2.5 stars Does everyone remember Dolores Umbridge and that wicked quill of hers? Of course you do, why am I even asking? How could you not remember poo...more2.5 stars Does everyone remember Dolores Umbridge and that wicked quill of hers? Of course you do, why am I even asking? How could you not remember poor Harry writing in his own blood. Well, I need Professor Umbridge right about now, only instead of I must not tell lies, I’d like her to force me to write I must not believe the hype. A few pages, a nasty scar, and voila, I’d be fully reformed.
While I’m ready to admit that The Collector has a lot going for it (its laugh-out-loud humor being number one on that list), I don’t think the good outweighs the bad, I’m afraid. Dante Walker, collector extraordinaire and ultimate bad boy isn’t nearly as charming as I’d been lead to believe. He is, at times, hilarious, I’ll give him that much – but that kind of thing loses its shine quickly, and what remains is just another bad boy with a good heart, waiting for the right girl to come along and save him.
Nevertheless, this could have been quite entertaining if not for Charlie’s physical appearance at the beginning. It didn’t bother me that she was unattractive, but that she needed to be unattractive in order to emphasize Dante’s later transformation. Everything was depending on him accepting her for who she was – and who she was was exaggerated to the point of being ridiculous. All the squealing, the crooked teeth, the awful skin, the limp… I mean, really? Did Scott have to go to such extremes? And then, of course, just as Dante finally noticed her inner beauty, the ugly duckling became a swan, so no self-sacrifice on his part was necessary after all. Ugh.
Truth be told, paranormal romance is never my first choice, or my second… or my seventeenth, really, but I wanted to like The Collector more than I actually did. As it is, I won’t be continuing the series unless other reviewers somehow convince me using their evil mind tricks. It’s been known to happen, you know. :)
Call it a character flaw if you will, but I have a desperate need for things to make sense, or at the very least, I want to be tricked into thinking t...moreCall it a character flaw if you will, but I have a desperate need for things to make sense, or at the very least, I want to be tricked into thinking they do. This is especially true with sci-fi – obviously not everything is possible, or even probable, but there are ways of making even the most unlikely things seem real. (Authors, if you don’t know how, just ask Mira Grant.) This is where Jessica Brody failed: her ambition was bigger than her skill, and when the time came to offer explanations, she took the easy way out. In this case, easy also meant unconvincing.
While I adore the subject of memory loss, it is a slippery slope for authors and very few of them do a good enough job. Human brain is still a big mystery, which I suppose allows writers to take certain liberties, but not everything can be random. An example of memory loss handled convincingly in YA would be Thyla by Kate Gordon, in my opinion, but like with her sci-fi elements, Jessica Brody bit off more than she could chew.
The doctors say I should remember things like that. Although my personal memories seem to be ‘temporarily’ lost, I should be familiar with everyday objects and brands and the names of celebrities. But I’m not.
It took me a while to really get interested in Unremembered, but I have to admit that there were a few chapters around the middle that were pretty exciting. Then, as the truth started coming to light, I found myself more and more disappointed by the revelations.
It is a sad, sad day when I have to rely on romance to balance my review, especially in a genre like sci-fi. The entire situation screams wasted potential. But the fact that Zen was the saving grace of Unremembered is one I can’t change. I loved his loyalty and determination, his courage and smarts. On Sera’s end, the romance wasn’t as convincing. He was basically the only boy she’s ever seen, which somehow made her feelings less valuable in my eyes.
That said, the blurb for the second book, Unforgotten, (to be released in 2014), makes it clear that there’s a love triangle coming, so even the romance, the only part I actually liked, will be thoroughly ruined in the future.
This is where Jessica Brody and I part ways, at least until she comes up with another, hopefully better thought out series.
First things first: The Friday Society is a turn-of-the-century almost-steampunk (I’ll get to the ‘almost’ part later) that is exciting, funny and has...moreFirst things first: The Friday Society is a turn-of-the-century almost-steampunk (I’ll get to the ‘almost’ part later) that is exciting, funny and has a large number of unique, interesting characters. The idea of three intelligent young girls teaming up to solve crimes may have been used and abused far too many times, but the Victorian setting meant a new context that could have provided the necessary freshness. Unfortunately, it made things much worse instead.
Cora, Nellie and Michiko don’t have much in common, except that they’re all intelligent and very competent. Cora is an assistant to Lord White, a politician and an inventor. She’s interested in science and spends most of her time keeping his Lordship away from the opium dens. Nellie is the gorgeous assistant of Great Raheem, an accomplished and well-respected magician. She is very girly, but also very athletically gifted. Michiko came from Japan to work with a British self-defense instructor, wanting to escape from the parents that wanted to marry her off and her samurai teacher who refused to present her with a katana. She doesn’t speak much English and she’s constantly yelled at and beaten by her employer.
What turned The Friday Society from a fun fluffy read to a complete disaster was Kress’ carelessness or nonchalance towards the language. I am baffled by her constant use of modern colloquialisms in this book. I was ready to disregard the far too modern worldview of her heroines, the (unbelievably) liberal and progressive society, but language use is where I draw the line. I don’t think that ‘smokin’ hot’ was used to describe an attractive individual over a hundred years ago, and somehow I doubt that the word ‘awesome’ was used in every other sentence either. Aside from the steam-powered gadgets, steampunk should attempt to recreate an era, and that is largely done through language. Authors should either know how to do this, or not write steampunk at all.
It is a shame that Adrienne Kress didn’t do a better job with era- appropriate language. I was almost ready to forgive some of it, but then a character would say something so obviously from the 21st century, and it would make my blood boil.
I wasn’t entirely unhappy with the abovementioned steam-powered gadgets. Cora is an inventor after all, and she had a few (very entertaining) aces up her sleeve. There were dirigibles, steam cabs, night vision goggles and other interesting things, and while they weren’t exactly described in detail, they at least worked well with the plot.
In this case, my two-star rating doesn’t mean anything other than ‘I had no idea how to rate this book’. There were things I truly enjoyed, humor and characters most of all, but in the end, even that wasn’t enough. Gail Carriger may not be much of a plotter, but no one can object to her language use or her ability to re-create the atmosphere of the Victorian era. Adrienne Kress, on the other hand, should write books in which characters can like, say ‘like’ as many times as they want.
1. She has an awesome name (I should know, right?) 2. She can write much better than this.
I have a feeling Maya jo...moreHere are two facts about Maya Banks:
1. She has an awesome name (I should know, right?) 2. She can write much better than this.
I have a feeling Maya joined the Fifty Shades club with this one, and she didn't need to do that. I appreciate her books because she usually has no boundaries, but compared to her previous work, this one was relatively tame. Add to that the obscenely rich, dominant man, and the sweet, young, submissive female, and it's pretty clear what you'll end up with.
There were a few things I liked about Rush, but all in all, I am not impressed. (less)
Somehow, I feel that I’ve outgrown chick-lit ages ago (it’s funny how I’ll never really outgrow YA, though), but when an opportunity arose to review W...moreSomehow, I feel that I’ve outgrown chick-lit ages ago (it’s funny how I’ll never really outgrow YA, though), but when an opportunity arose to review Why Can’t I Be You by Allie Larkin, I felt an immediate connection and jumped at the chance to do so. There was something about the retro-looking cover that pulled me in right away, and the idea of stepping into someone else’s shoes so completely both thrilled and intrigued me.
Who of us wouldn’t want to be someone else, at least for a day? There were days when I just wanted to leave everything behind and become someone new, someone daring and social, someone who took chances on every turn or at least someone who felt comfortable in their skin. Our own skin can get too tight, and wanting to escape it makes sense in some situations. That’s what Jenny did. When the opportunity presented itself, she jumped at it and never looked back. After all, her boyfriend-soon-to-be-fiancé just left her for a girl equally average and plain – not even an upgrade, which was more insulting than anything else.
I’m not sure classifying Why Can’t I Be You as chick-lit is exactly fair. I’d sooner call it women’s fiction (there is a slight difference in quality between the two in my opinion). It’s certainly less formulaic and flaky than your average Sophie Kinsella novel, and there were some genuine emotions there felt heavier and more honest than I’d expected.
Despite its pretty simplistic plot, Why Can’t I Be You surprised me with its emotional complexity. It was thought-provoking and entirely satisfying. I loved the very subtle romance between Jenny and Fish, but even more, I admired her friendship with Jessie’s former best friend. All things considered, Why Can’t I Be You is a good way for us YA and UF readers to step out of our comfort zone and stir things up a bit.
As a steampunk reader, I can be nitpicky and entirely too difficult to please and I know it. However, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable when I say...moreAs a steampunk reader, I can be nitpicky and entirely too difficult to please and I know it. However, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable when I say that Legacy of the Clockwork Key fell short of what I had expected. For starters, it read more like Middle Grade than Young Adult and was, in many ways, far too naïve and oversimplified for my liking. In truth, I’m not sure it can even be classified as steampunk; it certainly started as one, and the author approached it very ambitiously, but the execution was lacking and the end result was a Middle Grade-ish book with lots of metal in it.
In Legacy of the Clockwork Key, Meg and her small group of new acquaintances, embark on a quest to find and destroy a dangerous device created by a secret society Meg’s family was involved with. To find the location of this device, they must find and unlock clue after clue using a creative master key Meg’s grandfather left her.
I was quite enjoying this story until things turned serious between Meg and Will. It was their relationship – Meg’s constant doubts and insecurities, Will’s inconsistent behavior and lack of any real spark between them – that really turned me off. I understood why Meg would be attracted to Will, even with all his brooding and silent treatments. His attraction for her, however, made little sense as he was right to accuse her of selfishness and pigheadedness.
I was hardly one to command the attention of a man, especially sitting next to the gilded beauty Lucinda possessed. Will couldn’t possibly fancy me, so why did he watch me so intently? I’ll admit, I had noticed he was handsome when I first met him. At the time, it might have only been my shock at seeing someone my own age.
But as difficult as the characters were, I had even more trouble with the inventions. Although there were many (I get grumpy when there isn’t enough machinery in my steampunk), and although the inventory was quite impressive (automatons, a metal Stonehenge that sprouted from the ground, a huge metal maze and a metal leviathan, to name a few), it was never explained how any of them actually worked. That, in my opinion, is simply not steampunk. And some of the minor inventions were just random modern things like night vision and infra red goggles. Those were only unusual because of the historical setting, and what’s worse, I can’t imagine they could possibly be steam powered… not that actual steam was ever mentioned.
In the end, I think it’s fair to conclude that Legacy of the Clockwork Key simply lacked steam, both between the characters and in their many inventions. It’s a good book for a younger audience; I’d probably have enjoyed it when I was twelve or thirteen, but as an older reader, I found it to be mediocre and entirely forgettable.
I’d like to be able to say that Just Remember to Breathe was a complete waste of my time, but it wasn’t. Yes, most of it was downright horrible, the w...moreI’d like to be able to say that Just Remember to Breathe was a complete waste of my time, but it wasn’t. Yes, most of it was downright horrible, the writing isn’t even worth thinking about, it needs hours and hours with a decent editor and the author should never, under any circumstances, write from a female perspective again. But underneath the cheesy love story was a whole different story that was touching, genuine and honest. That story, the story of a young soldier, badly wounded in Afghanistan, who just wants to find a way to get rid of the pain and the guilt and live his life as normally as possible, is a story that should have been the main focus of this book. That’s the story I wanted to read.
But I’m getting ahead of myself again.
Just Remember to Breathe is the first book in a series called Thompson sisters. From what I understand (and I did some research for the good of mankind), each sister will get her book (Julia already has hers), Nora Roberts/Danielle Steel style. I have no idea what made Charles Sheehan-Miles, an ex soldier who currently works with disabled veterans, think that he can write a New Adult love story, and in alternating points of view at that, but Danielle Steel he’s not. He has no understanding of his female characters, which was more than obvious from Alex’s point of view. It made me cringe at times, that’s how bad it was, and Alex herself was as plastic as they come.
About Alex and Dylan’s relationship, I’ll say this (and try not to grit my teeth in the process): they met as teens on a trip to Israel and stayed more or less together for years, even with four thousand miles between them. Then, while he was in Afghanistan, they broke up over a misunderstanding and he was wounded a few days later. Alex didn’t hear from him again until he showed up at Columbia and they were forced to do research together. The entire thing was blatantly unbelievable and cheesy, to the point of being laugh out loud funny on several occasions, and not at all touching like it was meant to be.
While in college, Alex was sexually assaulted twice by the same guy, a family friend her parents wholeheartedly approved of. This is the part that truly made me angry because it was handled superficially with absolutely no understanding for the women that go through such a thing. It was all a huge cliché and the author insisted on using those empty phrases you can read in cheap self-help articles, probably because he didn’t know any better. The rapist was just as bad, poorly written, made to be either incredibly stupid or just begging to be caught. The entire thing was thrown in just to create an extra obstacle for Alex and Dylan and I resented that.
There were two significant relationships in this book, and while Alex and Dylan’s oftentimes wandered into ridiculous(ly unbelievable) territory, the relationship between Dylan and his fellow soldier and friend Sherman was simply wonderful. Those few brief conversations between them, their loyalty and friendship, the genuine emotions I felt, the understanding, all of it made this book worth reading, despite so many unforgivable problems.
I think Charles Sheehan-Miles should have just written what I suspect he really wanted to write, even though it probably wouldn’t sell as well. If he ever decides to write a story about a young man struggling with PTSD, war injuries, brain damage and guilt, I’ll be glad to read it. But more if this? No, thank you.
Honestly, I hate doing this to a self-published author, I do, but honesty above all, right? You won’t have any trouble finding many four and five star reviews, so please read some of those too before making your decision. My opinion is just one of many.
I will now tell you bad, bad things about this book. If you’re uncomfortable with me telling you such things, you’d best look away ‘cause it’s about t...moreI will now tell you bad, bad things about this book. If you’re uncomfortable with me telling you such things, you’d best look away ‘cause it’s about to start. Consider yourselves warned.
Being Henry David is a very ambitious project. I believe it was supposed to be a deep, cathartic experience, a heart-wrenching story about a young man unable to face the consequences of his actions. At least I think that’s what Cal Armistead set out to write. What she actually wrote, in my humble opinion, is an aimless novel with no real emotion or depth.
I always try to balance things out in my negative reviews and I don’t particularly enjoy being this harsh, especially when writing about a debut author’s work, but after careful consideration, I’ve decided it’s best to be painfully honest and let you come to your own conclusions.
A boy wakes up at the New York Penn Station with no memories and no possessions whatsoever. The only thing he has on him is a book, Walden by Henry David Thoreau, and he decides it’s some kind of a clue. He names himself Henry David, Hank, and starts hanging out with two street kids, Jack and Nessa. After an incident that could put them all in jail, Hank leaves New York to go to Concord, Massachusetts where he wants to explore Walden Pond and Thoreau’s way of life.
I consider telling the cops that I’m lost, and can’t remember who I am. Maybe they can help me. But there’s that thing in my chest like a brick wall that says this would be a terrible idea. Some fuzzy instinct me it’s not safe to go to the police. Fuzzy instinct isn’t much to go on, but it’s all I have. I decide to trust it.
Apparently, it has become very popular to write novels that lean heavily on another novel or author, usually a classic. (How very postmodern of you, Ms. Armistead!) In this case, Henry David Thoreau was on every page, both through his work and his life. Hank dreamed about him, hallucinated him, followed his movements, and thanks to his photographic memory, he quoted him at every turn. There were, at times, more H.D. Thoreau quotes than actual text and they swallowed this story whole and suffocated it in the process.
The romance, slight as it was, felt almost like an afterthought, added somewhere along the line because some editor said so. I could be wrong, of course, but I don’t think it was there from the start. That entire subplot was this book’s weakest link, unnecessary, unconvincing and maybe even a bit silly. I’ve seen this so many times, almost every time a female author writes from a male perspective about a female love interest. It just doesn’t click.
Being Henry David offers no closure, no real resolution. Quite a few secondary characters are left right in the middle of a very dire situation, without so much as a hint about their fate. Instead of a proper ending, a strange, dream-like scene concludes the book, all wrapped up in far too many Thoreau quotes, of course. It’s a pity, really, because Cal Armistead is not an untalented author. She has a wonderful understanding of her characters, but she mostly just lets them wander around aimlessly.
I signed up for this tour not knowing a single thing about Oxford Whispers other than its intriguing title and the lovely cover. Usually when I do thi...moreI signed up for this tour not knowing a single thing about Oxford Whispers other than its intriguing title and the lovely cover. Usually when I do this, I end up sorely disappointed, but fortunately, there are many things I enjoyed about Marion Croslydon’s debut.
Oxford Whispers focuses partly on Madison’s ability to see and communicate with ghosts as well as her family history and beliefs, and partly on her romance with the young future Earl Rupert Vance. The paranormal parts of this story were quite original, which isn’t something I get to write often, and I loved all the jumping between the past and the present.
Unsurprisingly, my favorite thing about Oxford Whispers was the setting. Like our Louisiana girl, Madison, the author spent some time studying in Oxford, and her familiarity with it was evident on every page. Oxford Whispers is not just Madison and Rupert’s love story, or even Sarah and Robert’s, it is the author’s love letter to Oxford, and it’s a lovely one at that. I learned a few things from it, and it thrilled me to find out some new details about such an astonishing place.
It was far easier for me to connect with Madison’s love interest, the young and gorgeous future Earl Rupert Vance, than Madison herself. Yes, he was just a bit too handsome, a bit too rich, a bit too eloquent. His father hated him far too much, his girlfriend Harriet was an evil Barbie doll, his car was extravagant and his friends were mostly rich jerks. For over four years, he carried around a huge guilt, and then he got rid of it in a single night, all because he found the perfect girl. In other words, he was no more than a cliché. But underneath it all, I managed to find some genuine feelings, a character that could potentially become everything I want in a love interest, or even a second main character, judging from the way things are going.
Clichés aside, with the events of the past foreshadowing current ones, there really wasn’t much room for surprise. About 90% of this book was painfully predictable. But then, in the very last part came a shocking revelation, a thing I never would have guessed, which made me both increase my rating and decide to read the next book.
And since I’ve mentioned the next book, it’s supposed to be about the Tudors – who wouldn’t want to read that?! I only hope that the author will flesh out her characters just a little bit better in the next one because, as I already pointed out, they definitely need more work.
Objectively,his book really deserves more than 2 stars, but two stars means it was ok, and that's all it was for me. I like my urban fantasy a bit mor...moreObjectively,his book really deserves more than 2 stars, but two stars means it was ok, and that's all it was for me. I like my urban fantasy a bit more straightforward and Between is more fantasy than anything else. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. Full review to come.(less)
2.5 stars, rounded up because I'm feeling particularly generous today.
Before any of you start plotting my painful and untimely death, I should point...more2.5 stars, rounded up because I'm feeling particularly generous today.
Before any of you start plotting my painful and untimely death, I should point out that I’m a big fan of Ms. Carriger’s previous work. The Parasol Protectorate series is a favorite of mine, despite losing some steam in the later installments. However, I don’t think Etiquette and Espionage was up to her usual standards, and it makes me very sad that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped I would. It took me a while to put my thoughts in order and figure out exactly what went wrong, at least for me, and even now I can only explain a part of it. In Parasol Protectorate, Carriger’s trademark sense of humor was what made the series stand out, but there was also some substance underneath, and the plots kept me engaged and interested. Etiquette and Espionage had neither, I’m afraid.
“But I have advanced eyelash fluttering to practice, and a mathematics problem concerning how to order strychnine and a lamb dinner on a limited budget, and three chapters on court etiquette to read, and my handkerchief to starch, and the quadrille to memorize!” “No one said learning etiquette and espionage would be easy, my dear.”
And it wasn’t easy, my dears. Not for our main character, Miss Sophronia Angelina Temminnick, and certainly not for me. What started out as entertaining, promising read, ended up almost suffocating me with repetitiveness and lack of an actual plot. A good sense of humor is not a band aid you can just slap over a pile of problems and hope your readers forget they’re there. It has been tried before, and as far as I’m concerned, it never, ever worked.
As a fan, I loved revisiting Alexia’s universe, but at the same time, seeing it reused left me with the impression that Gail Carriger took the lazy way out. This is the part I’m most conflicted about, but it’s also one I would have been glad to overlook had the rest been interesting enough. But in the end, the most interesting parts were those links to the Parasol Protectorate series.
It wasn’t just the world that was the same, some of the characters showed up too, albeit as much younger versions of themselves. Of all the crossover characters, I enjoyed meeting a nine-year-old Genevieve Lefoux the most and was delighted to learn that she preferred boys’ clothes even as a little girl.
There is no romance in Etiquette & Espionage, just hints of one that could develop uite beautifully in the future. While I adored the no-romance part itself, in combination with a very weak plot, it gave a pretty empty book.
It’s obvious by now that I’m the odd one out in this case, so please take my opinion with a grain of salt and make sure to read at least a few more reviews before making a decision. It’s all a matter of personal taste, after all. I’m prepared to give this series another chance because I adore Carriger’s sense of humor. Hopefully the next book will have a more exciting plot.
2.5 stars It has never been easier to describe a book in a single sentence. Here it goes: The Rules by Stacey Kade is the young adult and somewhat more...more2.5 stars It has never been easier to describe a book in a single sentence. Here it goes: The Rules by Stacey Kade is the young adult and somewhat more civilized version of Alien vs. Predator.
I kid you not.
We have Ariane, a part alien in hiding with impressive telepathic and telekinetic powers; and Rachel, a spoiled, predatory rich girl with the tendency to bully people into submission. 80% of this book is a huge battle of wills between these two, so if you’re not a fan of high school drama and plans of revenge (no matter how justified), you’d best stay away.
Between them stands Zane Bradshaw, one of Rachel’s best friends. His brother is the city’s (and especially their father’s) pride and joy and whatever Zane does, he can’t possibly measure up. He knows he is simply not good enough, and it was finally and definitely proven a year ago when his mother left him.
When we first see Zane, we see him in the worst possible light. He is part of the in-crowd, one of the bullies, and while he doesn’t actively humiliate anyone, he doesn’t do a single thing to stop his friends either. It was hard to cease despising him long enough to actually consider his reasons, but once I did, he and I turned a new leaf. While his point of view came as a complete surprise, I started appreciating it pretty early on. I don’t think I could have understood him as well as I did if I was limited to Ariane’s point of view alone.
As for Ariane, I loved that she wasn’t a pushover. I was also fascinated by her relationship with her Father, the man who saved her from the lab and allowed her to assume his dead daughter’s identity. It was so hard for him to see some other girl, some alien girl in his daughter’s place, but still he protected her and cared for her and loved her as much as he could.
For the first six years of my life, give or take, I’d thought my name was Wannoseven. It was only after I escaped – with Mark Tucker’s help – that I learned Wannoseven wasn’t a name at all but a numerical designation. 107. Pathetic.
Perhaps this will sound a bit silly, but I generally dislike villains that are too evil. In The Rules, there are two: Rachel and her grandfather Dr. Jacobs. Both are evil to the point of being cartoonish and consequently, neither of them feels like an actual threat. A truly frightening villain has some small part you can identify with, something that makes you wonder how they got to that point. A well-crafted villain is made of many colors, and while black may be predominant, it’s certainly not the only one.
And whatever happened to worldbuilding, Ms. Kade? Mentioning Roswell does not a worldbuilding make! Perhaps more will come in future installments, but right now, I’m not even sure The Rules qualifies as sci-fi. It reads very much like a contemporary with a few weak paranormal elements.
In addition, I think this book’s biggest fault is that it’s just not memorable. After The Ghost and the Goth, I expected more from Stacey Kade – I was sure she’d give us unforgettable characters at the very least. But alas, I’m having trouble remembering their names even though I finished the book no more than five days ago. So when I compare that to names (and characters) like Froi of the Exiles, Georgia and Shaun Mason, or even Janelle Tenner, my opinion on this series becomes crystal clear.
2.5 stars Nikki Glass is an immortal descendant of Artemis the Huntress, which makes her a Liberi and a natural enemy of the Olympians. She is the late...more2.5 stars Nikki Glass is an immortal descendant of Artemis the Huntress, which makes her a Liberi and a natural enemy of the Olympians. She is the latest member of the Liberi and she’s still adjusting to her new life, but that doesn’t mean she’s entitled to a drama-free existence. After the great fight with Anubis’ descendant in the last book, things are tense between Nikki and her boss Anderson, so Nikki decides to do what she does best – hide.
In an attempt to avoid conflict, she leaves the house she shares with him and the other Liberi, at least for a little while, and goes back to being a private investigator, albeit one with a few extra senses. The case that she decides to accept is very mundane – a pregnant party girl wants to locate her one-night stand to inform him about their baby. After some digging, however, the case becomes far more complicated, and Nikki’s strong sense of right and wrong complicates things even further.
It was nice to revisit familiar characters; not just Nikki, but Jack (descendant of Loki), Blake (descendant of Eros) and a few others as well. I like this world and I’m always excited about spending time in their company. However, Jamaal was entirely absent this time, and considering his newly established friendship with Nikki, as well as their growing attraction, I found this rather odd.
I wouldn’t recommend jumping into this novella if you haven’t read the previous two books. Jenna Black offered no backstory, no explanations and no recaps. It still helped jog my memory, which I desperately needed after all this time. It was nice to be reminded of how much I like Nikki Glass. A year is a very long time between books, especially for someone who reads as much as I do, and I must admit to forgetting the finer details of her character, as well as some of the worldbuilding. Even though Pros and Cons didn’t help much with the latter, it still helped me remember Nikki’s integrity and honesty.
The lesson Nikki has learned in this little e-novella is this: never ask the descendant of Loki to help you solve a problem because he is likely to cause you five more instead of solving the one you already have. And he’ll probably land a few people in jail in the process. Nikki disliked Jack from her very first day as a Liberi, but I always liked reading about his antics. Who could be more fun to read about then the descendant of a trickster god? Oh, yeah, Jamaal, but no such luck.
I can’t wait to get my hands on Rogue Descendants in April. Despite her many qualities, Nikki has some serious challenges ahead of her and she’ll have to resist her natural tendency to run away from her problems. Hopefully things will move forward with Jamaal too, he is still such a mystery to me.
I've spent a long time trying to come up with the best/gentlest way to put this, but in the end, I feel that a direct approach might be best. So here...moreI've spent a long time trying to come up with the best/gentlest way to put this, but in the end, I feel that a direct approach might be best. So here it is: despite a fabulous premise, numerous action scenes and androids (androids, for heaven’s sake!), Mila 2.0 is unfortunately quite boring. After seeing the cover and reading the synopsis, I truly expected to read it in one sitting, but alas, I had to bribe myself to even finish it.
”Right. I’m the computer.” Not only that, but somewhere on–no, in. In!–my body, I had a slot for that card. An electrical portal. How was that even possible? How could you have a part for a memory card in your body and not know about it?
After a fire that killed her beloved father, Mila moved to a new town with her mother. She’s struggling with her memory loss, the grief over losing her dad and her desire to make new friends in school. Then, while fighting with her new best friend over a boy (!), Mila gets injured, but her injury doesn’t bleed. Instead, her arm is full of wires and having it open doesn’t hurt in the least. Her mother is not surprised by this, only worried that someone else might have seen it. Attracting unwanted attention is the last thing they need while running from the government, Mila’s creators. But even though Mila, once activated, turns into a killing machine, not even that is enough to help her escape from the people chasing her.
Humanlike in some spots, but with parts that no human possessed. Parts layered underneath the surface that spoke of things that weren’t alive; my ugliness, all spelled out and irrefutable.
I understand that this is a series and that there must be some loose ends, but far too many things were left unsaid. Mila 2.0 just ended at a pretty random place (this seems to be a new trend) and none of the characters or their motivations were any clearer than at the beginning. For example, an MIT student was assigned to perform tests on Mila in the compound and it was hinted that he wasn’t there of his own free will – the commander had something on his brother and was using that to blackmail Lucas into working with him. But nothing about that situation made sense to me. First and foremost, I don’t even know what the situation was exactly – it was never properly explained. Second, why would the leader of a secret government facility with endless resources at his disposal even need a teenage boy to work for him? And third, if he had something that big on Lucas, why would Lucas risk everything to help Mila, an android he barely even knew? And then there was the small matter of Mila’s “mother” – she was the key character in this story and yet I still don’t know a single thing about her.
Romance was mostly absent from the book, which I appreciated, but there WAS a romantic interest present at the beginning and the very end. Mila met Hunter before she learned her true nature and left him behind when she was forced to run from her enemies. The instalove that happened between them was tragically unfounded and unconvincing. I honestly don’t see why Hunter needed to be present in this book at all and the romance was a serious detriment to my enjoyment of the story. Not that there was much enjoyment to begin with.
Nevertheless, I’ve read some pretty horrible books lately, and Mila 2.0 wasn’t quite so bad. I see some potential in this series and I’m willing to give it another chance, which means that the second book will either make it or break it for me. I will wait to give my final verdict.
It took me over a month to read Taken, which must be some kind of a record for me. I don’t usually do that – I either finish the book right away, or I...moreIt took me over a month to read Taken, which must be some kind of a record for me. I don’t usually do that – I either finish the book right away, or I just give up. Taken didn’t grab me as it should have, but at the same time, I felt that abandoning it would be unjustified since there was nothing technically wrong with it. In the end, I managed to talk myself into finishing it, but aside from a few gripping moments, my effort brought me no reward. I should have saved myself the trouble.
On the surface, nothing seems to be wrong with Taken. It’s a tightly-paced dystopian story full of surprises and excitement. Gray escapes one walled society, only to find himself in the second and then the third, each with its own set of rules. That, in itself, was part of the problem. Bowman tried to do too much, changed the course far too often, and ended up with a crammed plot and incomplete worldbuilding. In her desire to be original, she took on too much. A messy and unsatisfying story was the result.
Her protagonist(s) didn’t help matters much. I disliked Gray from the very first page, and not a single one of his emotions felt genuine at first. With the progression of the story, he became slightly more acceptable, but I never warmed up to him as much as I should have. For years Gray has been in love with Emma, but their circumstances, the rules of their society made him think that a future together would be impossible. And then suddenly, they got paired up to procreate (which was very creepy in itself) and even though Emma practically despised him until that point, he changed her mind with no more than two sentences. Instalove (and it was instalove on her part) makes me so very uncomfortable, and it didn’t help that Emma herself was very plain and weak.
To make matters much worse, this instalove was followed by another trope I utterly despise. Love triangles seem to be out of fashion, and while this would normally make me ecstatic, the fact that they were replaced by love rectangles drives me to despair instead. I am tired of unnecessary romantic complications and I want to read a story in which a couple faces troubles coming from the outside. I think that would be far more interesting. With the exception of Bree, all the participants in this love mess (Gray, Emma and that guy whose name I don’t remember) deserve to be alone for all eternity. The words obnoxious, selfish and clueless accurately describe them all.
If there is one thing going for Taken, it’s that it doesn’t end with a cliffhanger. Although many things were left unresolved, the last chapter still gave me a satisfactory conclusion. Gray’s complicated and tentative relationship with his father is another thing I wanted to highlight. It gave his character some much needed vulnerability and it made at least some of his actions seem more understandable, if not entirely acceptable.
All in all, there’s no denying that Erin Bowman’s debut is a thrill ride and should be taken as such. Characters are everything to me and if I can’t sympathize with them, I’m not likely to enjoy any book, but if you’re looking for an exciting read with a whole lot of twists and turns, then this is a very good choice for you.
3.5 stars because I'm feeling especially generous today.
First, let me get one very important fact out of the way: technically, Pivot Point is practi...more3.5 stars because I'm feeling especially generous today.
First, let me get one very important fact out of the way: technically, Pivot Point is practically flawless. There's nothing in it that bothered me or set my teeth on edge, but while I was reading it, I couldn't help but think of how much better it could have been. Because it's true: there were so many ways to tell this story and Kasie West chose the least interesting one. But I should start from the beginning.
Addie grew up in a top secret paranormal community. She is a Divergent, a Clarvoyant of sorts, her mother is a Persuasive and her father a Discerner, a human lie detector as Addie likes to call him. Every single kid in Addie's school has some kind of mental ability, and they learn to develop the ones they don't have in school. Everything in her walled neighborhood is diffrent from the outside world, from their technology to the way they play sports.
When Addison's parents announce they're having a divorce and leave it to her to choose whether she wants to stay with her mother or go live among the Norms with her father, she Searches both futures hoping it would help her decide. Each choice brings with it a series of complications and a lot of hurt. Unfortunately for Addie, everything she sees in a Search feels completely real to her, no different from things that actually happened, so when she falls for a different boy in each of her possible futures, she comes out of it caring about them both.
Addie's choice becomes a bit more complicated when her best friend Leila gets into trouble because of her telepathic drug-addicted father, and Addie is the only one who knows exactly what's going to happen and when. Above all, I was sorely disappointed by how much Pivot Point focused on the romance. Although it didn't turn out that way in the end, through most of the book, Addie's choice seemed to depend entirely on the boy she wanted to be with more. One of her futures held Duke, a telekinetic quarterback and the most popular boy in Addie's paranormal school. The other future held Trevor, also a quarterback, but an injured one and a Norm. I have to give it to West, this is one of the most original and inventive love triangles I've ever come across because she managed to write a situation in which a herione had to choose between to boys, but there was no love triangle angst because she had relationships with them in two different futures.
Although the narrative structure is almost textbook perfect, I didn't like how West handled the middle part. Pivot Point disappointed me in more ways than I can count, but the last part made up for at least some of it. A great premise ruined by poor execution... I see so much of this lately that I'm tempted to find a name for it, something memorable that will serve as a warning and allow me to write one-word reviews in the future.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such an interesting premise so thoroughly destroyed. For the second time (the first being Fracture, of course), Megan M...moreI don’t believe I’ve ever seen such an interesting premise so thoroughly destroyed. For the second time (the first being Fracture, of course), Megan Miranda had a fantastic idea and just didn’t follow through. When I requested this book, I was pretty sure I would be getting a psychological thriller of some sort, possibly with paranormal elements. But a thriller should be thrilling, right? Yeah, Hysteria… not so much.
So I let him whisper in my ear and put his hands on my hips. And I listened to him list all the ways in which I was slowly killing him. None of which turned out to be the actual way that I killed him.
Mallory is a murderer. When her boyfriend Brian broke into her house drunk, she stabbed him and left him to die. The court ruled it as self-defense, but Mallory doesn’t really remember much of it, and no one else was there to tell her exactly what happened. Ever since the funeral, which she didn’t attend, Brian’s mother keeps stalking her and her own parents lock their bedroom at night.
Mallory simply has no time to relax. When she’s with other people, she must deal with the looks and whispers. When she’s alone, something is always there, a shadow of some sort that keeps her awake and trembling at night. There are some authors who can create an eerie atmosphere with seeming ease, but Megan Miranda is not one of them. None of the things that were happening to Mallory got to me, nothing touched me at all.
To be quite honest, I don’t even know how to explain this mess. The first few chapters promised an unreliable narrator (my favorite), an eerie atmosphere and a mysterious, unpredictable plot. Sixty pages in, I had an unlikable heroine in a boarding school, completely surrounded by mean girls and with the full attention of a gorgeous boy. This book was a lot of things, but mysterious it wasn’t, and it certainly wasn’t unpredictable.
In the end, killing her boyfriend was the least of Mallory’s problems. She was allowed to attend school just months later, despite obvious psychological trauma. And it wasn't just any school, it was a boarding school, where teenagers sleep around each other. AND she managed to steal a knife. Am I the only one who thinks this isn’t likely AT ALL? Yeah, thought so.
Romance… *sigh*. Romance was my favorite thing about this book, and even that was slightly ridiculous. Mallory and Reid knew each other before she arrived at the boarding school. Their dads were friends, so when Reid’s dad died, Mallory was there at the funeral. She tried to kiss him then, and he stepped away. (Imagine that, he refused to make out on his father’s funeral, the nerve of him!) Two years later, Mallory still resents him for it and refuses to be nice to him. Reid is the most popular boy in school, he knows Mallory just stabbed her boyfriend to death, and still he insists on following her around like a lost puppy.
As a general rule, I try to find something nice to say about each and every book I bother to review, but Megan Miranda didn’t make that job easy at all. The best I can say is that I finished it, which I suppose isn’t much. I strongly recommend that you at least sample this one before buying it.
As much as I hate to admit defeat, I think I have to make peace with the fact that Darynda’s Young Adult books simply don’t work for me as well as her...moreAs much as I hate to admit defeat, I think I have to make peace with the fact that Darynda’s Young Adult books simply don’t work for me as well as her adult ones. The Darklight series is consistently mediocre, never outstanding in any way, but never overly disappointing either. It is my loyalty to Darynda and her Charley Davidson series that keeps me from abandoning this trilogy, but the enthusiasm is long gone and I doubt it’s ever coming back.
As the last prophet of Arabeth and the only one who can stop the impending war between the light and the darkness, Lorelei McAlister needs to be protected at all costs. For that, she has a nephilim who follows her wherever she goes and then, of course, there’s the Angel of Death himself – Azrael aka Jared aka hotness incarnate. Although they generally don’t agree on much, both Cameron and Jared are determined to keep Lorelei alive. That’s a lot of testosterone for one little book and if anyone could have turned it into a riot, it’s Darynda Jones. And yet she didn’t. Why?!
When I set out to write this review, I decided I’d try not to compare this series to Darynda’s Charley Davidson series and yet, now that I need to write a few words about Jared, I realize it’s inevitable. Jared, you see, is just a washed down, tamed version of Reyes Farrow and as such, he simply isn’t appealing. Therefore, my lack of interest in his and Lorelei's romance is probably understandable.
Darynda’s wonderful sense of humor did occasionally shine through and some of the secondary characters were an absolute delight. Fortunately, Darynda chose not to involve her main character in a love triangle, and although there IS a love triangle in this book, it’s resolved quickly and painlessly. It’s rare that secondary characters get stuck in the middle of a love triangle while the main character remains interested in one person the entire time. As much as I hate love triangles in general, the whole Cameron-Brooklyn-Glitch situation was often hilarious and therefore, of course, entirely acceptable.
After an uneventful first half, the pacing in second improved significantly, only to be ruined by a decision in the end that made very little sense to me. I’m not a fan of game-changing last chapters, especially when they’re preceded by a nicely wrapped-up plot, and I don’t consider them to be a particularly skilful way of creating tension for the next book. I know for a fact that Darynda can do much better, and hopefully she’ll find her YA voice in time for the final book in this trilogy.
Crystal Cove is the fourth book in Lisa Kleypas’ Friday Harbor series, the first paranormal series in her rather extensive bibliography. People more f...moreCrystal Cove is the fourth book in Lisa Kleypas’ Friday Harbor series, the first paranormal series in her rather extensive bibliography. People more familiar with Kleypas’ work seem to dislike this series, but I enjoyed the first three books. They were just cute, feel-good, forgettable reads, perfect for rainy Sundays.
Justine is a hereditary witch, and a powerful one at that, but she doesn’t want to join her mother’s coven. Instead, she bought a small inn and she’s running it happily with her cousin Zoe. Justine is mostly happy with her life, but she misses the only thing she’s never had – love. Jason Black is a half-Japanese millionaire, an extremely driven and extremely successful businessman. But he needs the one thing money can’t buy –a soul. To get it, he needs to steal a powerful witch’s grimoire, and Justine seems like the perfect choice. Neither of them counts on falling in love, but once they do, another problem arises. Because of something called the witch’s bane, no witch has ever been able to keep the man she loves. They always die within months.
I found it odd that the issue of Jason’s soullessness was never properly addressed. It was an essential part of the story, and yet we never did find out how it came to be. Was he born without a soul or did something happen to him later? In fact, a great many things about Jason weren’t explained and I never understood him, despite the addition of his point of view.
On top of that, I didn’t understand what brought them together in the first place. It makes sense that Justine was drawn to him, but the entire process of falling in love was somehow glazed over. Consequently, I was never really invested in their relationship, nor did I feel anxious about their happily ever after. In fact, when Jason did something he wasn’t supposed to and Justine forgave him, I was disappointed that he didn’t have to work for it at all.
With a half-Japanese character, Kleypas explored shibaru, Japanese rope bondage. Allow me to put this into context: Kleypas’ romances are usually of the hot-and-sweet variety (sweet being the key word here), and she writes characters that fit this type of story. Bondage of any kind simply doesn’t work, and Japanese bondage – more a form of art than anything else – was, to be entirely honest, slightly ridiculous.
The narrator, Tanya Eby, is a perfect choice for this type of book. Her voice has a very pleasant, calming quality. Above all, I enjoyed the Arkansas accent she used for Priscilla – it was well-done and endlessly amusing. Eby saved this book for me – given my lack of connection with Justine and Jason, I probably would have dropped it halfway through, but Eby’s entertaining narration kept me going.
I doubt I’ll even bother picking up Lightning Bay, the next book in this series. Instead, I’ll probably find some of Kleypas’s older contemporary books and hopefully find out why she has so many loyal fans.
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