a loving boyfriend and a best friend. Granted, they don't know, but they're still nice to her.
She has special powers, and can control plant life. The only thing that's realistic is the fact that she thinks she's crazy.
Some kids came from the poorer side of town, and of course, the love interest is a part of this. Slowly, and by slowly, I mean in the four seconds she's seen him, they fall in love.
And then the apocalypse happens. After over ten show more chapters. And in those chapters, it's just high school romance. Even after the apocalypse, it's still just high school romance, just without the high school.
And now, for the actual review. This might take a while.
Let's see. In this book, there manages to be: predictability, really bad descriptions, misogynistic and abusive love interests, idiotic main characters, rape attempts, a love triangle, really annoying dreams, stereotypes, racism, plot holes- actually, there is no plot, brand-name dropping, the tiniest bit of world building- and just the horrible at that, slut shaming, a best friend who gets insulted at every turn, unimportant B.S. that no one but the main character cares about- and there's more. The book even managed to make tarot cards boring- and this is coming from a person who has an obsession with tarot cards and palm reading, fight scenes seem like some extremely idiotic girl's half stoned dream of violence, and it ruined Jack Daniels for you-this is why you have vodka as back up. And- guess what?- I'm reading the sequel.
The only thing that makes me happy is that Jackson- I'm not calling him Jack, because, apparently, that means I have the slightest inkling of like towards him- is going to get liver cancer in the near future because of all that alcohol he's drinking. And, if this book followed the laws of realism, every girl would hate him, because he should be drunk all the time and have horrible breath.
Oh, Jackson can't be that bad, can he? I mean, he has an accent. And all accents make a girl go swoon. That's true, unless said accent is insulting you all the time. Or attempting to rape you, because you make him "feel things that he's never felt before". How is this even the slightest bit romantic? Answer: It's not. And I bloody hate the bloody author for bloody even thinking of bloody writing this.Yes, I substituted "bloody" for another word. He says that a woman belongs to the man, which is one of the most horrible things I can read, unless it's a romance book for a character I actually like, and I'm in an extremely happy mood. He drinks Jack Daniels at every opportunity, and even his nickname is that alcohol brand. Way to not ruin that name for me, Book.
Jackson's not the only horrible, though. Evie was an idiot about this. She goes around with some happy smile on her face even though the world is pretty much dead.
Other characters? Like her best friend? Oh, they're not important. They just get killed off after many chapters of descriptions. It's Evie's bloody best friend, and she gets insulted at every opportunity, and when the best friend actually dies? That doesn't matter; let's just forget about it.
The plot- if that horrible thing can even be called a plot- has more holes in it than a guilty person's alibi. Why is the world screwed up? What's causing the mutations? Why is Evie such an airhead?
The descriptions for interesting things are so sparse, but the stuff that no one in the bloody world cares about? Oh yes, we absolutely must hear about her precious Coach sunglasses.
The fight scenes? Those aren't fight scenes! Those are badly written drunken punches written by someone who thinks that tapping someone is a horrible thing to do.
When Evie hears about the kids coming to school, she thinks something like "But they're Cajun". Because ethnicity is such a bad thing. She sees a girl who's dressed sexily, and automatically thinks she's some sort of slut. Whatever happened to the twenty-first century?
I think I'll end this review by calmly stating that this was a horrible book and should only be recommended to someone if it was your worst enemy who did something horrible to you. Or if your feeling particularly sadistic towards your friends. show less
Unmarked spoilers, because, frankly, it's so easily guessed that this doesn't even matter anymore.
Don't be fooled by the pretty dress. Or the hot guy standing behind her. Just think that he looks like a creeper, because that's what he is.
"But Alisa!" you cry. "Look at that hair! And that dress! And the fact that the girl's so pretty! What could possibly be wrong with that?"
Everything, naive reader. Every possible thing is screwed up.
Let me start out with this book. There's a serial killer luring all the surviving women to his house to kill them. But first, he gets their stories down. Interesting, right?
A girl called Evie comes in, and she begins telling her story. Still interesting?
Let's begin:
Evie is an ordinary girl- definitely not like any other bad YA novel, trying to find her place in the world. No one understands her! Nevermind the fact that she was sent to a mental institution that year and still has a loving boyfriend and a best friend. Granted, they don't know, but they're still nice to her.
She has special powers, and can control plant life. The only thing that's realistic is the fact that she thinks she's crazy.
Some kids came from the poorer side of town, and of course, the love interest is a part of this. Slowly, and by slowly, I mean in the four seconds she's seen him, they fall in love.
And then the apocalypse happens. After over ten show more chapters. And in those chapters, it's just high school romance. Even after the apocalypse, it's still just high school romance, just without the high school.
And now, for the actual review. This might take a while.
Let's see. In this book, there manages to be: predictability, really bad descriptions, misogynistic and abusive love interests, idiotic main characters, rape attempts, a love triangle, really annoying dreams, stereotypes, racism, plot holes- actually, there is no plot, brand-name dropping, the tiniest bit of world building- and just the horrible at that, slut shaming, a best friend who gets insulted at every turn, unimportant B.S. that no one but the main character cares about- and there's more. The book even managed to make tarot cards boring- and this is coming from a person who has an obsession with tarot cards and palm reading, fight scenes seem like some extremely idiotic girl's half stoned dream of violence, and it ruined Jack Daniels for you-this is why you have vodka as back up. And- guess what?- I'm reading the sequel.
The only thing that makes me happy is that Jackson- I'm not calling him Jack, because, apparently, that means I have the slightest inkling of like towards him- is going to get liver cancer in the near future because of all that alcohol he's drinking. And, if this book followed the laws of realism, every girl would hate him, because he should be drunk all the time and have horrible breath.
Oh, Jackson can't be that bad, can he? I mean, he has an accent. And all accents make a girl go swoon. That's true, unless said accent is insulting you all the time. Or attempting to rape you, because you make him "feel things that he's never felt before". How is this even the slightest bit romantic? Answer: It's not. And I bloody hate the bloody author for bloody even thinking of bloody writing this.Yes, I substituted "bloody" for another word. He says that a woman belongs to the man, which is one of the most horrible things I can read, unless it's a romance book for a character I actually like, and I'm in an extremely happy mood. He drinks Jack Daniels at every opportunity, and even his nickname is that alcohol brand. Way to not ruin that name for me, Book.
Jackson's not the only horrible, though. Evie was an idiot about this. She goes around with some happy smile on her face even though the world is pretty much dead.
Other characters? Like her best friend? Oh, they're not important. They just get killed off after many chapters of descriptions. It's Evie's bloody best friend, and she gets insulted at every opportunity, and when the best friend actually dies? That doesn't matter; let's just forget about it.
The plot- if that horrible thing can even be called a plot- has more holes in it than a guilty person's alibi. Why is the world screwed up? What's causing the mutations? Why is Evie such an airhead?
The descriptions for interesting things are so sparse, but the stuff that no one in the bloody world cares about? Oh yes, we absolutely must hear about her precious Coach sunglasses.
The fight scenes? Those aren't fight scenes! Those are badly written drunken punches written by someone who thinks that tapping someone is a horrible thing to do.
When Evie hears about the kids coming to school, she thinks something like "But they're Cajun". Because ethnicity is such a bad thing. She sees a girl who's dressed sexily, and automatically thinks she's some sort of slut. Whatever happened to the twenty-first century?
I think I'll end this review by calmly stating that this was a horrible book and should only be recommended to someone if it was your worst enemy who did something horrible to you. Or if your feeling particularly sadistic towards your friends. show less
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogpsot.com
I think I'll start this review saying that Speechless left me speechless. I'm pretty sure I just lost half my friends by that horrible pun, but it's true. It's brilliant, and I'm sure it'll be a favorite of many people, but after reading The Sea of Tranquility, this pales in comparison.
Everyone knows a person like Chelsea. She's that person that, no matter what, cannot keep a secret. Usually, she's best friends with one of the most popular people, possibly for that reason.
One night, at a party, she sees two guys getting together, and comes downstairs and tells everyone. One of them gets beat up so severely that he goes into a coma. When Chelsea finds out about this, she tells her parents, and that's the last thing she says for a while. After this, she becomes a pariah, and everyone stays away from her.
In the beginning, Chelsea isn't likeable. In fact, I hated her with a passion. But then, she went through a magical thing called character development. Hear that, other YA books? Character development. Where a character actually changes into a better person.
Even though I didn't like Chelsea at first, she was still relatable, and she stayed relatable throughout the book.
Though Speechless is very easy to read, it deals with very dark issues, and it deals with them well.
I recommend this for people who want something that deals with LGBT acceptance in a light-hearted way.
I think I'll start this review saying that Speechless left me speechless. I'm pretty sure I just lost half my friends by that horrible pun, but it's true. It's brilliant, and I'm sure it'll be a favorite of many people, but after reading The Sea of Tranquility, this pales in comparison.
Everyone knows a person like Chelsea. She's that person that, no matter what, cannot keep a secret. Usually, she's best friends with one of the most popular people, possibly for that reason.
One night, at a party, she sees two guys getting together, and comes downstairs and tells everyone. One of them gets beat up so severely that he goes into a coma. When Chelsea finds out about this, she tells her parents, and that's the last thing she says for a while. After this, she becomes a pariah, and everyone stays away from her.
In the beginning, Chelsea isn't likeable. In fact, I hated her with a passion. But then, she went through a magical thing called character development. Hear that, other YA books? Character development. Where a character actually changes into a better person.
Even though I didn't like Chelsea at first, she was still relatable, and she stayed relatable throughout the book.
Though Speechless is very easy to read, it deals with very dark issues, and it deals with them well.
I recommend this for people who want something that deals with LGBT acceptance in a light-hearted way.
Find the review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
Three-point-five stars rounded up to four
ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.So, I might like historical romance. Especially the 1400s-1800s. Might. And I might completely love witch books. I blame it on Charmed. Sadly, a lot of witch books are horrible. Sort of like angel books. And I might love European accents. Well, that's a given. Of course accents are amazing. To girls, anyway. After seeing the covers and the publisher, I decided I definitely had to get it. This is a reason I love Netgalley so much. You find all these new books, and if they suck, you didn't have to pay any money for them!
Meg Lytton is an apprentice to her aunt, a witch. She struggles in some spells, like any normal student would. Meg is a servant to Elizabeth, who was outcast because of suspicion of threats to her sister, the queen of England. Alejandro de Castillo is a priest in the making from Spain. He and another priest were sent to convert Elizabeth. Now, Meg can only practice her witchcraft in the extremest secrecy, or else she'll be hanged.
The characters of Witchstruck could have been written better. My favorite kind of books are character-driven ones, instead of being plot-driven. Witchstruck was part of both. If the characters had been more developed, I would have liked it a lot more. Meg was never certain of show more her mind, which I really didn't like. That being said, I enjoyed the characters. They just didn't completely seem real.
The love story between Alejandro and Meg is gradual in development, right up until the end. I've found this in many books: the romance is completely well paced, until a chapter or two before the end, when the author feels like it is necessary for them to completely love each other forever and ever and ever.
There's a lot of telling, rather than showing, which annoyed me a lot. Readers probably won't be as annoyed as I was, though.
This novel had an interesting plot, and I felt that it was well-paced. Some parts could have used more detail, but overall, it was very well written.
I'm planing to read the next book, as well as more of the author's works. I'm hoping this series gets better, as it has a lot of potential, but isn't amazing at being well executed. show less
Three-point-five stars rounded up to four
ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.So, I might like historical romance. Especially the 1400s-1800s. Might. And I might completely love witch books. I blame it on Charmed. Sadly, a lot of witch books are horrible. Sort of like angel books. And I might love European accents. Well, that's a given. Of course accents are amazing. To girls, anyway. After seeing the covers and the publisher, I decided I definitely had to get it. This is a reason I love Netgalley so much. You find all these new books, and if they suck, you didn't have to pay any money for them!
Meg Lytton is an apprentice to her aunt, a witch. She struggles in some spells, like any normal student would. Meg is a servant to Elizabeth, who was outcast because of suspicion of threats to her sister, the queen of England. Alejandro de Castillo is a priest in the making from Spain. He and another priest were sent to convert Elizabeth. Now, Meg can only practice her witchcraft in the extremest secrecy, or else she'll be hanged.
The characters of Witchstruck could have been written better. My favorite kind of books are character-driven ones, instead of being plot-driven. Witchstruck was part of both. If the characters had been more developed, I would have liked it a lot more. Meg was never certain of show more her mind, which I really didn't like. That being said, I enjoyed the characters. They just didn't completely seem real.
The love story between Alejandro and Meg is gradual in development, right up until the end. I've found this in many books: the romance is completely well paced, until a chapter or two before the end, when the author feels like it is necessary for them to completely love each other forever and ever and ever.
There's a lot of telling, rather than showing, which annoyed me a lot. Readers probably won't be as annoyed as I was, though.
This novel had an interesting plot, and I felt that it was well-paced. Some parts could have used more detail, but overall, it was very well written.
I'm planing to read the next book, as well as more of the author's works. I'm hoping this series gets better, as it has a lot of potential, but isn't amazing at being well executed. show less
Three-point-Five Stars, Rounded up to Four
ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
Hey look! There's an YA book where the love story doesn't completely take over the entire plot!
I found Heartbeat on Netgalley, and since it's by one of my favorite publishers, I decided to request it. When I got accepted, I started reading it immediately.
Emma's mother is brain dead, but pregnant. In fact, she should be dead, but is being kept alive by machines. Her step-father believes that Emma's brother should be born, but Emma believes that he shouldn't.
Emma meets a boy named Caleb, who used to be a drug user and car thief. There's a slow development of romance between them, but is rushed towards the end.
I didn't like the fact how Emma kept trying to get into fights with her step-father throughout most of the book. It seems like she didn't understand that he was going through grief, too.
Heartbeat is a very short book, and it only takes around an hour to read, but it is filled with controversial issues.
I'd recommend this for fans of Jodi Picoult and those who want a short and sweet novel.
ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
Hey look! There's an YA book where the love story doesn't completely take over the entire plot!
I found Heartbeat on Netgalley, and since it's by one of my favorite publishers, I decided to request it. When I got accepted, I started reading it immediately.
Emma's mother is brain dead, but pregnant. In fact, she should be dead, but is being kept alive by machines. Her step-father believes that Emma's brother should be born, but Emma believes that he shouldn't.
Emma meets a boy named Caleb, who used to be a drug user and car thief. There's a slow development of romance between them, but is rushed towards the end.
I didn't like the fact how Emma kept trying to get into fights with her step-father throughout most of the book. It seems like she didn't understand that he was going through grief, too.
Heartbeat is a very short book, and it only takes around an hour to read, but it is filled with controversial issues.
I'd recommend this for fans of Jodi Picoult and those who want a short and sweet novel.
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
ARC received from Entangled Publishing. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
I should hate this. I should rant and rave about how it's just another angel book, and how it's so predictable, and all things like this. But for some absurd reason, I love it.
The sad thing about the summary is how it gives away half the book. It's nothing too hard to guess, once you start reading, but it gives out too much information for a few paragraphs.
Lily is a Nephilim, the daughter of a Fallen angel and a mortal. She's part of a society called the Sanctuary, which are a group other Nephilims dedicated to destroying the Fallen and their followers. Ever since she was sixteen, a fallen angel named Julian has been following her. He's saved her life multiple times, but she still doesn't trust him, since according to the Sanctuary, all Fallen are bad.
Lily and Julian are two characters that wouldn't be interesting alone, but when they're paired up, they're amazing. They're carefully developed, and they seem "real" to me, and probably to all other readers.
Lily is like many other of Armentrout's characters: tough, but at the same time, extremely sweet and kind. A thing I really love about her is that she doesn't immediately trust Julian just because he's pretty. She doesn't want to get herself killed, and she's understandably cautious around him.
Julian show more is a mix of Hunter and an older Daemon. He's extremely protective, possessive, and predatory, like other Urban Fantasy characters, but Jennifer makes him seem real.
The world building was extremely realistic, but I can't get rid of the feeling that this is an older version of the Covenant. However, I still loved the detail of the Sanctuary and the normal world.
I've stated above how some parts were predictable. However, others weren't. For example, the identity of the antagonist is cleverly hidden until the reveal.
There is something that annoyed me, though. Jennifer seems to have an obsession with eyes, especially on the main characters. Lily's eyes are pale green, Daemon's, from the Lux series, are a vibrant green, Aiden's, from the Half-Blood series, are silver, and the list goes on. This probably won't irk other readers, since many of my friends seem to love this aspect of the characters, but it is something that I wouldn't mind toning down.
I also would have liked more background to both Lily and Julian. There seems to be so many hidden secrets, and I would have liked it if there was just a little more information.
Overall, this novel was amazing, as I would expect from Jennifer Armentrout. I demand the next book immediately. But since that probably won't happen, I have a Mission-Impossible-like plan of breaking into Jennifer's house from the roof and stealing her flashdrive I mean- I'll be anxiously awaiting it for the next year. show less
ARC received from Entangled Publishing. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
I should hate this. I should rant and rave about how it's just another angel book, and how it's so predictable, and all things like this. But for some absurd reason, I love it.
The sad thing about the summary is how it gives away half the book. It's nothing too hard to guess, once you start reading, but it gives out too much information for a few paragraphs.
Lily is a Nephilim, the daughter of a Fallen angel and a mortal. She's part of a society called the Sanctuary, which are a group other Nephilims dedicated to destroying the Fallen and their followers. Ever since she was sixteen, a fallen angel named Julian has been following her. He's saved her life multiple times, but she still doesn't trust him, since according to the Sanctuary, all Fallen are bad.
Lily and Julian are two characters that wouldn't be interesting alone, but when they're paired up, they're amazing. They're carefully developed, and they seem "real" to me, and probably to all other readers.
Lily is like many other of Armentrout's characters: tough, but at the same time, extremely sweet and kind. A thing I really love about her is that she doesn't immediately trust Julian just because he's pretty. She doesn't want to get herself killed, and she's understandably cautious around him.
Julian show more is a mix of Hunter and an older Daemon. He's extremely protective, possessive, and predatory, like other Urban Fantasy characters, but Jennifer makes him seem real.
The world building was extremely realistic, but I can't get rid of the feeling that this is an older version of the Covenant. However, I still loved the detail of the Sanctuary and the normal world.
I've stated above how some parts were predictable. However, others weren't. For example, the identity of the antagonist is cleverly hidden until the reveal.
There is something that annoyed me, though. Jennifer seems to have an obsession with eyes, especially on the main characters. Lily's eyes are pale green, Daemon's, from the Lux series, are a vibrant green, Aiden's, from the Half-Blood series, are silver, and the list goes on. This probably won't irk other readers, since many of my friends seem to love this aspect of the characters, but it is something that I wouldn't mind toning down.
I also would have liked more background to both Lily and Julian. There seems to be so many hidden secrets, and I would have liked it if there was just a little more information.
Overall, this novel was amazing, as I would expect from Jennifer Armentrout. I demand the next book immediately. But since that probably won't happen, I have a Mission-Impossible-like plan of breaking into Jennifer's house from the roof and stealing her flashdrive I mean- I'll be anxiously awaiting it for the next year. show less
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
ARC received from Entangled Publishing. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
I should hate this. I should rant and rave about how it's just another angel book, and how it's so predictable, and all things like this. But for some absurd reason, I love it.
The sad thing about the summary is how it gives away half the book. It's nothing too hard to guess, once you start reading, but it gives out too much information for a few paragraphs.
Lily is a Nephilim, the daughter of a Fallen angel and a mortal. She's part of a society called the Sanctuary, which are a group other Nephilims dedicated to destroying the Fallen and their followers. Ever since she was sixteen, a fallen angel named Julian has been following her. He's saved her life multiple times, but she still doesn't trust him, since according to the Sanctuary, all Fallen are bad.
Lily and Julian are two characters that wouldn't be interesting alone, but when they're paired up, they're amazing. They're carefully developed, and they seem "real" to me, and probably to all other readers.
Lily is like many other of Armentrout's characters: tough, but at the same time, extremely sweet and kind. A thing I really love about her is that she doesn't immediately trust Julian just because he's pretty. She doesn't want to get herself killed, and she's understandably cautious around him.
Julian show more is a mix of Hunter and an older Daemon. He's extremely protective, possessive, and predatory, like other Urban Fantasy characters, but Jennifer makes him seem real.
The world building was extremely realistic, but I can't get rid of the feeling that this is an older version of the Covenant. However, I still loved the detail of the Sanctuary and the normal world.
I've stated above how some parts were predictable. However, others weren't. For example, the identity of the antagonist is cleverly hidden until the reveal.
There is something that annoyed me, though. Jennifer seems to have an obsession with eyes, especially on the main characters. Lily's eyes are pale green, Daemon's, from the Lux series, are a vibrant green, Aiden's, from the Half-Blood series, are silver, and the list goes on. This probably won't irk other readers, since many of my friends seem to love this aspect of the characters, but it is something that I wouldn't mind toning down.
I also would have liked more background to both Lily and Julian. There seems to be so many hidden secrets, and I would have liked it if there was just a little more information.
Overall, this novel was amazing, as I would expect from Jennifer Armentrout. I demand the next book immediately. But since that probably won't happen, I have a Mission-Impossible-like plan of breaking into Jennifer's house from the roof and stealing her flashdrive I mean- I'll be anxiously awaiting it for the next year. show less
ARC received from Entangled Publishing. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
I should hate this. I should rant and rave about how it's just another angel book, and how it's so predictable, and all things like this. But for some absurd reason, I love it.
The sad thing about the summary is how it gives away half the book. It's nothing too hard to guess, once you start reading, but it gives out too much information for a few paragraphs.
Lily is a Nephilim, the daughter of a Fallen angel and a mortal. She's part of a society called the Sanctuary, which are a group other Nephilims dedicated to destroying the Fallen and their followers. Ever since she was sixteen, a fallen angel named Julian has been following her. He's saved her life multiple times, but she still doesn't trust him, since according to the Sanctuary, all Fallen are bad.
Lily and Julian are two characters that wouldn't be interesting alone, but when they're paired up, they're amazing. They're carefully developed, and they seem "real" to me, and probably to all other readers.
Lily is like many other of Armentrout's characters: tough, but at the same time, extremely sweet and kind. A thing I really love about her is that she doesn't immediately trust Julian just because he's pretty. She doesn't want to get herself killed, and she's understandably cautious around him.
Julian show more is a mix of Hunter and an older Daemon. He's extremely protective, possessive, and predatory, like other Urban Fantasy characters, but Jennifer makes him seem real.
The world building was extremely realistic, but I can't get rid of the feeling that this is an older version of the Covenant. However, I still loved the detail of the Sanctuary and the normal world.
I've stated above how some parts were predictable. However, others weren't. For example, the identity of the antagonist is cleverly hidden until the reveal.
There is something that annoyed me, though. Jennifer seems to have an obsession with eyes, especially on the main characters. Lily's eyes are pale green, Daemon's, from the Lux series, are a vibrant green, Aiden's, from the Half-Blood series, are silver, and the list goes on. This probably won't irk other readers, since many of my friends seem to love this aspect of the characters, but it is something that I wouldn't mind toning down.
I also would have liked more background to both Lily and Julian. There seems to be so many hidden secrets, and I would have liked it if there was just a little more information.
Overall, this novel was amazing, as I would expect from Jennifer Armentrout. I demand the next book immediately. But since that probably won't happen, I have a Mission-Impossible-like plan of breaking into Jennifer's house from the roof and stealing her flashdrive I mean- I'll be anxiously awaiting it for the next year. show less
So I finally read it. After reading Splintered, I was expecting something more darker and with other characters. I was also hoping that Alice wouldn't be an idiot. Sadly, I was disappointed on all accounts.
Just because Alice is seven or something doesn't mean she has to be annoying. That was my main problem with this book: I didn't like Alice. Carol may have been trying to capture the innocence of children, but children can be innocent without acting ignorantly.
I also didn't like the way the plot developed. It was very hazy and hard to understand. Alice would go to this place, and then forget about it. Then she'd go to another place, all throughout the novel. She'd figure out one problem, but then forget how to solve it in the next chapter.
This ending is one of the most cliche endings of all time, and I think it started with this book. It was probably a huge surprise in the nineteenth or twentieth century, but for me, it was boring.
Carol described things in the most limited way possible. I don't know how, but he seemed to make it work.It was like Carol gave just enough information for a reader to know what he was talking about, but left all the details to imagination. I feel like this will be a hit or miss for many readers, but I liked it.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of the classics that won't make you fall asleep while reading them, so if you don't mind annoying main characters and backwards logic, you should definitely pick this up.
Just because Alice is seven or something doesn't mean she has to be annoying. That was my main problem with this book: I didn't like Alice. Carol may have been trying to capture the innocence of children, but children can be innocent without acting ignorantly.
I also didn't like the way the plot developed. It was very hazy and hard to understand. Alice would go to this place, and then forget about it. Then she'd go to another place, all throughout the novel. She'd figure out one problem, but then forget how to solve it in the next chapter.
This ending is one of the most cliche endings of all time, and I think it started with this book. It was probably a huge surprise in the nineteenth or twentieth century, but for me, it was boring.
Carol described things in the most limited way possible. I don't know how, but he seemed to make it work.It was like Carol gave just enough information for a reader to know what he was talking about, but left all the details to imagination. I feel like this will be a hit or miss for many readers, but I liked it.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of the classics that won't make you fall asleep while reading them, so if you don't mind annoying main characters and backwards logic, you should definitely pick this up.
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com.
ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
I'm still confused of why I'd read a book called Deeper. I know that the first time I saw it on Netgalley, I began laughing. Curiosity overcoming me, I clicked on it, and it turns out that it's about life guards. I don't know why, but I've always had this interest in them. I mean, you see them near all the pools, lakes, and oceans, but rarely do you ever actually speak with them. I expected this book to give me an inside look into the world of life guards. Ignoring that insanely overused cover type and the completely terrible title, I decided to request it. And I got accepted.
On the first page, I realized something was wrong. But I've been wrong about these things before. So I kept reading. And I got progressively annoyed. Around halfway through, reviews popped up from Goodread friends giving it a one star. I should have stopped reading, but I have this annoying OCD thing where, if I'm halfway through with a book, I have to finish it.
Yesterday, I talked about how The Sea of Tranquility gave me hope for New Adult. Deeper is the sort of book to rip that hope away.
Rain's boyfriend died, and she decides to never love anyone again. This had so much potential of making the story amazing and intriguing, but it somehow makes it worse. And then you find out that he show more wasn't her boyfriend after all, just a guy who asked her on a date.I don't know what I was expecting; this is New Adult, after all.
Anyways, she sees this guy across a bonfire, and she immediately forgets about him and goes on her merry way.
This wouldn't be a New Adult if that happened. Instead of not having any feelings about him, she does the completely logical thing of falling in love with him.
This guy starts kissing her, and then she leaves.
This is the part where she could have continued with her life, and this story would have never been written.
But it turns out, that the guy is Knight, her new co-worker. He gets annoyed because she's new, but it actually sounds like he's angry because she's a girl.
Oh, and he also has some secret and tragic past, completely unlike the rest of New Adult books.
Inexplicably, they start dating, even though they "hate" each other. Knight is still an annoying jerk, and Rain's an idiot.
There was one time I admired Rain, because she stopped a rape attempt. Knight immediately becomes furious with her for putting her life at risk, and she basically apologizes. I'd be slightly okay if he was worried about her, but instead, Knight thinks, "How can she do this to me?" At that part, I stopped making fun of the book and began mentally strangling it, instead.
This isn't even the worst part. There's a scene where there's a freaking pedophile in the pool with the kids. It's barely written as serious, but just like it's an everyday occurrence. Rain chases after the guy, and Knight thinks, again, "How can she do this to me?"
How can she do this to him? What about the girls that are mentally scared? What about the fact that maybe Knight should actually respect someone who tries and help other people? He's a life guard; he should understand that there are more lives important than his.
Along with this complete disaster, you also have no plot. Well, there's the "romance", but that literally is it. Maybe, maybe if there was another plot, I might have liked it the tiniest bit more.
Character develop isn't even barely there in this story, apart from the fact that Rain and Knight fall in love.
The names in this story were just awful. It didn't even have the excuse of being a gothic, like Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, or having a crazy mother, like in Angelfall. This is the least horrid thing in this terrible piece of writing that doesn't even deserve to be called a novel.
Will I be reading any more writings by this author? God, no. I read this thing, and I wanted to rip my eyes out. I'm not standing it again. show less
ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
I'm still confused of why I'd read a book called Deeper. I know that the first time I saw it on Netgalley, I began laughing. Curiosity overcoming me, I clicked on it, and it turns out that it's about life guards. I don't know why, but I've always had this interest in them. I mean, you see them near all the pools, lakes, and oceans, but rarely do you ever actually speak with them. I expected this book to give me an inside look into the world of life guards. Ignoring that insanely overused cover type and the completely terrible title, I decided to request it. And I got accepted.
On the first page, I realized something was wrong. But I've been wrong about these things before. So I kept reading. And I got progressively annoyed. Around halfway through, reviews popped up from Goodread friends giving it a one star. I should have stopped reading, but I have this annoying OCD thing where, if I'm halfway through with a book, I have to finish it.
Yesterday, I talked about how The Sea of Tranquility gave me hope for New Adult. Deeper is the sort of book to rip that hope away.
Rain's boyfriend died, and she decides to never love anyone again. This had so much potential of making the story amazing and intriguing, but it somehow makes it worse. And then you find out that he show more wasn't her boyfriend after all, just a guy who asked her on a date.I don't know what I was expecting; this is New Adult, after all.
Anyways, she sees this guy across a bonfire, and she immediately forgets about him and goes on her merry way.
This wouldn't be a New Adult if that happened. Instead of not having any feelings about him, she does the completely logical thing of falling in love with him.
This guy starts kissing her, and then she leaves.
This is the part where she could have continued with her life, and this story would have never been written.
But it turns out, that the guy is Knight, her new co-worker. He gets annoyed because she's new, but it actually sounds like he's angry because she's a girl.
Oh, and he also has some secret and tragic past, completely unlike the rest of New Adult books.
Inexplicably, they start dating, even though they "hate" each other. Knight is still an annoying jerk, and Rain's an idiot.
There was one time I admired Rain, because she stopped a rape attempt. Knight immediately becomes furious with her for putting her life at risk, and she basically apologizes. I'd be slightly okay if he was worried about her, but instead, Knight thinks, "How can she do this to me?" At that part, I stopped making fun of the book and began mentally strangling it, instead.
This isn't even the worst part. There's a scene where there's a freaking pedophile in the pool with the kids. It's barely written as serious, but just like it's an everyday occurrence. Rain chases after the guy, and Knight thinks, again, "How can she do this to me?"
How can she do this to him? What about the girls that are mentally scared? What about the fact that maybe Knight should actually respect someone who tries and help other people? He's a life guard; he should understand that there are more lives important than his.
Along with this complete disaster, you also have no plot. Well, there's the "romance", but that literally is it. Maybe, maybe if there was another plot, I might have liked it the tiniest bit more.
Character develop isn't even barely there in this story, apart from the fact that Rain and Knight fall in love.
The names in this story were just awful. It didn't even have the excuse of being a gothic, like Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, or having a crazy mother, like in Angelfall. This is the least horrid thing in this terrible piece of writing that doesn't even deserve to be called a novel.
Will I be reading any more writings by this author? God, no. I read this thing, and I wanted to rip my eyes out. I'm not standing it again. show less
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com.
ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
The Sea of Tranquility gave me hope for New Adult books. Most of their plots are: Girl has terrible super-secret secret. Boy has terrible past. Boy is a misogynistic person. Boy meets girl. Magic insta-love, but they don't know it yet. Boy is still misogynistic, but gets super possessive. Random, confusing stuff happens. Boy gets more possessive and even more misogynistic.The end.
Instead of the extremely annoying overused plot line, we get a girl named Nastya. Yes, she has a secret past, but in this book, it's actually written well. It's not the cliche' d past, either. It's something completely brilliant and wonderful.
Basically, she's this girl who won't talk. To anyone. Because of reasons I won't explain because you need to read this book. She's been completely scarred because of said reasons I shan't explain. To cope, she decides to wear all black. Except for the possibly illegal amount of skin she's showing.
However, her inner narration is completely brilliant. Screwed up, but brilliant. Nastya's sarcastic and mocking, just the way I like my protagonists.
Josh Bennett's life is also completely screwed up. Cliche'd, but still amazingly written. Everyone around him dies- so many people, in fact, that no one comes near him. And he likes it that way.
Until the show more inevitable meeting of Nastya.
Alright, I didn't completely love him. And, for some strange reason, that makes me love the book even more.
And this is a book where all the characters are developed, not just the main two.
Guess what? There's no insta-love. Which automatically gives this two extra stars, not that it needs any. Their relationship starts out as a sort of friendship, but then ends up as something more. I'd call it something else, but I can't think straight right now because of this book.
I can go on so much longer, but you get the gist of it. So, run off and go read it. In fact, I'll give you an incentive to do this: She wears both a black and a pink bra. show less
ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
The Sea of Tranquility gave me hope for New Adult books. Most of their plots are: Girl has terrible super-secret secret. Boy has terrible past. Boy is a misogynistic person. Boy meets girl. Magic insta-love, but they don't know it yet. Boy is still misogynistic, but gets super possessive. Random, confusing stuff happens. Boy gets more possessive and even more misogynistic.The end.
Instead of the extremely annoying overused plot line, we get a girl named Nastya. Yes, she has a secret past, but in this book, it's actually written well. It's not the cliche' d past, either. It's something completely brilliant and wonderful.
Basically, she's this girl who won't talk. To anyone. Because of reasons I won't explain because you need to read this book. She's been completely scarred because of said reasons I shan't explain. To cope, she decides to wear all black. Except for the possibly illegal amount of skin she's showing.
However, her inner narration is completely brilliant. Screwed up, but brilliant. Nastya's sarcastic and mocking, just the way I like my protagonists.
Josh Bennett's life is also completely screwed up. Cliche'd, but still amazingly written. Everyone around him dies- so many people, in fact, that no one comes near him. And he likes it that way.
Until the show more inevitable meeting of Nastya.
Alright, I didn't completely love him. And, for some strange reason, that makes me love the book even more.
And this is a book where all the characters are developed, not just the main two.
Guess what? There's no insta-love. Which automatically gives this two extra stars, not that it needs any. Their relationship starts out as a sort of friendship, but then ends up as something more. I'd call it something else, but I can't think straight right now because of this book.
I can go on so much longer, but you get the gist of it. So, run off and go read it. In fact, I'll give you an incentive to do this: She wears both a black and a pink bra. show less
This book was like Alisa Bait. Pretty cover? Check. Interesting premise? Check. So much hype? Check. Good quotes? Check. Rejection from Netgalley so I had to wait until the release date, heightening anticipation? Check.
Too bad it completely screwed up.
I was wary of reading this book after Khanh's review. She had good taste; I shouldn't touch that book. She didn't like the Fever series; never mind. And then I decided to be an idiot and pick the book up. But how can you blame me? Look at that cover!
There is a good thing about this book, though. The writing is beautiful. It doesn't actually do anything, but it well crafted. The old house seems to be a living part of the story, but other than that, there was nothing.
There was so much potential in this novel. I mean, it'd easily be gothic, mysterious, haunting, beautiful, and terrifying. If it didn't take over half the book to get to the plot. I'm fine with slow paced books- sometimes they end up amazing- but the plot was just so unimaginative and forgetful.
I said that the house was creatively imagined. But that was the only thing in this world that was well-described. Other than that, the town and the people were described minimally..
The worst part about Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea were the characters. River's clearly a psychopath; he gets off on people's fear, Violet's just idiotic, and her brother is a sexist pig. It'd be alright if there was this magical thing called character development, but no. The show more characters just stay the exact same throughout the entire book.
This was used twice, but it really got me annoyed. River's hips are described as "panther hips". First, no one notices hips. Second, say you have some hip fetish, why would you describe them as some animal?
And the insta- love! It's like, you have a glimpse of a guy and all of a sudden, you and him are insanely and unoriginally in love. And you ignore the fact that he's clearly a psychopath!
There are no parents here. But at least there's a sort of legit reason for them being gone. But how are their children supposed to pay for everything?
Slut Shaming is everywhere here. Violet's friend constantly is spoken about like the only thing that makes her who she is, is only her breasts.
There were so many opportunities for this book to be spectacular, but it failed at almost every turn. I will read the next book though, because I want to see if it'll get better. It probably won't, but one can hope. show less
Too bad it completely screwed up.
I was wary of reading this book after Khanh's review. She had good taste; I shouldn't touch that book. She didn't like the Fever series; never mind. And then I decided to be an idiot and pick the book up. But how can you blame me? Look at that cover!
There is a good thing about this book, though. The writing is beautiful. It doesn't actually do anything, but it well crafted. The old house seems to be a living part of the story, but other than that, there was nothing.
There was so much potential in this novel. I mean, it'd easily be gothic, mysterious, haunting, beautiful, and terrifying. If it didn't take over half the book to get to the plot. I'm fine with slow paced books- sometimes they end up amazing- but the plot was just so unimaginative and forgetful.
I said that the house was creatively imagined. But that was the only thing in this world that was well-described. Other than that, the town and the people were described minimally..
The worst part about Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea were the characters. River's clearly a psychopath; he gets off on people's fear, Violet's just idiotic, and her brother is a sexist pig. It'd be alright if there was this magical thing called character development, but no. The show more characters just stay the exact same throughout the entire book.
This was used twice, but it really got me annoyed. River's hips are described as "panther hips". First, no one notices hips. Second, say you have some hip fetish, why would you describe them as some animal?
And the insta- love! It's like, you have a glimpse of a guy and all of a sudden, you and him are insanely and unoriginally in love. And you ignore the fact that he's clearly a psychopath!
There are no parents here. But at least there's a sort of legit reason for them being gone. But how are their children supposed to pay for everything?
Slut Shaming is everywhere here. Violet's friend constantly is spoken about like the only thing that makes her who she is, is only her breasts.
There were so many opportunities for this book to be spectacular, but it failed at almost every turn. I will read the next book though, because I want to see if it'll get better. It probably won't, but one can hope. show less
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
Spoilers for the series abound, because, seriously, you can't review this series without spoilers.
Do you know that feeling when you read an amazing book, and you're like, "I must get the other one or else I'll die."? But at the same time, you're terrified that the next book won't be as good? That's basically how I felt when I finished Fearscape, the first book in this trilogy. However, being the serial-killer-obsessed person I am, I went and bought the next book. And it was even better. Around that time, I thought all the books had come out, so I went to try and buy the next one. But noooooo, people had to be mean and not release it yet.
Then I realized Nenia always updated her status on how far in a book she had written, and I went and stalked that for a while. All this time, I was getting more and more excited for the conclusion that had to be epic. It turns out that Nenia finished writing and editing it a few months earlier and released it, and that meant I could buy it.
There's a quote from Terrorscape, book three of the trilogy, that accurately describes the entire series:
“Once upon a time, there was a naïve and innocent girl who thought she could tame the beast and live happily ever after. But the beast did not want to be tamed, for he was a beast and beasts care not for such things, and the girl died along with her dreams.
From childhood's grave sprang a young woman, jaded before her years, show more who knew that beasts could wear the skins of men, and that evil could exist in sunlight, as well as darkness."
The Horrorscape Trilogy is about a girl who starts out very sweet, innocent, and ordinary, but meets a guy. He acts like all the other YA novel love interests, so she doesn't see anything wrong. Slowly, she realizes that the boyfriends of books shouldn't be real in life. The ones that are real are dangerous. This begins a game of cat and mouse, where Val is the rodent.
In the first book, Val is full of life and hope. In the second, she becomes scared and terrified. This is a true reaction to what would happen if a psychopath became obsessed with you. In the third, she's still scared, but she fights back.
Gavin also experiences character development, but it is not for the better. Instead, he hones his ability to kill and generally becomes more terrifying.
Unlike so many of the YA novels, this series is written in third person. Sometimes, third person will take away the terror of suspenseful books, but this one doesn't.
Nenia has this gift of being an amazing writer. Her descriptions are so detailed, and yet not boring as to take away from the overall impact. The downside to this is that a lot of her descriptions sound like the places I'm often at, and I'm scared whenever I think of them.
There is so much suspense in these three novels that it made me freak out whenever I heard a noise. And since people have terrible timing, they'd walk in right at the terrifying part.
In Terrorscape, there's a mention of a Vivaldi ringtone. When I read, I play music on my computer. Guess what just happened to play when I started that page? I swear, I started screaming. Meanwhile, my dog just sits there confused.
And guess what? There's something called research in this book. Why do I know this? Because occasionally, I'll look up strange things, say for example, "serial killers" or "stalkers".
The first book is when Val is still fourteen. What annoys fourteen-year-olds? Parents. And yes, there are parents here. They're actually a major part, unlike so many other books.
As the series progresses, the parts of Val's parents shrink, just like what happens when a teen grow up. However, they're still an active role in the story.
There's something I dubbed "nenianism". Whenever you read a book by Nenia Campbell, there's going to be references to a cat. It's just something I noticed.
Endings of series and books are very difficult to write. However, Nenia makes it seem effortless.
This trilogy is phenomenal. It's utterly brilliant and ingenious. I will read anything Nenia writes now. And she'd better write more. Or else I'll bring Gavin back to life and set him on her. show less
Spoilers for the series abound, because, seriously, you can't review this series without spoilers.
Do you know that feeling when you read an amazing book, and you're like, "I must get the other one or else I'll die."? But at the same time, you're terrified that the next book won't be as good? That's basically how I felt when I finished Fearscape, the first book in this trilogy. However, being the serial-killer-obsessed person I am, I went and bought the next book. And it was even better. Around that time, I thought all the books had come out, so I went to try and buy the next one. But noooooo, people had to be mean and not release it yet.
Then I realized Nenia always updated her status on how far in a book she had written, and I went and stalked that for a while. All this time, I was getting more and more excited for the conclusion that had to be epic. It turns out that Nenia finished writing and editing it a few months earlier and released it, and that meant I could buy it.
There's a quote from Terrorscape, book three of the trilogy, that accurately describes the entire series:
“Once upon a time, there was a naïve and innocent girl who thought she could tame the beast and live happily ever after. But the beast did not want to be tamed, for he was a beast and beasts care not for such things, and the girl died along with her dreams.
From childhood's grave sprang a young woman, jaded before her years, show more who knew that beasts could wear the skins of men, and that evil could exist in sunlight, as well as darkness."
The Horrorscape Trilogy is about a girl who starts out very sweet, innocent, and ordinary, but meets a guy. He acts like all the other YA novel love interests, so she doesn't see anything wrong. Slowly, she realizes that the boyfriends of books shouldn't be real in life. The ones that are real are dangerous. This begins a game of cat and mouse, where Val is the rodent.
In the first book, Val is full of life and hope. In the second, she becomes scared and terrified. This is a true reaction to what would happen if a psychopath became obsessed with you. In the third, she's still scared, but she fights back.
Gavin also experiences character development, but it is not for the better. Instead, he hones his ability to kill and generally becomes more terrifying.
Unlike so many of the YA novels, this series is written in third person. Sometimes, third person will take away the terror of suspenseful books, but this one doesn't.
Nenia has this gift of being an amazing writer. Her descriptions are so detailed, and yet not boring as to take away from the overall impact. The downside to this is that a lot of her descriptions sound like the places I'm often at, and I'm scared whenever I think of them.
There is so much suspense in these three novels that it made me freak out whenever I heard a noise. And since people have terrible timing, they'd walk in right at the terrifying part.
In Terrorscape, there's a mention of a Vivaldi ringtone. When I read, I play music on my computer. Guess what just happened to play when I started that page? I swear, I started screaming. Meanwhile, my dog just sits there confused.
And guess what? There's something called research in this book. Why do I know this? Because occasionally, I'll look up strange things, say for example, "serial killers" or "stalkers".
The first book is when Val is still fourteen. What annoys fourteen-year-olds? Parents. And yes, there are parents here. They're actually a major part, unlike so many other books.
As the series progresses, the parts of Val's parents shrink, just like what happens when a teen grow up. However, they're still an active role in the story.
There's something I dubbed "nenianism". Whenever you read a book by Nenia Campbell, there's going to be references to a cat. It's just something I noticed.
Endings of series and books are very difficult to write. However, Nenia makes it seem effortless.
This trilogy is phenomenal. It's utterly brilliant and ingenious. I will read anything Nenia writes now. And she'd better write more. Or else I'll bring Gavin back to life and set him on her. show less
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
Spoilers for the series abound, because, seriously, you can't review this series without spoilers.
Do you know that feeling when you read an amazing book, and you're like, "I must get the other one or else I'll die."? But at the same time, you're terrified that the next book won't be as good? That's basically how I felt when I finished Fearscape, the first book in this trilogy. However, being the serial-killer-obsessed person I am, I went and bought the next book. And it was even better. Around that time, I thought all the books had come out, so I went to try and buy the next one. But noooooo, people had to be mean and not release it yet.
Then I realized Nenia always updated her status on how far in a book she had written, and I went and stalked that for a while. All this time, I was getting more and more excited for the conclusion that had to be epic. It turns out that Nenia finished writing and editing it a few months earlier and released it, and that meant I could buy it.
There's a quote from Terrorscape, book three of the trilogy, that accurately describes the entire series:
“Once upon a time, there was a naïve and innocent girl who thought she could tame the beast and live happily ever after. But the beast did not want to be tamed, for he was a beast and beasts care not for such things, and the girl died along with her dreams.
From childhood's grave sprang a young woman, jaded before her years, show more who knew that beasts could wear the skins of men, and that evil could exist in sunlight, as well as darkness."
The Horrorscape Trilogy is about a girl who starts out very sweet, innocent, and ordinary, but meets a guy. He acts like all the other YA novel love interests, so she doesn't see anything wrong. Slowly, she realizes that the boyfriends of books shouldn't be real in life. The ones that are real are dangerous. This begins a game of cat and mouse, where Val is the rodent.
In the first book, Val is full of life and hope. In the second, she becomes scared and terrified. This is a true reaction to what would happen if a psychopath became obsessed with you. In the third, she's still scared, but she fights back.
Gavin also experiences character development, but it is not for the better. Instead, he hones his ability to kill and generally becomes more terrifying.
Unlike so many of the YA novels, this series is written in third person. Sometimes, third person will take away the terror of suspenseful books, but this one doesn't.
Nenia has this gift of being an amazing writer. Her descriptions are so detailed, and yet not boring as to take away from the overall impact. The downside to this is that a lot of her descriptions sound like the places I'm often at, and I'm scared whenever I think of them.
There is so much suspense in these three novels that it made me freak out whenever I heard a noise. And since people have terrible timing, they'd walk in right at the terrifying part.
In Terrorscape, there's a mention of a Vivaldi ringtone. When I read, I play music on my computer. Guess what just happened to play when I started that page? I swear, I started screaming. Meanwhile, my dog just sits there confused.
And guess what? There's something called research in this book. Why do I know this? Because occasionally, I'll look up strange things, say for example, "serial killers" or "stalkers".
The first book is when Val is still fourteen. What annoys fourteen-year-olds? Parents. And yes, there are parents here. They're actually a major part, unlike so many other books.
As the series progresses, the parts of Val's parents shrink, just like what happens when a teen grow up. However, they're still an active role in the story.
There's something I dubbed "nenianism". Whenever you read a book by Nenia Campbell, there's going to be references to a cat. It's just something I noticed.
Endings of series and books are very difficult to write. However, Nenia makes it seem effortless.
This trilogy is phenomenal. It's utterly brilliant and ingenious. I will read anything Nenia writes now. And she'd better write more. Or else I'll bring Gavin back to life and set him on her. show less
Spoilers for the series abound, because, seriously, you can't review this series without spoilers.
Do you know that feeling when you read an amazing book, and you're like, "I must get the other one or else I'll die."? But at the same time, you're terrified that the next book won't be as good? That's basically how I felt when I finished Fearscape, the first book in this trilogy. However, being the serial-killer-obsessed person I am, I went and bought the next book. And it was even better. Around that time, I thought all the books had come out, so I went to try and buy the next one. But noooooo, people had to be mean and not release it yet.
Then I realized Nenia always updated her status on how far in a book she had written, and I went and stalked that for a while. All this time, I was getting more and more excited for the conclusion that had to be epic. It turns out that Nenia finished writing and editing it a few months earlier and released it, and that meant I could buy it.
There's a quote from Terrorscape, book three of the trilogy, that accurately describes the entire series:
“Once upon a time, there was a naïve and innocent girl who thought she could tame the beast and live happily ever after. But the beast did not want to be tamed, for he was a beast and beasts care not for such things, and the girl died along with her dreams.
From childhood's grave sprang a young woman, jaded before her years, show more who knew that beasts could wear the skins of men, and that evil could exist in sunlight, as well as darkness."
The Horrorscape Trilogy is about a girl who starts out very sweet, innocent, and ordinary, but meets a guy. He acts like all the other YA novel love interests, so she doesn't see anything wrong. Slowly, she realizes that the boyfriends of books shouldn't be real in life. The ones that are real are dangerous. This begins a game of cat and mouse, where Val is the rodent.
In the first book, Val is full of life and hope. In the second, she becomes scared and terrified. This is a true reaction to what would happen if a psychopath became obsessed with you. In the third, she's still scared, but she fights back.
Gavin also experiences character development, but it is not for the better. Instead, he hones his ability to kill and generally becomes more terrifying.
Unlike so many of the YA novels, this series is written in third person. Sometimes, third person will take away the terror of suspenseful books, but this one doesn't.
Nenia has this gift of being an amazing writer. Her descriptions are so detailed, and yet not boring as to take away from the overall impact. The downside to this is that a lot of her descriptions sound like the places I'm often at, and I'm scared whenever I think of them.
There is so much suspense in these three novels that it made me freak out whenever I heard a noise. And since people have terrible timing, they'd walk in right at the terrifying part.
In Terrorscape, there's a mention of a Vivaldi ringtone. When I read, I play music on my computer. Guess what just happened to play when I started that page? I swear, I started screaming. Meanwhile, my dog just sits there confused.
And guess what? There's something called research in this book. Why do I know this? Because occasionally, I'll look up strange things, say for example, "serial killers" or "stalkers".
The first book is when Val is still fourteen. What annoys fourteen-year-olds? Parents. And yes, there are parents here. They're actually a major part, unlike so many other books.
As the series progresses, the parts of Val's parents shrink, just like what happens when a teen grow up. However, they're still an active role in the story.
There's something I dubbed "nenianism". Whenever you read a book by Nenia Campbell, there's going to be references to a cat. It's just something I noticed.
Endings of series and books are very difficult to write. However, Nenia makes it seem effortless.
This trilogy is phenomenal. It's utterly brilliant and ingenious. I will read anything Nenia writes now. And she'd better write more. Or else I'll bring Gavin back to life and set him on her. show less
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
Spoilers for the series abound, because, seriously, you can't review this series without spoilers.
Do you know that feeling when you read an amazing book, and you're like, "I must get the other one or else I'll die."? But at the same time, you're terrified that the next book won't be as good? That's basically how I felt when I finished Fearscape, the first book in this trilogy. However, being the serial-killer-obsessed person I am, I went and bought the next book. And it was even better. Around that time, I thought all the books had come out, so I went to try and buy the next one. But noooooo, people had to be mean and not release it yet.
Then I realized Nenia always updated her status on how far in a book she had written, and I went and stalked that for a while. All this time, I was getting more and more excited for the conclusion that had to be epic. It turns out that Nenia finished writing and editing it a few months earlier and released it, and that meant I could buy it.
There's a quote from Terrorscape, book three of the trilogy, that accurately describes the entire series:
“Once upon a time, there was a naïve and innocent girl who thought she could tame the beast and live happily ever after. But the beast did not want to be tamed, for he was a beast and beasts care not for such things, and the girl died along with her dreams.
From childhood's grave sprang a young woman, jaded before her years, show more who knew that beasts could wear the skins of men, and that evil could exist in sunlight, as well as darkness."
The Horrorscape Trilogy is about a girl who starts out very sweet, innocent, and ordinary, but meets a guy. He acts like all the other YA novel love interests, so she doesn't see anything wrong. Slowly, she realizes that the boyfriends of books shouldn't be real in life. The ones that are real are dangerous. This begins a game of cat and mouse, where Val is the rodent.
In the first book, Val is full of life and hope. In the second, she becomes scared and terrified. This is a true reaction to what would happen if a psychopath became obsessed with you. In the third, she's still scared, but she fights back.
Gavin also experiences character development, but it is not for the better. Instead, he hones his ability to kill and generally becomes more terrifying.
Unlike so many of the YA novels, this series is written in third person. Sometimes, third person will take away the terror of suspenseful books, but this one doesn't.
Nenia has this gift of being an amazing writer. Her descriptions are so detailed, and yet not boring as to take away from the overall impact. The downside to this is that a lot of her descriptions sound like the places I'm often at, and I'm scared whenever I think of them.
There is so much suspense in these three novels that it made me freak out whenever I heard a noise. And since people have terrible timing, they'd walk in right at the terrifying part.
In Terrorscape, there's a mention of a Vivaldi ringtone. When I read, I play music on my computer. Guess what just happened to play when I started that page? I swear, I started screaming. Meanwhile, my dog just sits there confused.
And guess what? There's something called research in this book. Why do I know this? Because occasionally, I'll look up strange things, say for example, "serial killers" or "stalkers".
The first book is when Val is still fourteen. What annoys fourteen-year-olds? Parents. And yes, there are parents here. They're actually a major part, unlike so many other books.
As the series progresses, the parts of Val's parents shrink, just like what happens when a teen grow up. However, they're still an active role in the story.
There's something I dubbed "nenianism". Whenever you read a book by Nenia Campbell, there's going to be references to a cat. It's just something I noticed.
Endings of series and books are very difficult to write. However, Nenia makes it seem effortless.
This trilogy is phenomenal. It's utterly brilliant and ingenious. I will read anything Nenia writes now. And she'd better write more. Or else I'll bring Gavin back to life and set him on her. show less
Spoilers for the series abound, because, seriously, you can't review this series without spoilers.
Do you know that feeling when you read an amazing book, and you're like, "I must get the other one or else I'll die."? But at the same time, you're terrified that the next book won't be as good? That's basically how I felt when I finished Fearscape, the first book in this trilogy. However, being the serial-killer-obsessed person I am, I went and bought the next book. And it was even better. Around that time, I thought all the books had come out, so I went to try and buy the next one. But noooooo, people had to be mean and not release it yet.
Then I realized Nenia always updated her status on how far in a book she had written, and I went and stalked that for a while. All this time, I was getting more and more excited for the conclusion that had to be epic. It turns out that Nenia finished writing and editing it a few months earlier and released it, and that meant I could buy it.
There's a quote from Terrorscape, book three of the trilogy, that accurately describes the entire series:
“Once upon a time, there was a naïve and innocent girl who thought she could tame the beast and live happily ever after. But the beast did not want to be tamed, for he was a beast and beasts care not for such things, and the girl died along with her dreams.
From childhood's grave sprang a young woman, jaded before her years, show more who knew that beasts could wear the skins of men, and that evil could exist in sunlight, as well as darkness."
The Horrorscape Trilogy is about a girl who starts out very sweet, innocent, and ordinary, but meets a guy. He acts like all the other YA novel love interests, so she doesn't see anything wrong. Slowly, she realizes that the boyfriends of books shouldn't be real in life. The ones that are real are dangerous. This begins a game of cat and mouse, where Val is the rodent.
In the first book, Val is full of life and hope. In the second, she becomes scared and terrified. This is a true reaction to what would happen if a psychopath became obsessed with you. In the third, she's still scared, but she fights back.
Gavin also experiences character development, but it is not for the better. Instead, he hones his ability to kill and generally becomes more terrifying.
Unlike so many of the YA novels, this series is written in third person. Sometimes, third person will take away the terror of suspenseful books, but this one doesn't.
Nenia has this gift of being an amazing writer. Her descriptions are so detailed, and yet not boring as to take away from the overall impact. The downside to this is that a lot of her descriptions sound like the places I'm often at, and I'm scared whenever I think of them.
There is so much suspense in these three novels that it made me freak out whenever I heard a noise. And since people have terrible timing, they'd walk in right at the terrifying part.
In Terrorscape, there's a mention of a Vivaldi ringtone. When I read, I play music on my computer. Guess what just happened to play when I started that page? I swear, I started screaming. Meanwhile, my dog just sits there confused.
And guess what? There's something called research in this book. Why do I know this? Because occasionally, I'll look up strange things, say for example, "serial killers" or "stalkers".
The first book is when Val is still fourteen. What annoys fourteen-year-olds? Parents. And yes, there are parents here. They're actually a major part, unlike so many other books.
As the series progresses, the parts of Val's parents shrink, just like what happens when a teen grow up. However, they're still an active role in the story.
There's something I dubbed "nenianism". Whenever you read a book by Nenia Campbell, there's going to be references to a cat. It's just something I noticed.
Endings of series and books are very difficult to write. However, Nenia makes it seem effortless.
This trilogy is phenomenal. It's utterly brilliant and ingenious. I will read anything Nenia writes now. And she'd better write more. Or else I'll bring Gavin back to life and set him on her. show less
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
Darker Days wasn't exactly wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be creepier and not as predictable. However, it's still very good.
Jessie's voice sounds like a typical teenager. It doesn't seem like Just Accardo is trying, but it also doesn't sound all purple-proseish.
And guess what? There's no love triangle. At all. And that makes me so happy.
The beginning starts out with Jesse hunting down a paranormal creature. I forgot what it was, possibly because it was never important.
Some of the explanations and descriptions could have and should have been better, but I understood the entire gist of it.
I love the world of Darker Days. It truly was very imaginative and brilliant.
Overall, this book kept me hooked from the beginning, and I hope to read more in the story.
Darker Days wasn't exactly wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be creepier and not as predictable. However, it's still very good.
Jessie's voice sounds like a typical teenager. It doesn't seem like Just Accardo is trying, but it also doesn't sound all purple-proseish.
And guess what? There's no love triangle. At all. And that makes me so happy.
The beginning starts out with Jesse hunting down a paranormal creature. I forgot what it was, possibly because it was never important.
Some of the explanations and descriptions could have and should have been better, but I understood the entire gist of it.
I love the world of Darker Days. It truly was very imaginative and brilliant.
Overall, this book kept me hooked from the beginning, and I hope to read more in the story.
I'm not sure whether or not I hate Julie Kagawa right now. She has a gift of making her worlds and characters realistic. She also has a gift of ripping your heart out of your chest and smashing it into little pieces because of those tear-inducing pages she calls an ending.
Allison is looking for Kanin, the vampire that turned her. In Immortal Rules, he has been captured, but we didn't focus on that a lot. On her way, she finds Jackal, her Blood Brother, and the two decide to work together.
I mentioned in a previous review how annoying it was to write a five star review, because I usually focus on a book's faults more than I do benefits. In The Eternity Cure, I could find little to no faults, so this will probably be a short review.
I completely adore Allison. I like her so much I'm hosting her for the YA Fiesty Female Tourney. I mean, she uses a katana. How many YA heroines do you know that can use a weapon, let alone fight?
The bottom line is that this series is amazing, and you should definitely read it. Seriously, if you haven't read Immortal Rules, go out and buy it.
Allison is looking for Kanin, the vampire that turned her. In Immortal Rules, he has been captured, but we didn't focus on that a lot. On her way, she finds Jackal, her Blood Brother, and the two decide to work together.
I mentioned in a previous review how annoying it was to write a five star review, because I usually focus on a book's faults more than I do benefits. In The Eternity Cure, I could find little to no faults, so this will probably be a short review.
I completely adore Allison. I like her so much I'm hosting her for the YA Fiesty Female Tourney. I mean, she uses a katana. How many YA heroines do you know that can use a weapon, let alone fight?
The bottom line is that this series is amazing, and you should definitely read it. Seriously, if you haven't read Immortal Rules, go out and buy it.
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
To any guys reading this: Parts of this is a normal review. Other parts are strange. Very, very strange. And hopefully, you'll think I just have a cold or something, and that's great. But please note: I envy right now. Actually, I hate every male specimen for not going through the same torture as me. Including my shih tzu who adores me. So don't feel singled out.
I was going to change it from a three star to a four star rating because I'm nice like that, but the day I wrote this review (today), I remembered the exact reason why I hate Mother Nature. And now this lovely book is going to suffer for it. It won't suffer a lot. The exact rating was around 3.5 or so, and I was trying to decide whether or not to make it 3 or 4.
So while my body decides to recreate that bloody scene from Aliens, I'll be trying to write an understandable review.
Hugh wakes up in a crater completely naked. Oh, and with no memories except for a completely cheesy, "Trust no one." Naturally, he gets a little freaked out. And then he finds out he can heal fatal wounds almost instantaneously and is super strong. I had a tiny feeling he wasn't human when that was found out.
Cece has a bipolar mother who refuses to take her medication, and she lives in a trailer park. When she sees Hugo, she immediately is drawn to him. Definitely no like any other Young Adult Book.
A huge problem I had with Eyes Ever to the Sky is the impossibly show more unrealistic insta-love. Seriously, I've seen hundreds of guys in my life. Have I ever crushed on them the second I saw them? No comment on that. But did I trust them with my life? Absolutely not. The only person I trust with my life is me. I don't care how pretty the guy is.
I would have loved this book if the romance didn't seem rushed. Even my annoying cramps would have understood that this book was worthy to get four or even five stars.
There were two point of views. Those were very well written, and a reader can clearly distinguish the difference between the Cece and Hugo.
There was also a victim's point of view, right before they died. I didn't find that distracting from the overall story at all. It actually helped it though.
Eyes Ever to the Sky makes you really annoyed, but in the compelling read sort of way. You get this itsy bit of information, and then you're left hanging. And it happens over and over.
Overall, the book was very fun to read. I look forward to more of the series. show less
To any guys reading this: Parts of this is a normal review. Other parts are strange. Very, very strange. And hopefully, you'll think I just have a cold or something, and that's great. But please note: I envy right now. Actually, I hate every male specimen for not going through the same torture as me. Including my shih tzu who adores me. So don't feel singled out.
I was going to change it from a three star to a four star rating because I'm nice like that, but the day I wrote this review (today), I remembered the exact reason why I hate Mother Nature. And now this lovely book is going to suffer for it. It won't suffer a lot. The exact rating was around 3.5 or so, and I was trying to decide whether or not to make it 3 or 4.
So while my body decides to recreate that bloody scene from Aliens, I'll be trying to write an understandable review.
Hugh wakes up in a crater completely naked. Oh, and with no memories except for a completely cheesy, "Trust no one." Naturally, he gets a little freaked out. And then he finds out he can heal fatal wounds almost instantaneously and is super strong. I had a tiny feeling he wasn't human when that was found out.
Cece has a bipolar mother who refuses to take her medication, and she lives in a trailer park. When she sees Hugo, she immediately is drawn to him. Definitely no like any other Young Adult Book.
A huge problem I had with Eyes Ever to the Sky is the impossibly show more unrealistic insta-love. Seriously, I've seen hundreds of guys in my life. Have I ever crushed on them the second I saw them? No comment on that. But did I trust them with my life? Absolutely not. The only person I trust with my life is me. I don't care how pretty the guy is.
I would have loved this book if the romance didn't seem rushed. Even my annoying cramps would have understood that this book was worthy to get four or even five stars.
There were two point of views. Those were very well written, and a reader can clearly distinguish the difference between the Cece and Hugo.
There was also a victim's point of view, right before they died. I didn't find that distracting from the overall story at all. It actually helped it though.
Eyes Ever to the Sky makes you really annoyed, but in the compelling read sort of way. You get this itsy bit of information, and then you're left hanging. And it happens over and over.
Overall, the book was very fun to read. I look forward to more of the series. show less
I found out about this book months ago. And I really, really wanted it. So, when I found it on Netgalley, I immediately requested it. Thank you, Entangled Teen, for giving me the opportunity to read this book. My review is not biased in any way.
Dante's voice was pretty awesome. He sorted sounded like swoozie/Adande. It was very fun to read. The narration alone gets it two stars.
I really loved how it was in the male point of view. There should be more books like that.
The plot seemed a bit too simple, but it was still enjoyable.
Dante wasn't likable at first. In fact, I hated him. However, he grows on people and develops throughout the story.
The Collector was pretty much a solid, well-rounded book. I look forward to the next.
Dante's voice was pretty awesome. He sorted sounded like swoozie/Adande. It was very fun to read. The narration alone gets it two stars.
I really loved how it was in the male point of view. There should be more books like that.
The plot seemed a bit too simple, but it was still enjoyable.
Dante wasn't likable at first. In fact, I hated him. However, he grows on people and develops throughout the story.
The Collector was pretty much a solid, well-rounded book. I look forward to the next.
Read this review with kitten pictures at: http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
I received this book from the publisher. This in no way influenced my review.
This was exactly what the title promised: a light and fluffy summer read.
Maddie is a really popular girl, who has a secret. Not a bad, I-like-watching-you-sleep secret, more like an embarrassing secret. She really likes comic books. It doesn't seem embarrassing for me if a friend likes comic books, but whatever. However, she has a reason for pretending to be one of those really popular chicks. In middle school, there was some costume contest. Maddie came dressed as a comic book character, and everyone made fun of her, and she was scared of it happening again. Hey, I didn't say it was a good reason.
However, every summer she lets her nerdy side out. She has a notebooks that she writes all her thoughts down about the comics she reads.
One day, the comic she ordered was out of stock, and it would be a while until the company shipped it to her. Maddie decides to go to the comic book store and buy it.
You must understand: This is a huge risk for her. She might have been spotted and her cover would have been blown.
When she got to the bookstore, the guy at the cash register was reading it, but he gave it to her. He also went to her school and knew her.
Is her cover blown? No. Don't worry.
What happens next a whirlwind of fluff and happiness.
Maddie was a very relatable main character, even though I don't read comics. She's show more fun to read. Though, she gets whiny and annoying sometimes.
Logan was a nice guy. We need more of those in YA. There are too many dark, brooding guys.
I rated this three stars because it didn't feel like it had a deeper meaning. Complete fluff, but very enjoyable.
Overall, a very enjoyable book. Read for a fun and fluffy time.
I think I used too many "fluff"s in this review. show less
I received this book from the publisher. This in no way influenced my review.
This was exactly what the title promised: a light and fluffy summer read.
Maddie is a really popular girl, who has a secret. Not a bad, I-like-watching-you-sleep secret, more like an embarrassing secret. She really likes comic books. It doesn't seem embarrassing for me if a friend likes comic books, but whatever. However, she has a reason for pretending to be one of those really popular chicks. In middle school, there was some costume contest. Maddie came dressed as a comic book character, and everyone made fun of her, and she was scared of it happening again. Hey, I didn't say it was a good reason.
However, every summer she lets her nerdy side out. She has a notebooks that she writes all her thoughts down about the comics she reads.
One day, the comic she ordered was out of stock, and it would be a while until the company shipped it to her. Maddie decides to go to the comic book store and buy it.
You must understand: This is a huge risk for her. She might have been spotted and her cover would have been blown.
When she got to the bookstore, the guy at the cash register was reading it, but he gave it to her. He also went to her school and knew her.
Is her cover blown? No. Don't worry.
What happens next a whirlwind of fluff and happiness.
Maddie was a very relatable main character, even though I don't read comics. She's show more fun to read. Though, she gets whiny and annoying sometimes.
Logan was a nice guy. We need more of those in YA. There are too many dark, brooding guys.
I rated this three stars because it didn't feel like it had a deeper meaning. Complete fluff, but very enjoyable.
Overall, a very enjoyable book. Read for a fun and fluffy time.
I think I used too many "fluff"s in this review. show less
Shadow and Bone was the completely epic book I was subconsciously looking for. Why did I read City of Bones;when I could have been reading this?
Alina Starkov is an orphan. She's never fitted in, is too skinny, and is basically every cliche' in YA books. How did Bardugo manage to make her amazing? I don't know. It must be some super secret Grisha power.
Anyways, one day, when she was crossing something called the Shadow Fold, a great rift devoid of light, she and the rest of her group were attacked. When her childhood friend is endangered, she finds out that she has this awesome power and uses it to save him. She is then taken from her friend to be trained to be Grisha. What are Grisha, you ask? Read the book, and then find out.
Alina was a good main character. She started out a bit, well, a lot, naive, but actually grew up. Did she mature? Yes. Did she develop her powers? Yes. And now, for the most important question. Did I like her? No. No I didn't.
Don't worry. I'm not that crazy. Of course I liked her. She's impossible to dislike.
The Darkling is a- wait for it- dark creature who wants her help to destroy the Fold. He's one part of this screwed up love triangle. Yes. I like him. I like him a lot. If Alina doesn't want him, can I have him?
The other point is Mal. Mal is the childhood friend who was almost killed. When Alina left, he became a soldier. That's all I'm going to say.
It was a completely awesome world to be in. I heard it was based on Russian mythology and culture. show more Now, Young Adult mythology screws up the actual mythology, so everything I read might be incorrect. However, I know nothing of Russian mythology, so I will base the rating on what I know. And what I know is that it was very enjoyable to read.
There were so many twists. And no, you don't get any spoilers or hints.
So, reader of my post, go read this book now. Shoo. If you don't Average-sized Korean and I will hunt you down. show less
Alina Starkov is an orphan. She's never fitted in, is too skinny, and is basically every cliche' in YA books. How did Bardugo manage to make her amazing? I don't know. It must be some super secret Grisha power.
Anyways, one day, when she was crossing something called the Shadow Fold, a great rift devoid of light, she and the rest of her group were attacked. When her childhood friend is endangered, she finds out that she has this awesome power and uses it to save him. She is then taken from her friend to be trained to be Grisha. What are Grisha, you ask? Read the book, and then find out.
Alina was a good main character. She started out a bit, well, a lot, naive, but actually grew up. Did she mature? Yes. Did she develop her powers? Yes. And now, for the most important question. Did I like her? No. No I didn't.
Don't worry. I'm not that crazy. Of course I liked her. She's impossible to dislike.
The Darkling is a- wait for it- dark creature who wants her help to destroy the Fold. He's one part of this screwed up love triangle. Yes. I like him. I like him a lot. If Alina doesn't want him, can I have him?
The other point is Mal. Mal is the childhood friend who was almost killed. When Alina left, he became a soldier. That's all I'm going to say.
It was a completely awesome world to be in. I heard it was based on Russian mythology and culture. show more Now, Young Adult mythology screws up the actual mythology, so everything I read might be incorrect. However, I know nothing of Russian mythology, so I will base the rating on what I know. And what I know is that it was very enjoyable to read.
There were so many twists. And no, you don't get any spoilers or hints.
So, reader of my post, go read this book now. Shoo. If you don't Average-sized Korean and I will hunt you down. show less
Okay, seriously. Did I read the wrong book? Because most people talk about how amazing Delirim is and how they can just picture everything perfectly. But when I read it, I was just annoyed. It's like the exct same story as other dystopians. People, whatever you do, do not read Matched and Delirium back to back. I couldn't finish Matched because the beginnings were so similar.
The characters just seemed flat. There's basically no character development in the main character, let alone any others
And the insta-love. This had so much insta-love. It was so annoying, and one of my key issues with it.
Maybe I didn't like Delirium because I was expecting a novel where the character fights back against the government. The key word being there is "fight". Yes, there were a couple scenes where there was action, but it just wasn't enough for me.
I'm sure many people will enjoy Delirium, but personally, it wasn't worth the hype.
The characters just seemed flat. There's basically no character development in the main character, let alone any others
And the insta-love. This had so much insta-love. It was so annoying, and one of my key issues with it.
Maybe I didn't like Delirium because I was expecting a novel where the character fights back against the government. The key word being there is "fight". Yes, there were a couple scenes where there was action, but it just wasn't enough for me.
I'm sure many people will enjoy Delirium, but personally, it wasn't worth the hype.
YES! I got this on Net Galley! But who's Izzy, again?
The Review:
Remember that person from the third book of the Hex Hall series, Spell Bound? Yeah, me neither. But I found out that School Spirits takes place in the same world, and I loved the descriptions of that witch world, so I had to ask for it. And then I got accepted!
I didn't enjoy this book as much as Hex Hall, sadly. The actual rating is more of a 3.5 stars than an solid 4 stars.
This was a pretty quick and fluffy read, and it doesn't really stay with you in the long run.
There still is a sense of humor in this novel, but it isn't as pronounced.
The setting is a high school, and that sort of bored me. It seems every young adult novel is set at a high school nowadays.
I really liked how Dex wasn't exactly like Archer. I felt there was a pretty big difference between the two.
I will read the next books in the series. School Spirits is an engaging read, and I hope the next books answer my questions.
Thank you Netgalley and Disney-Hyperion for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
And now my favorite quotes:
I didn't highlight that much in this book so there are not that many favorite quotes.
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com
The Review:
Remember that person from the third book of the Hex Hall series, Spell Bound? Yeah, me neither. But I found out that School Spirits takes place in the same world, and I loved the descriptions of that witch world, so I had to ask for it. And then I got accepted!
I didn't enjoy this book as much as Hex Hall, sadly. The actual rating is more of a 3.5 stars than an solid 4 stars.
This was a pretty quick and fluffy read, and it doesn't really stay with you in the long run.
There still is a sense of humor in this novel, but it isn't as pronounced.
The setting is a high school, and that sort of bored me. It seems every young adult novel is set at a high school nowadays.
I really liked how Dex wasn't exactly like Archer. I felt there was a pretty big difference between the two.
I will read the next books in the series. School Spirits is an engaging read, and I hope the next books answer my questions.
Thank you Netgalley and Disney-Hyperion for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
And now my favorite quotes:
“You are my new hero. Seriously, I might actually be in love with you now. Would it be awkward if we made out?”
I didn't highlight that much in this book so there are not that many favorite quotes.
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com