Stop by The Nocturnal Library to read a guest post by Jana Oliver and enter for a chance to win a copy of this book or any other book in The Demon Tr...moreStop by The Nocturnal Library to read a guest post by Jana Oliver and enter for a chance to win a copy of this book or any other book in The Demon Trappers series + signed swag.
Reviewing a last book in the series is never easy or especially fun. In fact, it’s one of my least favorite things to do, vacuuming and peeling onions included. Fortunately for me, Jana Oliver gave me a lot to write about, all of it good.
Riley Blackthorne is finally sure that she loves her father’s protégé and her friend and protector, Denver Beck. She may have given up her soul to avoid the Armageddon, but her heart still knows where it stands. The kiss they exchanged on the cemetery right before the battle was pretty eye-opening for both of them, but now that Beck’s past is coming back to haunt him, he doesn’t want Riley anywhere near him, all in a misguided attempt to protect her and save himself from possible rejection. The way Riley sees it, the only way for the two of them to ever be together is to uncover the skeletons in Beck’s closet and make him see that she will always stand by his side, no matter what. Of course their story isn’t the only thing we have to worry about. There are human enemies to defeat and demons to destroy. Once again Oliver entertains with the wide variety of creatures she's created: from Pyro-Fiends and Klepto-Fiends to Arch-Fiends and fallen angels.
I think Beck’s fans (because really, aren’t we all?) will be quite happy with this story. Even though there’s a battle between Heaven and Hell going on in the background, Foretold mainly focuses on his personal demon, his horrible, uncaring mother and the crime he was always blamed for, but never officially accused of. Although Oliver always experimented with language, she took it a step further in Foretold. The finer nuances of Beck’s character were constantly emphasized through a very clever use of language. His pronunciation was changing depending on his mood, location and company. His grammar would deteriorate every time he was under stress, which was most easily noticeable in his pronunciation of pronouns. This sort of thing can be very rewarding for an attentive reader and it’s exactly the kind of thing that makes me insanely happy.
I need to say a few words about Riley Blackthorne as well. There was a point in the series (around the middle of book two), where I almost gave up entirely because I couldn’t deal with her whining and self-pity. Yes, she’d had a lot to deal with, but she reminded me of my five year old when she’s both sleepy and hungry. This didn’t take long, but her character didn’t suffer any radical, overnight changes either. It is almost sad that the series is ending now that Oliver finally found solid ground to stand on with her.
It says on the cover that this is a book for older audience and I tend to agree, though I generally dislike such limitations. Younger teens should be aware that these books contain violence and sex that isn’t necessarily a profound, life-changing experience. Sometimes sex is just sex and Jana Oliver never shied away from it. One of her characters is a twenty-something-year-old war veteran after all, and not one that is happy with sitting alone in his apartment, watching game shows and drinking orange juice. The Demon Trappers series is balancing a fine line between YA and adult urban fantasy, which worked perfectly for me, and hopefully it will for those of you who have yet to give it a chance.
1.5 stars Well, color me disappointed. I’ll try to keep this short and very clear: I expected a lot form Vesper. Perhaps I was curious because a male a...more1.5 stars Well, color me disappointed. I’ll try to keep this short and very clear: I expected a lot form Vesper. Perhaps I was curious because a male author wrote from a teenage girl’s perspective - it usually works so well when it’s the other way around (case in point: White Cat or Anna Dressed in Blood). That’s not something that happens very often and I wanted to find out if it worked. It didn’t. I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time and got nothing but annoyance in return.
Emily Webb is a horribly insecure 16-year-old. She only has one friend, she rarely leaves the house unless it’s to go to school and she avoids confrontations at all costs. One night her classmate Emily Cooke gets shot and dies and, at the same time, our Emily starts behaving very strangely. The two things are seemingly unconnected, but as Emily experiences complete change of personality night after night, she starts suspecting that the other Emily found a way to possess her. Suddenly she’s sneaking out the window every night, crashing parties and judging people by their smell. A small voice inside her head is making her do things she never even thought of doing before. She is stronger and faster at night, nothing like the clumsy Daytime Emily. Her best friend is convinced that Emily’s trying to ditch her for the cool kids and her parents have grounded her for the first time ever.
It all sounds very interesting, but in reality it was dull and unconvincing. Everything about this book was wrong. Emily’s voice was that of a not-too-bright 12-year-old. Her best friend Maggie was downright obnoxious and instead of worrying about the kids that were getting shot, I found myself wishing that someone would shoot her just to shut her up. The pacing was yet another disaster: after being utterly bored and skimming through the last 150 pages, the ending came as a shock and left me completely confused. One minute Emily was at school dealing with one issue and apologizing to her idiot best friend, and the next she was inside the company that changed her and other kids like her, all her fellow deviants were organized, and they were fighting back. And then it all stopped. Huh?
So to make the long story short: the characters were flat, the pacing was all wrong and the romance… *shudders*…. Let’s not even go there. I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be reading the sequel.
All my ratings have been pretty high lately, mostly because I choose very carefully what to read next. I value my time too much to purposely read book...moreAll my ratings have been pretty high lately, mostly because I choose very carefully what to read next. I value my time too much to purposely read books I know I won’t like. So what on earth possessed me to pick up this book after the Half-Blood debacle, I have no idea.
Most of my friends loved Obsidian and I respect that, I really do. I can even see why, the ingredients are all there: a gorgeous, mean guy and a plain, book-nerdish girl, a love-hate relationship between our protagonists, hero’s perky sister that becomes the heroine’s best friend, the evil ex-girlfriend that spits fire every time our heroine gets close, two clueless friends and a mostly absent single parent… need I go on? However, even when you figure all this out, Armentrout finds a way to sneak up on you. Every now and then I’d lose myself in a funny piece of dialogue or an especially steamy scene, but it wouldn’t take long for me to remember what I was really reading and why it was making me so mad. But let’s start at the beginning.
Three years after the death of her father, Katy’s mother decides that it’s time to move on and that, in order to do that, they need to sell everything they own and move from sunny Florida to a town of about 500 inhabitants in the middle of nowhere, West Virginia. On her first day in the new house, Katy meets her next door neighbors, twins Dee and Daemon. While she and Dee instantly hit it off, Daemon acts like a total jerk and makes some cryptic comments about ‘Katy’s kind’. He is, of course, absolutely gorgeous (Ohmigod, he’s so gorgeous, how could he possibly be attracted to plain ol’ me? I must be imagining things.), and very mysterious. As the time passes, Kat starts noticing that something is not quite right with the way Daemon, Dee and their friends are behaving, and then he saves her from an attacker and well… you know the rest.
Apparently, aliens are the new vampires. No, seriously. Daemon is Edward 2.0 – a moodier, meaner and prettier version of our dear Mr. Cullen. To be honest, this entire book is just another Twilight rip-off. Not flat-out stolen like Half-Blood, but not that far, either. That alone wouldn’t really upset me much since it's not the first and it certainly won't be the last, but what I found unforgivable was that Armentrout felt the need to make fun of Twilight while writing the exact same story.
And when he spoke, it wasn’t out loud. It was in my head. This is what we look like. We are beings of light. Even in human form, we can bend light to our will. There was a pause. As you can see, I don’t look like a giant insect. Or… sparkle. Even in my head I could hear the disgust on that last one.
See? So rude. It’s true that Daemon doesn’t sparkle, but he IS made of light. Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, you should kick pot’s ass.
I’m sure this book will have many fans, but I’m afraid my short and turbulent relationship with Ms. Armentrout is now over.
Members of the Private Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigations (P.U.P.I.), often referred to as puppies, function extremely well as a team. A...more3.5 stars
Members of the Private Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigations (P.U.P.I.), often referred to as puppies, function extremely well as a team. A year of solving crimes together made them pretty confident about their skills and it allowed them to get to know each other really well. They even have an 87% success rate, something that Ian Stosser likes to mention as often as possible. Sharon and Nifty are still battling for leadership, but their power struggle doesn’t affect everyday work. If anything, the strong competition makes them more focused and reliable.
Bonnie and Venec are trying to figure out their Merge and what it might mean for them, personally and professionally. They both realize that their compatible currents might be put to good use at work, but they are also too stubborn and possibly even too scared to explore the possibilities. Neither of them is the kind of person who can easily accept destiny, they both want to believe that they’re in control, so they prefer fighting their mutual attraction instead of just surrendering to it. Of course, there’s also the fact that he’s the Big Dog and Bonnie is just a puppy, which means that their relationship might prove disastrous for the team. Bonnie’s recreational, emotionless sex with Pietr doesn’t really change things either way, but that’s not to say that Venec’s too happy about it. Big Dog can growl like nobody’s business!
In Pack of Lies, we had the usual first person major point of view, but we were occasionally allowed to see things from Venec’s perspective as well, and those parts were in third person, probably to avoid confusion. This time, Gilman takes it even further and offers more POVs: Venec’s, Ian’s, Nick’s and Sharon’s. While some might be uncomfortable with such a choice, and especially with the changes from 1st person to 3rd person and back, it was necessary because the puppies were divided in half, working on two unrelated cases, and obviously Bonnie couldn’t be everywhere at once.
Bonnie is a really good heroine: she is smart, honest to a fault, self-confident and pretty good at what she does. I like that she’s not in any way better than the rest of the team. Instead of focusing on a single character, these books focus on the actual cases and everything else, even romance (especially romance!) takes the back seat.
Book 4, Damage Control, should be released in Spring 2012.
They came in with the tide. The moon illuminated long lines of froth as the waves gathered and gathered and gathered offshore, and when they finally b...moreThey came in with the tide. The moon illuminated long lines of froth as the waves gathered and gathered and gathered offshore, and when they finally broke on the sand, the capaill uisce tumbled onto the shore with them. The horses pulled their heads up with effort, trying to break free from the salt water.
I had to restrain the squealing, fangirly Maja and shove her in the closet so that the adult, critical Maja can sit and write this review. Believe me, it’s better this way.
With The Scorpio Races, Maggie Stiefvater has finally earned my complete trust. I promise never to doubt her again. I’ve read four of her books so far and I gave all four of them five stars. If there was ever an author who deserved my wholehearted support, it’s her. She is an artist above all else, and if that alone isn’t enough, here’s another reason for my respect:
Other writers might have different priorities, but for me, the chief goal of my novels is not plot or premise or pacing, but to evoke a certain feeling. I will sacrifice most anything in order to change someone's mood in a certain way. I can't do that without careful navigation of metaphor and character development. (From Ms. Stiefvater’s blog post)
But I’ll limit my praise to The Scorpio Races for now:
This time, Stiefvater flirted a little more seriously with the fantasy genre and created an amazingly gripping story. People on the fictional island Thisby live and breathe for one thing and one thing alone: wild and bloodthirsty water horses, the capaill uisce. They are either directly involved in the races or they take care of tourists from the mainland. Even though the Scorpio Races are held only once a year, the heartbreak and the loss they inevitably bring are almost too big for one small island. People die in the races. They die because they are too slow, too vulnerable or too ready to trust the monsters they are riding on. The capaill uisce may be stunningly beautiful, but all you have to do is turn your back on them for one short second, and their teeth will already be deep inside your flesh. It takes everything in me not to whimper. The creature is black as peat at midnight, and its lips are pulled back into a fearsome grin. The ears are long and wickedly pointed toward each other, less like a horse and more like a demon. They remind me of shark egg pouches. The nostrils are long and thin to keep the sea out. Eyes black and slick: a fish’s eyes. It still stinks like the ocean. Like low tide and things caught on rock. It’s barely a horse. It’s hungry.
Kate “Puck” Connoly and her two brothers lost their parents when a bloodthirsty capall uisce attacked them on the sea. Ever since, the three of them survive by fixing things for other people, making teapots, helping in the local store and doing anything at all to put some butter and flour in their mostly empty pantry. But when the oldest brother, Gabe, the only one with a steady job, decides to leave the island, and Benjamin Malvern threatens to take their house away, Puck sees no other choice but to join the dangerous race in order to save her house, and maybe even prevent her brother from leaving.
Sean Kendrick lost his mother to the mainland and his father in the race. Enormous talent and love for the capaill uisce made it possible for him to survive on the island, working for Benjamin Malvern and his obnoxious son Mutt. Sean has won the races four out of six times. He has everyone’s respect and a decent amount of money saved. The only thing stopping him from leaving the Malverns is Corr, the capall uisce that is Sean’s only family. This year more than ever Sean has to win the races because if he wins, Benjamin Malvern will finally sell him Corr, thus setting them both free.
Make no mistake: even though this story is told from two alternating POVs and it seemingly focuses on Sean and Puck, it’s really a story about the water horses. They are what matters, Sean and Puck are just tour guides. If you’re looking for romance, you could end up disappointed. It is present, but the emphasis is on other things this time. The writing is atmospheric and it feels like a thick mist, albeit one you're in no hurry to get out of. The island itself is a character: people, mentality and everyday struggles they face. The rich American buyer, George Holly, is there to remind us exactly how different the island people are.
Please follow the link above to find out more about Stiefvater's writing priorities. She is one amazing lady and she just keeps proving her worth over and over again with every new word she writes.
My full name’s Ed Kennedy. I’m nineteen. I’m an underage cabdriver. I’m typical of many of the young men you see in this suburban outpost of the city...moreMy full name’s Ed Kennedy. I’m nineteen. I’m an underage cabdriver. I’m typical of many of the young men you see in this suburban outpost of the city – not a whole lot of prospects or possibility. That aside, I read more books than I should, and I’m decidedly crap at sex and doing my taxes. Nice to meet you.
After accidentally preventing a bank robber from escaping, Ed Kennedy receives his first playing card with three addresses written on it. He understands that he needs to deliver a message to each of these places, but the card offers no further instructions. Relying on his intuition alone, Ed starts touching people’s lives and trying to understand what he has to do. The messages vary from simple to horribly complex and painful, but they all have one thing in common: they need Ed to shake them up and save them from themselves.
I think the most wonderful thing about Zusak is the surprising humanity of his characters. Not only do they come alive for the reader, but they also take so many different roles in the process. Their simple acts of kindness often end up being impressive and life-changing. I’d noticed this about so many characters in The Book Thief and I feared it was a one-time deal, but Ed might be the best of them all. In complete contrast to the ending, Ed is one of the most real and tangible characters I’ve ever stumbled upon. The fact that he’s completely unaware of how extraordinary he is just adds to his charm. My only regret is that the same cannot be said about Audrey. I really needed her to be just as well developed, but she was the only one who didn’t feel real to me, and that’s the sole reason for my 4-star rating.
I Am the Messenger will make you happy in at least three ways: it will give you a truly authentic, approachable story that will go straight through your heart, it will make you examine the way you treat complete strangers and it will catch you completely off guard. I wish I could hold up that knife and tear open the world. I’d slice it open and climb through to the next one. In bed, I cling to that thought.
I suppose many people will not be comfortable with the ending. I thought it was unexpected, brilliant (like the man himself), mind-blowing (still picking up the pieces) and audacious. It didn’t take anything from the story, it didn’t diminish the importance of any of the characters, and it added an extra dose of memorability the book wouldn’t necessarily have otherwise.
Choosing a favorite quote this time was just like choosing a favorite child, but there was one I needed to share: What would you do if you were me? Tell me. Please tell me! But you’re far from this. Your fingers turn the strangeness of these pages that somehow connect my life to yours. Your eyes are safe. The story is just another few hundred pages of your mind. For me, it’s here. It’s now. I have to go through with this, considering the cost at every turn. Nothing will ever be the same.
Orphaned twin sisters, half vampires and half mages, were separated at birth. One was raised by the vampires, the other b...more3.5 stars *cue dramatic music*
Orphaned twin sisters, half vampires and half mages, were separated at birth. One was raised by the vampires, the other by the mages, one treated like a weapon and the other like a princess. They grew up unaware of each other’s existence, but they’ve recently been reunited and forced to fight their mortal enemy… and family. They came out as winners, but the cost is much greater than they ever imagined. After spending their lives apart, Sabina and Maisie are finally trying to become the sisters they were always meant to be. The person who stood in their way is gone, and they are free to live their lives however they see fit. But Maisie is still suffering the consequences of her kidnapping, and Sabina is unable to adjust to her new, peaceful and infinitely boring life. When you’re a retired killer, it’s only natural to get bloodthirsty from time to time. Fortunately, Sabina has her boyfriend Adam and her fateful sidekick Giguhl to help her with her troubles. Maisie, however, is turning down everyone willing to help her. The time has come for Maisie, the Hekate Council’s Oracle, to deliver her annual prophecy, but in order to do that, she must dream, and she’s refusing to sleep. At the same time, dead bodies start appearing everywhere, and there is no doubt that a vampire drained them. With the new vampire leadership in town, Sabina must work hard to save her fragile sister, her relationship with Adam, Slade’s job and her own reputation. It would seem that the enemy they’d killed isn’t their biggest enemy after all. War between the races is even closer than they thought.
I had a feeling this book might be a little slower than the previous ones and I was right. After the big showdown in Green-Eyed Demon, things needed to settle down a bit, especially since the next book is going to be the last. All this is true about the first 85%, though - it’s basically build-up for the final installment. The last 15%, however, gave us a taste of what we can expect in Blue-Blooded Vamp. I especially like that Wells did all this, but she didn’t end her book with a nasty cliffhanger. The last book of the series will be released in June 2012 and I’m already jumping up and down with excitement. (Also, I’m addicted to pre-ordering books.)
While we silently debated whether to tell him, Giguhl spotted the glove. He grabbed it from my hand. “Oh, shit, is this one of those S&M gloves?” I shot the demon an incredulous look. “How in the hell did you know that?” He raised a scraggly black brow. “Bitch, please. I have all sorts of knowledge I haven’t even begun to lay on your ass.” I raised my eyebrow and waited. He grimaced. “Okay, fine. Cinnamon overheard Slade and Adam talking at Vein and called me. But still, I can totally help you guys. Can I pleeaaase go with you to the sex shop?” (less)
In another twenty years I would still be depressed and apathetic. I would still be waiting for that turning point, the one that comes in books and pla...moreIn another twenty years I would still be depressed and apathetic. I would still be waiting for that turning point, the one that comes in books and plays, where the hero has to step up and risk it all. Apparently, in life, there is no such thing.
The Fallback Plan is a great and much needed addition to the so called New Adult literature. If I had to describe it in just one word, it would be normal. Everything about this book is wonderfully acceptable and ordinary and that’s exactly what makes it so special.
Esther Kohler is a twenty-something recent college graduate, unemployed and living with her parents. Unable to decide what to do with herself, she spends her days aimlessly, hanging out with her high school friends and her old crush Jack, drinking a lot and taking an occasional Vicodin or five. Determined to help her through a tough time (or just to get her off her back, really) Esther’s mom finds her a babysitting job. Not having anything better to do with her time, Esther starts taking care of 4-year-old May, and they soon become very close. Sorting through other people’s problems helps Esther realize that she must face her own issues and find a compromise between her dreams and real life, and maybe even build some self-esteem in the process.
Esther’s determination to find a physical cause for her depression was at times saddening, at times hilarious, but mostly it was just familiar. We all have our little neuroses and I think Leigh Stein did an excellent job of giving them a name and a face. I knew I was depressed, but my hope was that maybe there was a brain tumor at the root of all this, something that would show up on a map of my cerebrum, something excisable. And then I came across the word weltschmerz.
Esther’s relationship with Jack was as charming as it was awkward. He is that guy a girl turns to when she thinks she doesn’t deserve any better. And yet, even with him, Esther felt completely inadequate. ”I’ve never seen anyone fall over like that,” he said. He took the bottle when I was finished. “You’re cuter when you don’t move around so much.”
Don’t let my three stars fool you: The Fallback Plan is a really good book. My failure to connect with Esther on so many levels is exactly that: MY failure. Leigh Stein is in no way responsible. In fact, I admire her character building and I think many of you will easily relate to her story. This is a must-read for everyone who felt a little lost and a lot confused after college.
I look down at the ground and close my eyes. After a moment, I open them. I see my bare toes on the road. I am here. I am not dreaming. This is me. This...moreI look down at the ground and close my eyes. After a moment, I open them. I see my bare toes on the road. I am here. I am not dreaming. This is me. This is my life. But it doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel like mine, it still feels like a dream I’m in, that I’ve been put in.
This is one of those books that will inspire a polarized reaction. Some of you will love it. Most of you will probably hate it. It’s odd in so many ways – not to everyone’s taste for sure – but here’s a small help: if you enjoyed Wake by Lisa McMann, you might enjoy As I Wake, too. I for one adore authors who are brave enough to write something completely different, especially in YA.
The most obvious thing that sets this book apart from others I’ve read recently is the writing style. It is very unusual, almost too bare at times. Parts of it read like poetry, and in those parts the author used not only words, but space as well. She often put each short sentence on a new line, thus giving her story a rhythm that is highly unusual in prose, but that makes it very easy to read.
The story is equally unusual: Ava suffers from complete memory loss, a condition the doctors attribute to a brain inflammation they somehow failed to notice. They decide she’s healthy enough to be sent home with a woman claiming to be her mother. Ava does her best to fit into her old life, but when her memories start coming back, they don’t make any sense at all. She remembers being a girl that looks like the Ava she is now, but not quite. She remembers living in a tightly controlled society, working for the State Antiterrorism Taskforce as a listener, spying on those who represent a potential threat to the government. The world she remembers is one where your every move is monitored, your every word is recorded, and you can get publicly executed for doing something as simple as falling in love, unless, of course, it’s government-approved. What’s more, she remembers the people around her, but as slightly different versions of themselves. She remembers seeing her friend Olivia clubbed to death for having an affair with another girl, but here Olivia is, alive and well and attending high school together with everyone else. Then a boy shows up, and Ava starts remembering other parts of her previous life: a forbidden love, the constant danger and running from her past.
The Ava I’m supposed to be doesn’t know her. But the Ava I am does. I am here, in this world, in this life. But I don’t think I’m from here. I don’t think I belong here. I close my eyes.
Books about memory loss seem to be very popular lately, but I do believe that Elizabeth Scott offered a story that is new and original. I’m not exactly sure what this novel is: dystopian, science fiction, a combination of both or something else entirely, but I know that I liked the end result a lot. It’s unlike any other book I’ve read this year. Besides, I finished it in no more than two hours, which I know some of you will appreciate.
Favorite quote: He is nothing to look at, and yet I can’t stop looking at him. There is something beautiful in how his face is made, how all the tiny flaws blend together into something more perfect than perfection could ever be.
EDIT 1/22/12: Stop by The Nocturnal Library for an interview with Kristen Painter. We're also giving away two copies of this book. Giveaway is interna...moreEDIT 1/22/12: Stop by The Nocturnal Library for an interview with Kristen Painter. We're also giving away two copies of this book. Giveaway is international.
She had more signum than just what was on her hands, feet and face. The lacy gold mapped her entire body. A finely wrought filigree of stars, vines, flowers, butterflies, ancient symbols, and words ran from her feet, up her legs, over her narrow waist, spanned her chest, and finished down her arms to the tips of her fingers. Gilded, head to toe. No wonder she glittered like lost treasure.
Not just a pretty cover after all. I didn’t even wait to finish Blood Rights before ordering the second and the third book from The Book Depository. I only needed to read the first 20% to know, without a doubt, that this is a series I’ll love.
Chrysabelle is not an ordinary human. Her whole body is covered in gold tattoos and at 115, she looks no more than 20 years old. She’s a comarré, a human hybrid born and bred for one sole purpose: to feed a noble vampire. A comarré’s body produces more blood than it needs, so every comarré needs to be fed from regularly or they develop hypervolemia. Their blood rights are sold to a noble and nobody else gets to feed from them as long as their Master lives. In return, vampire saliva gives the comarré super-human strength and eternal youth. But Chrysabelle is special even among her own kind. Her blood rights were sold to Lord Algernon, Dominus of the House of Tepes, for 22 million Euro, the highest price any comarré has ever achieved. She spent almost a hundred years in Algernon’s house, until one day her Master got killed by a weapon only a comarré can wield. Instead of enjoying her freedom after 100 years of servitude, Chrysabelle must leave Corvinestri and travel to Paradise City in order to try and clear her name.
Even in Paradise City, Chrysabelle has no one to turn to but Mal, the only vampire in the world who wants nothing to do with her. Mal used to be a noble vampire of great power, one of the strongest in the House of Tepes, but he became anathema after being cursed for the second time. Because of his curse, every person he sinks his fangs into must die, and those he kills end up living inside his head, haunting him forever. His body is covered with names of his victims. To avoid adding another voice to the constant noise in his head, he wants to stay as far away from Chrysabelle as possible, no matter how hungry he is or how good her blood smells to him. However, Chrysabelle offers to help him lift his curse, and that’s the only thing Mal cannot refuse.
You judge me while you have no idea what it's like. My head is never quiet. Never. You try spending just twenty-four hours without a moment's privacy and see if it doesn't make you a little crazy. I live that every day and night.
Some described Blood Rights as being halfway between urban fantasy and paranormal romance, but I have to disagree. This is urban fantasy in its purest form. Sure, we have a strong heroine and a strong hero and they DO work together, but the focus is not on will-they-won’t-they at all, at least I didn’t see it that way. The worldbuilding is far too good for paranormal romance: I loved the combination of old vampire traditions and the technology one could expect in the year 2067. Supporting characters are also fantastic. Tatiana is one of the best villains in urban fantasy as far as I’m concerned, and Mal’s companions, Fi and Doc, are so interesting that they deserve their own trilogy.
My name, my full, True Name, is Ashallyn'darkmyr Tallyn, and I am the last son of the Unseelie Court.
I was not a big fan of the first two Iron Fey bo...moreMy name, my full, True Name, is Ashallyn'darkmyr Tallyn, and I am the last son of the Unseelie Court.
I was not a big fan of the first two Iron Fey books, but The Iron Queen completely stole my heart! Those of you who've read it know all about the beautiful romance, the fierce battle and the bittersweet ending that ensued. I suspect many of her fans were unhappy with the way Kagawa wrapped things up. In fact, some were probably even outraged, but not me – I loved it. That’s why I wasn’t too thrilled about The Iron Knight to begin with. A fourth book, written from Prince Ash's point of view, could only mean a different ending for him and Meghan. I’m not sorry that I got to spend more time with Ash, Puck and especially Grimalkin, I just wish there was a way to make everything less (view spoiler)[perfect (hide spoiler)] in the end.
The Iron Knight is an adventure novel. Ash, Puck, Grimalkin and the Big Bad Wolf travel to the End of the World knowing that no one has ever come back alive. Reaching the end of the Nevernever means almost certain death for them all, but Ash swore an oath that compels him to move forward. (view spoiler)[That boy sure loves his oaths. How very dramatic. (hide spoiler)] Of course Robin Goodfellow has his reasons for following the Winter prince through the enchanted forest, as does Grimalkin, my personal favorite.
I'm obviously not a huge fan of love triangles and I was very upset that Julie Kagawa felt the need to add another one to this story, no matter how well she resolved it in the end. I also had some minor issues with the quest itself. To be honest, I found it a little boring at times and more suitable for 14-year-old boys. BUT there were parts that were fabulous and compelling, and they evened things out a bit.
Worldbuilding is the strong point of this book. This time, Kagawa removed her characters from the comfort of both Summer And Winter Courts and built for them a completely new and very creepy challenge called the Deep Wyld. If you thought Tir Na Nog was full of hidden dangers, wait till you read about a ferry sliding through the River of Dreams or, even worse, Phaed, a city where everyone seems to forget the purpose of their existence in just one night.
It is impossible to write more about their quest without including spoilers for the previous book. Suffice it to say that I didn’t miss Meghan at all. Despite my many problems with The Iron Knight, it was still extremely fun and I'm happy Kagawa decided to write it. I'm not so sure about the spin-off trilogy, though. (less)
2.5 stars With one hundred pages and three POVs less, plus some small changes in worlbuilding, Dearly, Departed could have been an excellent novel. As...more2.5 stars With one hundred pages and three POVs less, plus some small changes in worlbuilding, Dearly, Departed could have been an excellent novel. As it is, parts of it are amazing, while other parts left me extremely frustrated, disappointed and angry.
If only Lia Habel decided against introducing five (view spoiler)[that’s right, FIVE (hide spoiler)] different POVs, one precious star in my rating would have been saved. At least two of those five contributed nothing but annoyance to the narrative. I’m sure there were far better ways of telling the same story, especially the parts concerning the villain’s actions. The two chapters told from Wolfe’s perspective felt completely out of place and they gave me the impression that the author took an easy way out. As for Pamela’s POV, it could have made a decent new installment or a spin off at some point. Having her thrown in the middle of Nora and Bram’s story made me strongly dislike her, not that she was all that likeable to begin with. If nothing else, she made a pretty good contrast to Nora’s character. While Pamela is whiny and dull, Nora is fierce and resourceful. Contrary to the world that was built for her, Nora is not a girl who will just hide behind anyone’s back. Despite her privileged upbringing and the fact that being a delicate lady is all that’s expected of her, when zombies come, she picks up the gun and starts shooting. It’s no wonder Bram fell in love with her. I fell in love with her!
My biggest problem, however, was not with all the POVs, it was with the society of New Victoria. While I found the idea of going back to (some) old values intriguing, I simply cannot believe that such a large group of women would willingly regress two hundred years from now. Passages like: St. Cyprian’s was meant to create ladies who floated when they walked, played a little piano, and were otherwise charming and unobtrusive. To that end, it was a sheltered environment. Television was forbidden and access to the Aethernet was strictly filtered. and Women were forbidden from joining the army, of course… and “It is through marriage that we can both improve our positions. I want to get out of this hole in the ground. I want to take my place within the best set again. Why do you not understand this?” made me want to cry in frustration. Regardless of the circumstances, I find it very unlikely that women would allow themselves to be treated as furniture again, especially at the end of the 22nd century.
That said, there were many good parts as well. I simply adore Nora, Bram and their undead friends. I fell in love with so many of the secondary characters and I’ll read the next installment mostly because of them. I just hope some minor changes will be made.
I should probably mention that the last part made me cry a little. Hmm. Maybe I'm just getting sappy in my old age.
At first glance, Virtuosity is just another story about a girl who isn’t in control of her own life. And you know what? That’s exactly what it is on s...moreAt first glance, Virtuosity is just another story about a girl who isn’t in control of her own life. And you know what? That’s exactly what it is on second glance as well. But unlike so many of these stories, it is well written, completely engrossing and definitely worth a read.
To say that Carmen grew up shielded from everyday life would be a serious understatement. She was homeschooled, she never had a real friend other than her tutor Heidi and she never spent any time with boys her age. You see, Carmen is not a seventeen-year-old girl, she is not a daughter, she is not a student and she is not a friend. Carmen is a Grammy Award winning violinist and she has just been admitted to Julliard with a full scholarship. When people look at her, that’s all they see – and it’s only natural considering how good she is. She is so good, in fact, that there’s only one violin soloist who might prove to be better than her: Jeremy King.
Carmen and Jeremy are the most likely finalists in the Guarneri contest. They are both just one step away from that huge, life-altering victory. Falling in love under the circumstances really shouldn’t be an option... but it is.
"It's kind of funny, actually," she said. "Most girls have to worry about guys just being after sex, but you should really be more worried if he isn't after sex. You just can't do anything normally, can you?"
When you’re so valuable to everyone around you, you really are all alone. How do you trust a mother who’s living vicariously through you because her own career was ruined before it even started? How should you feel about your rich grandparents who only started noticing you when you became famous? And how do you fall in love with a boy whose success can’t come without your failure?
Virtuosity surprised me with two huge, jaw dropping moments – something that doesn’t happen very often. Just when I thought it's about to become predictable, Martinez did something I never saw coming. That alone makes it worth reading. My big thanks to Nomes for pushing me in the right direction! :) (less)
Lila’s mother was brutally murdered when Lila was only 12 years old. Her father, stricken with grief, left her brother to live with his best friend Al...moreLila’s mother was brutally murdered when Lila was only 12 years old. Her father, stricken with grief, left her brother to live with his best friend Alex in the United States, but dragged Lila with him to London. While away from her brother and Alex, with whom she’s been in love for as long as she can remember, Lila discovers that she possesses a unique talent – psychokinesis. She is able to keep her ability secret until one day, in a dark London alley, two teenagers try to mug her and she uses it to defend herself. Not knowing what to do and where to hide, Lila gets on the first plane to California, where she hopes to find safety with her brother, and of course, with Alex. But her brother and Alex aren’t exactly normal 22-year-olds. They are both US Marines, working for the highly-trained, top-secret Unit. As soon as their enemies find out that Lila is Jack’s sister, she finds herself in even more danger than before.
Hunting Lila is deliciously shallow. Not a single thing in it made me think twice, helped me broaden my horizons, or any of that other nonsense we usually expect from books. :D But I was literally unable to put it down whole day yesterday. I did all my daily chores using just one hand, all the while holding my e-reader in the other. (view spoiler)[And yes, that led to some very dangerous situations. (hide spoiler)]
Usually, I don’t much care for characters who get far too obsessed with a boy, to the point of losing all sense and making idiotic choices. Somehow, with Lila, it didn’t bother me as much. Perhaps it was because the whole thing was spiced up with so much well-written action. Perhaps it was because Alex truly is swoon-worthy. Perhaps I don’t even care about the reason. As a character, Lila is instantly likeable. I wouldn’t say that she’s too bright, but she’s not annoyingly stupid either. I was able to really relate to her from the very beginning, and I ended up caring about all the characters, even some I never expected to.
This is one of those stories where all the houses are nice, all the characters are pretty, and true love really does conquer all, but it also packs a few surprises and smartly-written dialogues. It’s a book I’ll definitely reread when I’m too tired to focus on anything demanding. I also can’t wait to see where the story goes next. (less)
Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story. 4.5 stars
Not many authors can scare you to death by eliciting vivid, gruesome imagery and,...moreJust your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story. 4.5 stars
Not many authors can scare you to death by eliciting vivid, gruesome imagery and, at the same time, take your breath away with sheer beauty of their prose. I never expected Kendare Blake to be one of those authors – that’s why her book took me completely by surprise. It was very different from what I thought it would be. When I choose a book based on a beautiful cover and an intriguing title (and yes, I really AM that shallow), especially one that none of my friends have read, I usually end up disappointed. Anna Dressed in Blood undoubtedly looks amazing and has a memorable title, but the most interesting part is right where it should be – between the covers.
Cassius Theseus Lowood grew up in an unconventional family. His mother is a white witch and his father was in the business of killing the dead for the second time, at least until one of the ghosts he was hunting murdered him in the most gruesome way. In Cas’s world, dead people often don’t want to leave the place where they died, especially if they were victims of a violent crime. Instead, they stay behind as monstrous echoes of their former selves – most of them seeking revenge for the horrors they experienced. When Cas’s father died, Cas inherited his duties and his powerful athame. He’s been moving all over the country and killing ghosts since he was 14 years old. But he’s never run into a ghost as powerful as Anna nor did he ever try so hard to understand what drives a dead person to murder innocent people. Anna is different in every way. She was killed in 1958. while walking to the prom in her beautiful white dress. When her throat was slit, blood covered her entirely, thus earning her the name Anna Dressed in Blood. Someone cut her throat, but that’s an understatement. Someone nearly cut her head clean off. They say she was wearing a white party dress, and when they found her, the whole thing was stained red. That’s why they call her Anna Dressed in Blood.
Ever since her murder, Anna’s been tied to the house she grew up in. Twenty seven people have tried to enter, and none of them came out alive.
Nothing is black and white in Anna's story: she is both a killer and a victim, a horrible monster and an innocent girl – and just when you think you figured her out, she turns around and does something completely unexpected! Her entire personality changes as quickly as her appearance which forces Cas to doubt every single choice he made since the beginning of his hunt.
I don’t usually watch horror movies and I always do my best to avoid horror novels, (view spoiler)[Oh, so what? I live alone and I scare easily. :D (hide spoiler)], but black witches, white witches, people trapped in walls, Voodoo, athames, ghost hunting, cursed objects, a strong male protagonist and unexpected developments made me very happy that I decided to read this book. I really hope it gets the attention it deserves. (less)
We were completely different. Danny was tall, sweet, graceful despite legs that went on forever. I was little, moody, uncoordinated. We didn...more4.5 stars
We were completely different. Danny was tall, sweet, graceful despite legs that went on forever. I was little, moody, uncoordinated. We didn't like the same music or the same movies. He put onions and mushrooms on his pizza and never wore socks and could sleep through a pipe bomb. I survived on bananas and yogurt and always wore hats and got carsick unless I chewed gum with my headphones on. It didn't matter. I loved him.
As soon as she entered puberty, strange things started happening around Wren: flying objects and exploding light bulbs became a regular occurrence. This wasn't completely unexpected: all the women in Wren's family can do the same, but for some reason, Wren's mother refuses to talk about it or teach her how to control it. So when Wren’s boyfriend Danny dies in a car accident, Wren decides to use her power and bring him back to her. Unfortunately, Danny that rises from the grave isn’t the same easygoing Danny they buried two weeks earlier. The new Danny, angry and confused, is not nearly as harmless as Wren thought he would be. Just keeping him hidden and compliant might prove to be too big a challenge for one seventeen-year-old girl.
I enjoyed the new take on zombies. Garvey wrote: My zombie, such as he is, isn’t George Romero’s, as you probably figured out. He’s closer to the kind of zombie you might create with Haitian vodou magic, a corpse reanimated and then controlled by a sorcerer. While zombies we’re used to reading about are usually scary in a grotesque way, Danny was creepy and deeply disturbing. Every time Wren kissed him or placed her head on his silent chest, I felt the coldness of his body on my own skin and I shuddered involuntarily. He really made my skin crawl. It was easy enough to forget that he was once a warm and loving boy and that none of it was his fault.
I never even realized how thoroughly I’d connected with Wren until I caught myself siding with her even when she was obviously wrong. I don’t think I even noticed the other (living) characters, not in their own merit at least. They meant to me what they meant to Wren, and if she suddenly changed her mind about one of them, I changed my mind together with her.
The funny thing is that Wren isn’t a character I’d normally like, but that’s where Garvey’s strength lies. Create a selfless, heroic character and everyone will be crazy about him/her under any circumstances, but write a girl who is self-indulgent and careless and make me care about her - and you'll have accomplished something not many authors can.
I think that’s what every emotional reader seeks – a character he/she can connect with entirely. But Cold Kiss is also thought-provoking and original, and Amy Garvey’s marvelous writing skills add more magic to this powerful, compelling and haunting story. I will not only read whatever she decides to write next, I’ll probably preorder it as well.
Favorite quote: Love like that is what they make movies about. It's the thing you're supposed to want, the answer to every question, the song that you're supposed to sing. But love like that can be too big, too. It can be something you shouldn't be trusted to hold when you're the kind of person who drops the eggs and breaks the remote control. Love doesn’t break easily, I found. But people do. (less)
The first review I wrote consisted almost entirely of incoherent gushing. This one is pretty much like that, but I did manage to include some useful i...moreThe first review I wrote consisted almost entirely of incoherent gushing. This one is pretty much like that, but I did manage to include some useful info. Don’t expect much, though. I can’t remember the last time I felt this way about a book.
As a dedicated reader, I don't think I've ever connected to a story quite this much. There are so many books that are close to my heart for some reason or other, but there was never one so achingly familiar and mine. And it wasn’t just one character that I felt close to, but parts of every character and every situation. I recognized some of myself in Julie’s dedication to her studies, in Celeste’s quirks, in Matt’s courage and hidden vulnerability, in Erin’s absentness and denial. It was nice to be able to read a story and really understand.
I’m making it sound like a sad book, aren’t I? Well, it’s not. This is a book you want to read when you're feeling a little nostalgic and disconnected from the world. It will pull you right out. Flat-Out Love is surprisingly witty. During the first 80%, I thought I could describe it as my favorite summer read. However, the last 20% showed me that it’s so much more than that. Every emotional reaction the story evoked was very strong: when I laughed, I laughed so loudly that I woke the neighbors; when I cried, I sobbed like I was facing the end of the world, and in the end, I melted into a huge puddle of goo.
After moving to Boston to start attending college, Julie found herself living with her mother’s former best friend Erin and her seemingly perfect family of intellectuals. She soon became emotionally attached to every member of the Watkins family, especially the oldest brother Finn, whom she never met in person, but communicated with regularly via email.
”Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (Leo Tolstoy)
I think there are two types of dysfunctional families: the ones that yell and the ones that are quiet – the latter being so much harder to portray. Character development is what Jessica Park should really be proud of. Her characters came alive for me, they became living, breathing people with problems, quirks and a sense of humor. Who could resist Celeste, a scarily intelligent 13-year-old who won’t leave the house without Flat Finn, a cardboard cutout of her oldest brother? Or Matt, a math geek with horrible T-shirts and a sense of humor that’s right up my alley?
Flat-Out Love completely changed my mind about self published books.I hope all of you will read it soon so we can gush about it together. (less)
Exactly a year before, the Soviets have begun moving troops over the borders into the country. Then, in August, Lithuania was officially annexed into...moreExactly a year before, the Soviets have begun moving troops over the borders into the country. Then, in August, Lithuania was officially annexed into the Soviet Union. When I complained at the dinner table, Papa yelled at me and told me to never, ever say anything derogatory about the Soviets. He sent me to my room. I didn’t say anything out loud after that. But I thought about it a lot.
Despite her father’s caution, 15-year-old Lena Vilkas, her 10-year-old brother Jonas and their mother Elena are charged as criminals and arrested in their home in Lithuania by Soviet officers. Lena’s Papa didn’t return from work the previous day and they don’t even know if he’s alive. The three of them are forced into a train car with forty-six other people, mostly women and children. Among them are Ona and her newborn baby, taken from the hospital just as soon as the umbilical cord was cut, Miss. Grybas, a perfectly harmless spinster teacher, a mean bald man, supposedly a stamp collector, Mrs. Arvydas, wife of a murdered Lithuanian officer, and her 17-year-old son Andrius, who has to pretend to be feeble-minded in order to stay with his mother. Needless to say, they are all treated like cattle.
After spending more than 8 weeks in the train car with only two buckets of water and a bucket of food a day for all of them, they arrive to a beet farm where they’re expected to work all day, most of them digging in frozen ground with hand shovels and bare hands. For months they have nothing but hunger and disease in labor camp, and just when they think things couldn’t possibly get any worse, they get moved to Siberia - supposedly to build a factory, but in reality, they’re just expected to die.
Lena’s story is powerful for many reasons. Of course none of us can stay indifferent to a story about so much suffering and Ruta Sepetys chose a very smart way to tell it. Her writing is very matter of fact, her sentences are short and to the point. She allowed herself very little emotion, thus giving the reader a chance to fill in the gaps. I think it was the only way to tell such a horrendous story without overdoing it.
When I finished this book last night, I was completely grief-stricken. I thought: “What am I supposed to do now? Am I supposed to just stand up and walk around like I didn’t just take a long, hard look at the ugliest side of humanity?” For the first time in my life, I felt that my education has failed me. How is it possible that we just went around all this, barely mentioning it? We dedicated so much time to Hitler and his victims (and we should have), but we’re talking about 20 million people here! 20 million people they just omitted to tell us about. I’m not saying I was completely clueless about it all, far from it, but I was never really confronted with it. And I absolutely needed to be.
I think everyone should read Between Shades of Gray. Saying that it will help you appreciate the little things sounds like a horrible cliché, but it’s also undeniably true. Just get ready to be crushed into pieces by all the atrocities and suffering this relatively short book describes.(less)
"It was a little after midnight, and I was trying to sleep mostly out of self-defense."
My initial rating for this book was 4.5 stars. Then, while I w...more"It was a little after midnight, and I was trying to sleep mostly out of self-defense."
My initial rating for this book was 4.5 stars. Then, while I was trying to write a review (I say trying because all my attempts have been pretty unsuccessful by my standards), I just went ahead and changed it to 5. It felt like the right thing to do. I suppose it would be easy enough to start pointing out flaws, complain about this and that, compare this book to Linger and especially Shiver, but I don’t want to do any of that. Not to Forever. The truth is, even if it didn’t have as many breathtaking moments as the two books before it, I was still very happy with how it was done. Besides, Maggie Stiefvater deserved better than that. What she gave me with this trilogy cannot be measured in stars. It cannot be taken apart or put into words. I’d always believed that there’s nothing beyond language, but this time, words really are inadequate. And, my dear GoodReaders, you have no idea how much it costs me to admit it.
Maggie Stiefvater has a way of making me see beauty in the simplest things. She doesn’t create it, she just uses her words to point out what was already there and show it in a completely different light. Never before have I stopped to notice the quiet sadness in the most mundane, repetitive moments but it doesn’t surprise me at all that it was Stiefvater who pulled that particular heartstring and woke me up. And I do feel awakened, at least for now.
All these characters started as one thing, and ended up as their true selves. People keep talking about Cole and how much he’s grown in Forever, but Grace did too, just in a less obvious way. Cole found purpose, Isabel found softness, Sam found determination and Grace found completion. Honestly, what more can you ask?
"It was like I’d unfolded all my paper crane memories and found something unfamiliar printed on them. Somehow along the way, hope had been folded into one of those birds. My whole life, I had thought that my story was, again and again: Once upon a time, there was a boy, and he had to risk everything to keep what he loved. But the real story was: Once upon a time, there was a boy, and his fear ate him alive. I was done being afraid."
While rereading these books will certainly not be the same as reading them for the first time, the very fact that I will be rereading them, and probably many times at that, gives me a reason not to say goodbye right now. I can never do this book justice. I will never be able to write anything worthy of Stiefvater’s beautiful prose, so I might as well stop trying. After 1150 pages full of emotions and truth, all I can say is: Thank you. (less)
“When death captures me,” the boy vowed, “he will feel my fist on his face.” Personally, I quite like that. Such stupid gallantry. Yes. I like that a lot...more“When death captures me,” the boy vowed, “he will feel my fist on his face.” Personally, I quite like that. Such stupid gallantry. Yes. I like that a lot.
A few days ago, when I was starting The Book Thief, my mother stopped by and saw the book on my coffee table. Having just read it herself (and knowing me better than anyone else in the world, I might add), she was determined to save me from myself. She did her very best to convince me not to read it. She described in detail the three day long headache all the crying had caused her and the heartache she now has to live with, but I’m nothing if not stubborn. I guess I never learned to listen to my mother. I’m pretty sure her parting sentence was: “Don’t come crying to me.” And I didn’t. I huddled in a corner and cried inconsolably instead.
Death himself narrates the story about a little girl named Liesel growing up with her foster parents in Nazi Germany. At the beginning, I felt somewhat intimidated by the idea of Death as a narrator. I assumed that his voice would be dark and thunderous, but for the most part, he was a ray of light illuminating earth’s saddest time. Incredibly insightful observations and occasional dry humor are only some of the things no one but Death could have brought into this story. Besides, we hear people calling God’s name every day for many reasons, but when Death calls to Him in despair and even those calls fall on deaf ears, no one can fail to understand the gravity of the situation.
I do not carry a sickle or a scythe. I only wear a hooded black robe when it’s cold. And I don’t have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me from a distance. You want to know what I truly look like? I’ll help you out. Find yourself a mirror while I continue.
The Book Thief is not one of those books you read compulsively, desperate to find out what’s on the next page. No. It is, in fact, better to read it slowly, in small doses, in a way that allows you to savor every word and absorb the power and the magic it contains. All the while, you know what’s going to happen. Death has no patience for mysteries. However, anticipation of the inevitable makes it even worse. My whole body was tingling with fear because I knew what was coming and I knew that it was only a matter of time. Zusak found a way to give a fresh approach to a much-told story. He offered a glimpse at the other side of the coin. Really, should we feel sorry for the people hiding in a basement in Munich suburbs? Sure, bombs are falling on their heads, but most of them are members of the Nazi Party, willingly or reluctantly. Some of them truly think that Jews are no better than rats. Some, on the other hand, are hiding a Jew in their own basement. Some are just innocent children. But the more important question is, are we any better at all if we don’t feel compassion and sorrow? Death does a great job of asking all these questions in a calm, unobtrusive way.
I’m not pretentious enough to believe that my clumsy words can ever do this book justice. I won’t even try. Time will speak for it, as I’m pretty sure it will survive for decades and generations to come. The Book Thief and Markus Zusak should find their place in every school textbook all over the world.
Seven thousand stars could never be enough for this book.
This will seem like an odd thing to say, but the Newsflesh world is my world. I would love to live there with George, Shaun, Buffy and the rest of the...moreThis will seem like an odd thing to say, but the Newsflesh world is my world. I would love to live there with George, Shaun, Buffy and the rest of the characters. Yes, yes, I’m well aware of the zombies, but I honestly don’t care. Given the choice, that’s where I’d want to be.
The point of my little confession is that I welcome every word Mira Grant decides to write. This is not a novella per se because it doesn't have a single storyline, it’s nothing like Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box. Instead we get to go back to the year 2014. and see how everything started. Nobody can accuse Mira Grant of being superficial. She created a world that is as detailed and as palpable as the one I’m living in, if not more. Everything is thought out. Everything makes perfect sense. Everything is properly explained.
We finally meet Amanda Amberlee, cured of leukemia and getting ready for her prom. No matter how many times Georgia and Shaun mentioned Amanda in their blog entries, it was still nice to find out a little more about her and what she was like when she was alive. We also get to meet Dr. Kellis, the idiots who stole the untested cure for cold and the journalist who wrote the famous article about it. Step by step we find out about the first outbreak and all the events that led to it.
Countdown consists only of facts, Grant didn’t attempt to provoke emotions of any kind or create connections between her readers and the characters. Of course, in doing so, she succeeded in depicting the very nature of the Kellis-Amberlee virus.
I’m sure I don’t need to convince fans of the trilogy to read Countdown.
Mira Grant will NEVER get 4 stars from me. Seanan McGuire is something else entirely. (less)
I always find it especially hard to review urban fantasy books. I read them, I usually enjoy them, I spend a total of three minutes thinking about the...moreI always find it especially hard to review urban fantasy books. I read them, I usually enjoy them, I spend a total of three minutes thinking about them, and after that, there’s really not much to say. But this book and its author Rachel Caine, who in all honesty hasn’t failed me yet, deserve my best effort.
This isn’t my first book by Rachel Caine. I loved her Weather Warden series (at least the first three books that I’ve read so far) and I still moderately enjoy her Morganville Vampires. My expectations for this were pretty high to begin with and after reading the first book, I'm pretty confident that this will become one of my favorites. Working Stiff is full of small surprises. I can’t really say that it’s unpredictable because, you know, urban fantasy never is, but there were times when the plot went in the opposite direction from what I expected.
After spending four years in Iraq, Bryn Davis understands well the importance of taking care of the dead. As odd as her career choice may seem, she is perfectly happy with her decision to become a funeral director. That is, until she discovers that her new employer is using the funeral home as a cover for some pretty serious and pretty disgusting illegal activities.
Bryn is an amazing character, beautiful, strong, silent and incredibly stubborn. She is caught in an impossible situation, and while she does get overwhelmed by fear and acts foolishly from time to time, she never whines. At least not in a way that would bother me. She also knows how to be funny without being overly sarcastic.
I can’t really reveal the name of Bryn’s love interest because that would ruin one of the small surprises I’ve mentioned. I can, however, say that he’s one of the hottest and most attractive male characters in urban fantasy. I should know, I’ve read them all. He is 100% human which means that he doesn’t have any supernatural powers to hide behind, but he is still more amazing than any vampire, were or mage I can think of. I kid you not. Silent, serious ex-marine type with a tenderness he shows only rarely, he reminded me of Benton Wesley from the Kay Scarpetta series. (I always had a thing for smooth, smart, suit and tie guys like Benton.) He alone would be reason enough to read this book.
If you like urban fantasy, you are going to love Working Stiff. I can’t wait for the next book to come out. (less)
I can’t even begin to describe how deeply Harper’s grief affected me. It’s not often that I find myse...moreSo many dead sisters in YA literature these days…
I can’t even begin to describe how deeply Harper’s grief affected me. It’s not often that I find myself completely taken aback by an author’s insight and sensitivity. I’m still convinced that she must have gone through something similar at some point in her life, otherwise she couldn’t have been able to describe so accurately the thoughts that sometimes follow such a disastrous event. I have to admit that the story hit too close to home and it wasn’t always easy for me to keep reading, but Harper’s reactions and feelings were as familiar as my own and she really got under my skin, where she'll stay for a while at least.
That’s not to say that the book didn’t have any problems, but I got so emotionally invested that I ended up not caring about any of them. I’ll still point out the things I can remember, just for the sake of full disclosure. I’m afraid that many layers of this story may be completely lost on its intended audience. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe teens today know all about various stages of Janis Joplin’s work or the true value of a Jimi Hendrix autograph. Maybe they do care about problems of the Third World and maybe they’ve even seen the Woodstock documentary once or twice. But somehow I doubt it. I, on the other hand, loved every second of it. Every song that was mentioned, every album that was played, it was as if I chose them myself. Some of them I haven’t heard in a while and Hannah Harrington gave me the perfect excuse to bury myself in my old music for a while.
A part of the book didn’t fit well with the rest. At one point Jake and the girls were attending a violent protest that felt completely out of place. It was the second time in as many weeks that an author tried to shove his/her own beliefs and convictions down my throat in such an obvious way. I’m not saying that YA novels should provide blind entertainment and nothing more, far from it, I’m just saying that it was forced and unnatural in this particular story. Without it, this would have been a five-star book for me.
So to conclude, I loved this book, but I doubt I’ll be reading it again. I don’t think I’d be able to handle it all one more time. The feeling that I’ve been turned inside out and that I’m reading my own thoughts and emotions isn’t something I care to repeat anytime soon. I am happy to have read it the first time and I’m very grateful for the things it helped me realize. And I still think Touch Me is the perfect song for that occasion. :) (less)
Actual rating: 4.5 stars! Lately I’ve been lucky enough to add a few books to my all-time-favorites list, all of them Australian. Raw Blue, for example...moreActual rating: 4.5 stars! Lately I’ve been lucky enough to add a few books to my all-time-favorites list, all of them Australian. Raw Blue, for example, left me with this feeling of beauty and despair that just won’t go away. I realize that I’ve been going on and on about Aussie authors and that I’d even threatened to move there at one point, but I see no reason to stop. Good Oil is just another proof of how special and engrossing their writing style usually is.
This story is about 15-year-old Amelia, 21-year-old Chris and a group of young people working at Woolworths grocery store in Sydney. The narration is equally divided between Chris and Amelia, and although I definitely preferred Chris’ point of view, I felt that both their voices were captured really well.
Amelia is the girl that doesn’t really fit anywhere. Her family life is a mess and, as a rule, she isn’t getting enough attention from her parents or other people. Chris, on the other hand, gets too much attention. He is one of those people who fill the room with their presence. Loud, very intelligent, completely messed up, extroverted and fun, he’s everyone’s favorite guy. He draws Amelia to him like a magnet and they spend a lot of time talking about books and feminism.
She's amusing - all frizzy-haired and fiery. I suspect she can, like, construct sentences and read books.
This is a book you will need to think about. My rating was all over the place while I was reading. At first I thought it will end up being a 4-star book. Then, after reading the last page, I felt very confused and tempted to go with 3 stars, but now, not a day after, I’ve decided to make it 4.5. Processing a book that doesn’t distance itself from reality is always harder than dealing with something you know in your heart is fiction. It’s strange for someone who claims to be such huge fan of realism to have problems with very realistic novels, but that’s me - a walking contradiction.
Usually when I read a book I know exactly how I’d like it to end. I was at a loss this time because no matter how much they have in common intellectually, at the end of the day, Amelia is a kid, and Chris is… not. I was very curious to see how Laura Buzo would handle that particular mess, and I have to admit that I was very impressed, regardless of my initial (conflicted) feelings.
I could go on and on about this book because, unlike most of my friends, I find it much easier to write about books I loved, but I see no point. I loved it. That's all you need to know. I’m asking you all to read this. I promise you won’t be sorry. (less)
4.5 stars Wow. This was – wow! I liked Intrinsical, but Indelible was SO good! I could not put this book down.
After spending the summer in Brazil with...more4.5 stars Wow. This was – wow! I liked Intrinsical, but Indelible was SO good! I could not put this book down.
After spending the summer in Brazil with her Vovó, Yara is finally back home and reunited with Brent, Cherie and Steve. They are all hoping for a quiet senior year, a chance to get their grades in order and spend some time together, but things at Pendrell never work out quite like that. There’s a secret society determined to take advantage of Yara and Brent’s powers, an angry ghost found a way to attach itself to Yara, and on top of all that, Brent it still struggling with the consequences of last year’s events.
My favorite part of Indelible is the tender, honest relationship between Yara and Brent. I am so tired of instalove, tired of relationships based on a crooked smile and not much else. These two are equals, they complete each other in every way and even when they have problems, it’s for reasons I can actually believe. But Lani Woodland did more than just write a stable relationship – she proved that it’s entirely possible to produce a successful YA novel without resorting to love triangle clichés.
Every problem I had with Intrinsical (and really, there weren’t that many) disappeared without a trace in Indelible. Yara is now one of my favorite characters in paranormal YA. I love how she thinks things through, how she never makes stupid mistakes and always does the right thing, even when it means hurting someone she loves.
I’ve probably read more than a hundred young adult paranormal novels this year, but Indelible still found its place in my top 3. Lani Woodland did an extraordinary job of showing us and, more importantly, her fellow writers that quality still pays off.
“Is it okay to hate a dead kid? Even if you loved him once? Even if he was my best friend? Is it okay to hate him for being dead?”
Please Ignore Vera Dietz is a story about a 18-year-old girl faced with the loss of her best friend. On one side, this novel is burdened with a scary amount of raw realism. It tells a story that hits too close to home, one that none of us want to hear. There are pedophiles, abusive husbands, drinking problems, runaway mothers and friends who break our hearts. There's too much to handle at once, for Vera and for me. Then there’s the other side that is as far from reality as can possibly be. The funny yet touching flow charts, talking pagodas, best friends turned into pickles and thousands of haunting ghosts serve as a soothing balm that helps heal the wounds made by the all-too-possible first side of the story. For the most part, when those two sides collide, the result is great and stunningly original. However, the combination didn’t work so well for the ending. When it came time to resolve Vera's situation, I wanted King to choose one or the other, to either write an utterly realistic ending, or a completely absurd one. What she gave us felt like a cop out. But who am I to judge? My rating is a cop out as well.
It was easy enough to blame my three readalong partners for my reluctance to write this review. All three of them did such an amazing job. Ms. Marr’s deliciously funny and incredibly smart words, Ms. Reynje’s colorful world that never fails to pull my heartstrings and Ms. Lisa’s strong logic and astonishing insightfulness would intimidate even the most creative minds. But the bigger truth is that I needed time to figure out exactly why I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as they did, especially when I claim to be such a huge fan of literary realism. And it’s true. Balzac, Stendhal, Tolstoy and many others helped me become the person I am today. But the reality they described for me is in no way my reality. I can easily dive into it knowing that I’m untouchable. Vera’s story, however, happens in everyone’s back yard. It’s the almost tangible reality of it that I can’t handle.
That doesn’t mean that I won’t recommend this book to anyone who will listen. I’ll probably reread it myself at some point.
A big thanks to Lisa, Reynje and Shirley for this amazing adventure that became known as the Double Date readalong. Everything is fun when you’re around. (less)
I’m at a loss on how to rate this book. It’s really in a league of its own. I was tempted to give five stars, but I just couldn’t do that out of respe...moreI’m at a loss on how to rate this book. It’s really in a league of its own. I was tempted to give five stars, but I just couldn’t do that out of respect for Feed, The Reapers Are the Angels, Raw Blue and other books that blew me away and changed me forever. But in all (un)seriousness: this book is five star material and it’s absolutely hilarious!
You know those comedies that don’t make the least bit of sense? The ones you watch fully aware that they are stupid, and yet you can’t help laughing your ass off? That’s sort of how this is. The story has more holes than Swiss cheese, so if you’re looking for a serious YA zombie novel, you definitely won’t find it here. In fact, this book should come with a warning on the front cover: Abandon logic all ye who enter here! But the characters were adorable and they made me laugh out loud on almost every page. That alone made it worth reading.
Kate Grable is a science geek and the student trainer. She tends to minor injuries and hands out Gatorade to the players. Her job would be a lot easier if she wasn’t taking care of the worst football team in existence. She also has to watch her crush, Aaron, get beaten every single time he plays. They hit Aaron really hard; I heard the whoosh! his lungs made when all the air was forced out. I wanted to beat the heck out of the JV guys for that, except I wouldn’t know what to do in a fist fight without a manual.
Kate soon discovers that the desperate Coach has been giving illegal shots to some of his players and that those same players are turning into zombies. She has to use all her knowledge and available weapons to prevent her brother, Aaron and her friends from becoming zombies as well.
The next time you need a few hours of pure fun, read this book! I promise you won’t be sorry. (less)
This is another fine example of why you should never judge a book by its covers. The cover is beautiful and that’s what got me into trouble...more1.5 stars!
This is another fine example of why you should never judge a book by its covers. The cover is beautiful and that’s what got me into trouble… again!
Of all the terrible and frustrating characters on this planet, Shay McGuire is by far the worst. Sick Girl, as she likes to call herself, is incredibly selfish, self-centered, out of control and plain stupid. I’m not sure if the authors intended for her to be that way, but somehow I doubt it.
Ok, here’s the story: Shay was born with a rare, or rather unique blood disorder. Her stepfather, Martin, is an expert in leukemia who abandoned his work so he could focus all his attention on finding the cure for Shay (or so he says). One day, Martin gave Shay a transfusion that actually made her feel better. After a lifetime of feeling weak and exhausted, Shay suddenly had the strength to do whatever she wanted. So what did she choose? Drinking, acting out and risking her life every chance she gets.
Just so we’re clear here: was I supposed to sympathize with the girl who used her illness to behave like a complete brat? Was I supposed to feel sorry for this girl who kissed her best friend’s boyfriend the first chance she got, a girl who takes everyone for granted and treats people who care about her like trash? Because if I was, it SO did not work out that way. I’m one of those people who can’t like a book unless they can connect to the main character and that didn’t happen here.
And Gabriel is just so old! I’d never before been bothered by the age difference in paranormal YA, maybe because they all at least tried to behave like teenagers and it wasn’t so obvious. But Gabriel keeps pointing out that he’s more than 400 years old and he even acts like it. I kept thinking: b-b-but she is 16 and immature!!! What can you possibly see in her?!
Unfortunately, I have no choice but to read the sequel so you can expect another one of these rants reviews in the near future. (less)
< i>Every time he looked at me I felt like I’d touched my tongue to the tip of a battery. In art class I’d watch him lean back and lis...more4.5 stars.
< i>Every time he looked at me I felt like I’d touched my tongue to the tip of a battery. In art class I’d watch him lean back and listen and I was nothing but zing and tingle. After a while the tingle turned to electricity, and when he asked me out my whole body amped to a level where technically I should have been dead. I had nothing in common with a sheddy like him, but a girl doesn’t think straight when she’s that close to electrocution.
Wow. My GoodReads friends are all people with excellent taste. I thought so before, but I’m sure of it now. A few of you took the time to notice what I like and recommend this book to me. Thank you! And a special thanks to Lisa O. and her lovely review for making me read this when I did. Anyway, where was I?
The strength of Crowley's novel isn’t so much in the story itself as it is in the poetic writing that left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Don’t get me wrong: her writing isn’t overly descriptive. She doesn’t go on and on about places, events or works of art. Somehow she says more in one sentence than most people are able to say in twenty. She also has an excellent sense of humor and I found myself crying with laughter over some of her passages.
I know they still love each other, but I guess love is kind of like a marshmallow in a microwave on high. After it explodes, it’s still a marshmallow. But, you know, now it’s a complicated marshmallow.
Lucy doesn’t date regular guys. She went out on one date in her life and ended up breaking the guy’s nose. The fact that her parents spent two straight months screaming at each other isn’t helping her at all. Instead, she dreams about meeting a graffiti artist called Shadow, convinced that he is the guy who could never disappoint her.
Ed left school when it became obvious that he won’t be able to hide his dyslexia much longer. It also happened to be right around the time when Lucy broke his nose on their first date. Words don’t mean anything to him, but he draws the most amazing graffiti all over town. He is Shadow and his best friend Leo is Poet. And he wishes Shadow was as amazing as Lucy seems to believe he is.
Jazz and Leo are both weird in their own way but they might be compatible. He only needs to find the courage to tell her that he’s actually Poet, the guy whose works she’s been admiring all over town. It may sound easy, but once you get tangled in your own lies, it’s very hard to tell the truth.
All of them end up together in a pink van where the truth must come out - whether they like it or not.
There’s something in this book for everyone: amazing writing, poetry, flawless characters, a funny story, love, glass, art, pink van and criminals. Highly recommended. (less)
Ok. Just like pulling off a band-aid. Here we go: I started reading this book while I was on my vacation. After about a half, I simply couldn’t take i...moreOk. Just like pulling off a band-aid. Here we go: I started reading this book while I was on my vacation. After about a half, I simply couldn’t take it anymore, so I stopped. Then two nights ago, my conscience began to gnaw at me and I had no choice but to at least try. I admit to only skimming through the second half, mostly because I’ve read the story before. It just had a different cover and some other title.
At the beginning of the summer, Kate was in a terrible accident that killed both her parents, and she woke up from a coma with the ability to see other people’s auras. She can judge characters and read emotions through colors, something she only admitted to her best friend Lee. Now it’s time for Kate to go back to school and face her new life. Her boyfriend Aaron is very supportive, her grandparents are great people and everyone thinks Kate is on the road to recovery. But on her first day of school, Kate runs into the new boy, Patrick, the only person with a grey aura she’s ever seen. It turns out that Patrick is a Guardian (yes, that would be guardian angel) who came to protect Kate from the terrible Demons (with black auras, of course) that are out to get her.
I will not point out everything I think is wrong with this book. We’ve been down that road many times before and I don’t think it makes any difference either way. It wasn’t badly written at all, there weren’t any words trying to jump out and poke my eye out. This was just a YA book meant for *gasps* young adults and, while it might be interesting for them, older audience will certainly find it a little boring.
If you’ve read Halo, Hush, Hush and Evermore and enjoyed them, you WILL enjoy Seers. Good for you! If not, find something else to read. This is one of those stories.
I added the second star because the writing really was pretty decent. (less)
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