17 First Kisses
by Rachael Allen
Series: Standalone
Released on: June 17th, 2014
Published by: HarperTeen
Rating: 5 stars
Word rating: !!!!!!
Reviewed by: Blythe
Showing posts with label 5 stars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5 stars. Show all posts
Review: 17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen
17 First Kisses
by Rachael Allen
Series: Standalone
Released on: June 17th, 2014
Published by: HarperTeen
Rating: 5 stars
Word rating: !!!!!!
Reviewed by: Blythe
Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
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Cruel Beauty
Rosamund Hodge
Series: None
Released: January 28th, 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Rating: 5 GLOWING STARS
Word Rating: BURNING LOVE
Reviewed by: Blythe
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.
As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.
Review: Premeditated by Josin McQuein
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Premeditated
Josin McQuein
Series: None
Released: October 8th, 2013
Publisher: Delacorte BFYR
Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: YESYESYES
Reviewed by: Blythe
A week ago, Dinah’s cousin Claire cut her wrists.
Five days ago, Dinah found Claire’s diary and discovered why.
Three days ago, Dinah stopped crying and came up with a plan.
Two days ago, she ditched her piercings and bleached the black dye from her hair.
Yesterday, knee socks and uniform plaid became a predator’s camouflage.
Today, she’ll find the boy who broke Claire.
By tomorrow, he’ll wish he were dead.
Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Where She Went
Gayle Forman
Series: If I Stay, #2
Released: April 5th, 2011
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: Uncontrollable sobbing
Reviewed by: Kate
It's been three years since the devastating accident . . . three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.
Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future-and each other.
Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.
Reader's Choice Review #3: All Our Yesterdays
Reader's Choice is a weekly meme inspired by Christina at Reader of Fiction's Sadie Hawkins Sunday, where you, the readers of this blog, get to choose what we read and review on the blog each Saturday/Monday, depending on the circumstances.
All Our Yesterdays
Cristin Terrill
Series: None
Release Date: August 1st, 2013
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: Excuse me as I adsjkl;
Reviewed by: Melanie
Recommended by: Aneeqah of My Not So Real Life
"You have to kill him." Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.
Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside.
Marina has loved her best friend James since the day he moved next door when they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles apart, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Now someone is trying to kill him. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it. At least not as the girl she once was.
All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.
But it's the last line that makes me scramble for the toilet in the corner of my cell. "You have to kill him."
Review: Six-Gun Snow White
Six-Gun Snow White
Catherynne M. Valente
Series: None
Release Date: February 28th, 2013
Publisher: Subterranean
Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: Gorgeous
Reviewed by: Kate
From New York Times bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente comes a brilliant reinvention of one the best known fairy tales of all time. In the novella Six-Gun Snow White, Valente transports the title's heroine to a masterfully evoked Old West where Coyote is just as likely to be found as the seven dwarves.
A plain-spoken, appealing narrator relates the history of her parents—a Nevada silver baron who forced the Crow people to give up one of their most beautiful daughters, Gun That Sings, in marriage to him. With her mother's death in childbirth, so begins a heroine's tale equal parts heartbreak and strength. This girl has been born into a world with no place for a half-native, half-white child. After being hidden for years, a very wicked stepmother finally gifts her with the name Snow White, referring to the pale skin she will never have. Filled with fascinating glimpses through the fabled looking glass and a close-up look at hard living in the gritty gun-slinging West, readers will be enchanted by this story at once familiar and entirely new.
Review: Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas
Dangerous Girls
Abigail Haas
Series: None
Release Date: July 16th, 2013
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: EXPLETIVES
Reviewed by: Blythe
Paradise quickly gets gruesome in this thrilling page-turner with a plot that’s ripped from the headlines and a twist that defies the imagination.
It’s Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives.
But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations. As Anna sets out to find her friend’s killer, she discovers harsh revelations about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.
Awaiting the judge’s decree, it becomes clear to Anna that everyone around her thinks she is not only guilty, but also dangerous. And when the whole story comes out, reality is more shocking than anyone ever imagined...
Review: Wildlife by Fiona Wood
Wildlife
Fiona Wood
Series: None
Release Date: June 1st, 2013
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: Beauuutiful
Reviewed by: Melanie
Life? It’s simple: be true to yourself.
The tricky part is finding out exactly who you are...
"In the holidays before the dreaded term at Crowthorne Grammar’s outdoor education camp two things out of the ordinary happened.
A picture of me was plastered all over a twenty-metre billboard.
And I kissed Ben Capaldi."
Boarding for a term in the wilderness, sixteen-year-old Sibylla expects the gruesome outdoor education program – but friendship complications, and love that goes wrong? They’re extra-curricula.
Enter Lou from Six Impossible Things – the reluctant new girl for this term in the great outdoors. Fragile behind an implacable mask, she is grieving a death that occurred almost a year ago. Despite herself, Lou becomes intrigued by the unfolding drama between her housemates Sibylla and Holly, and has to decide whether to end her self-imposed detachment and join the fray.
And as Sibylla confronts a tangle of betrayal, she needs to renegotiate everything she thought she knew about surviving in the wild.
A story about first love, friendship and NOT fitting in.
'No matter how much you tell yourself nothing has changed, it has.'
Review: Charm & Strange
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Charm & Strange
Stephanie Kuehn
Series: None
Release Date: June 11th, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Number of Pages: 224
Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: Mindfuck
When you’ve been kept caged in the dark, it’s impossible to see the forest for the trees. It’s impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .
Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.
He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.
He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable.
Wordss can't even begin to describe how incredibly impressed I am with this fantastically beautiful and incredibly powerful little novel. I feel like I get this across in each and every review for books I give five stars, but I am not a reviewer who gives five stars easily. In fact, Charm & Strange is the first book I've given five stars this entire year, and trust me when I say it deserves those five stars, and then some.Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present.
Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.
Not only is this novel endlessly brilliant, but it's masterfully written with alternating chapters of past and present, with each timeframe melding seamlessly into the other by the end of the novel. Writing alternating chapters between two characters, let alone two entirely different timeframes, is something I've found not too many authors are fully capable of doing, but with Charm & Strange, Stephanie Kuehn's talent absolutely shines. As well as that, the main character, Win is one of the most complex characters I've ever read about in young adult--and even though he is a cold and standoffish character, what made the cold and standoffish nature of his character even more impressive was that we saw from the chapters told in the past how he became the person he is today, and the revelation by the end, while not entirely shocking, is completely and utterly breathtaking in how it's handled.
This review is much shorter than most of my reviews, but I've said all that needs to be said about this novel, and anything left unsaid by me is left unsaid because I want future readers to go into Charm & Strange completely blind, so that they may find themselves amazed and shocked by each turn this novel took just like I found myself. Charm & Strange, while a bit slow moving, is an incredibly poignant, unforgettable, and beautifully haunting novel, and is unquestionably one of the most outstanding debuts I've ever had the pleasure to read in my entire life. It deals with multiple tough issues, but each and every one of those issues are met with the deft hand of an absolutely excellent and talented author whose works I will unquestionably be reading--and most likely loving--in the future.
Review: Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith
Hilary T. Smith
Series: None
Release Date: May 28th, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Number of Pages: 400
Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: Stunning
Things you earnestly believe will happen while your parents are away:Wild Awake is not a book that will appeal to every reader. While I found it to be wonderfully strange and hauntingly beautiful, with a gorgeous and euphoric atmosphere developed with undertones of grief, sorrow, and unmistakable depth--all of which bears the same gorgeous and breathtaking ambience as the blatant euphoric facade the main character, Kiri, is living--there is no doubt in my mind that the opinions for this novel, as fantastic as I think it is, will be rather polarizing due to some of the novel's somewhat controversial content.
1. You will remember to water the azaleas.
2. You will take detailed, accurate messages.
3. You will call your older brother, Denny, if even the slightest thing goes wrong.
4. You and your best friend/bandmate Lukas will win Battle of the Bands.
5. Amid the thrill of victory, Lukas will finally realize you are the girl of his dreams.
Things that actually happen:
1. A stranger calls who says he knew your sister.
2. He says he has her stuff.
3. What stuff? Her stuff.
4. You tell him your parents won’t be able to—
5. Sukey died five years ago; can’t he—
6. You pick up a pen.
7. You scribble down the address.
8. You get on your bike and go.
9. Things . . . get a little crazy after that.*
*also, you fall in love, but not with Lukas.
Both exhilarating and wrenching, Hilary T. Smith’s debut novel captures the messy glory of being alive, as seventeen-year-old Kiri Byrd discovers love, loss, chaos, and murder woven into a summer of music, madness, piercing heartbreak, and intoxicating joy.
Drug use, predominately if not entirely weed, plays a significant role throughout Wild Awake, but more notably it plays a significant role in Kiri's recovery after finding out that her sister had really been murdered, after believing for years that she was instead killed in a car accident. Whether or not Wild Awake will be a book you love or a book you hate is based, in my opinion, on how drastically you react to drug use in novels, to the point where said drug use may become excessive. I, for one, found Kiri's use of drugs throughout Wild Awake to be an original and refreshing perspective on dealing and coping with new and life-changing information, and seeing the world through Kiri's eyes as she was in a high was similar to being in an absolutely stunning trance I didn't for the life of me want to escape from.
Review: Golden by Jessi Kirby
Jessi Kirby
Series: None
Release Date: May 14th, 2013
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Number of Pages: 288
Star Rating: 5 stars
Word Rating: aahsujfja
Love, tragedy, and mystery converge in this compelling novel from “an author to watch” (Booklist).
Seventeen-year-old Parker Frost has never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential good girl, she’s about to graduate high school without ever having kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a clue in her lap—one that might be the key to unraveling a town mystery—she decides to take a chance.
Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz are remembered as the golden couple of Summit Lakes High—perfect in every way, meant to be together forever. But Julianna’s journal tells a different story—one of doubts about Shane and a forbidden romance with an older, artistic guy. These are the secrets that were swept away with her the night that Shane’s jeep plunged into an icy river, leaving behind a grieving town and no bodies to bury.
Reading Julianna’s journal gives Parker the courage to start to really live—and it also gives her reasons to question what really happened the night of the accident. Armed with clues from the past, Parker enlists the help of her best friend, Kat, and Trevor, her longtime crush, to track down some leads. The mystery ends up taking Parker places that she never could have imagined. And she soon finds that taking the road less traveled makes all the difference.
"[...] sometimes we meet our destiny on the road we take to avoid it."
No words of mine can even come close to portraying the stunning beauty and finesse that takes up each and every page of Jessi Kirby's magnificent Golden. Running through my mind since reading the very last page of Golden to now, as I am writing these inevitably inadequate words, are an endless amount of positive adjectives that could be used to describe Golden truthfully--it's breathtaking, it's lovely, it's striking and it's stunning and it's poignant and it's beyond fantastic. And it's my favorite read of the year thus far.
And rest assured I will be rereading it.
Review: Quicksilver by RJ Anderson
RJ Anderson
Series: Ultraviolet, #2
Release Date: May 2nd, 2013
Publisher: Orchard Books
Number of Pages: 314
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 5 stars
Back in her hometown, Tori Beaugrand had everything a teenaged girl could want—popularity, money, beauty. But she also had a secret. A secret that could change her life in an instant, or destroy it.
Now she’s left everything from her old life behind, including her real name and Alison, the one friend who truly understood her. She can’t escape who and what she is. But if she wants to have anything like a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unusual... talents.
Plans change when the enigmatic Sebastian Faraday reappears and gives Tori some bad news: she hasn’t escaped her past. In fact, she’s attracted new interest in the form of an obsessed ex-cop turned investigator for a genetics lab.
She has one last shot at getting her enemies off her trail and winning the security and independence she’s always longed for. But saving herself will take every ounce of Tori’s incredible electronics and engineering skills—and even then, she may need to sacrifice more than she could possibly imagine if she wants to be free.
This review may contain possible spoilers for Ultraviolet
If you were to ask me right now what word I think best describes Quicksilver, while trying to refrain from using the inevitable words such as 'amazing', 'mind-blowing', or even the simple (but very accurate) 'OMG', the word I would choose would be 'intense'.
And quite honestly, the fact that Quicksilver is as intense as it is is quite a feat given that there is not much action throughout most of the novel and not many fight scenes. But I think the fact that there aren't many fight scenes or much action throughout Quicksilver is refreshing, and, like I mentioned earlier, quite a feat given how intense it is. One of the best things about Quicksilver is that its intensity doesn't rely on action or fight scenes like most novels do. The intensity of Quicksilver relies on, for example, something as simple and innocuous as a telephone ringing on the wall. Such suspense is brought into play with that loud, monotonous ringing of the telephone, and with it I just couldn't help but bite my nails and panic, wondering if the person on the other side of the phone is an antagonist calling to send a warning to Tori and her family, or just the next door neighbor calling Tori to welcome her and her family to the neighborhood. That type of suspense and intensity is used so often in Quicksilver, and I can say with complete and utter certainty that it kept me on the edge of my seat more than any fight scene I've read in any novel this year.
Review: Pivot Point by Kasie West
Kasie West
Series: Pivot Point, #1
Release Date: February 12th, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Number of Pages: 320
Source: Edelweiss
Rating: 5 stars
Knowing the outcome doesn’t always make a choice easier . . .
Addison Coleman’s life is one big “What if?” As a Searcher, whenever Addie is faced with a choice, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. It’s the ultimate insurance plan against disaster. Or so she thought. When Addie’s parents ambush her with the news of their divorce, she has to pick who she wants to live with—her father, who is leaving the paranormal compound to live among the “Norms,” or her mother, who is staying in the life Addie has always known. Addie loves her life just as it is, so her answer should be easy. One Search six weeks into the future proves it’s not.
In one potential future, Addie is adjusting to life outside the Compound as the new girl in a Norm high school where she meets Trevor, a cute, sensitive artist who understands her. In the other path, Addie is being pursued by the hottest guy in school—but she never wanted to be a quarterback’s girlfriend. When Addie’s father is asked to consult on a murder in the Compound, she’s unwittingly drawn into a dangerous game that threatens everything she holds dear. With love and loss in both lives, it all comes down to which reality she’s willing to live through . . . and who she can’t live without.
I don't think of myself as the type of reader and reviewer who gives every book they love the full, five stars. There are some, if not most books I give four stars to that I say I love, and most if not all of the books I give 4.5 stars to are ones I say I love. But I tend to save five stars for books that are practically flawless to me; for books that, no matter how many minutes, hours, days, etc., I spend trying to find something that I didn't like about it, I still come up with nothing.
Pivot Point is absolutely one of those books.
Review (Eh..): Ultraviolet by RJ Anderson
RJ Anderson
Series: Ultraviolet, #1
Release Date: June 2nd, 2011
Publisher: Orchard
Number of Pages: 410
Source: Bought
Rating 5 of 5 stars
Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.
This is not her story.
Unless you count the part where I killed her.
Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison’s condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can’t explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori—the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that’s impossible. Right?
This book and I are eloping. It's settled and there's nothing you can do to stop it. No, seriously. We've planned the eloping and everything. Go find another book to elope with. Ultraviolet is mine. Forever and ever. But not in a creepy way, or anything like that... *awkward laugh*
It's been three days still I finished Ultraviolet, and I still cannot think coherently. Honestly, it's a miracle I can form full sentences at this point. If my incoherency, eloping, or rating weren't a clear indication, I love this book. A lot, actually. Does it have its problems? Of course. Every book has its problems. Do I care? No.
I will tiptoe very, very lightly around writing this synopsis, because I'm afraid anything in this book can be a spoiler. Actually, I don't trust myself writing a synopsis for Ultraviolet. All you need to know is that it's about a young teenager named Alison who is convicted of killing a girl in her school by disintegrating her with her mind, and she is currently in a mental hospital. Then things happen.
"Then things happen." Man, I have such a way with words.
Review: The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa
Julie Kagawa
Series: The Call of the Forgotten, #1
Release Date: October 23rd, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Number of Pages: 379
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.
That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’s dare to fall for.
Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myths and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.
My name is Ethan Chase. And I may not live to see my eighteenth birthday.
This review contains spoilers for the Iron Fey series. You've been warned.
The Lost Prince takes place about thirteen years after the events of The Iron Knight, and revolves around seventeen-year-old Ethan Chase. Ever since Ethan was stolen from his home in order for his older sister, Meghan, now the Iron Queen, to travel to the Nevernever to rescue him, Ethan has been keeping a close eye on his surroundings, as he is permanently able to see the Fey disguised as humans, a gift he does not want. Having to constantly move schools, he is yet again the new student, with the reputation as the rebel who burnt down his old school, and rumors follow him around the school. However, as he's at the new school, he quickly befriends Todd, a phouka, and Kenzie, a teenage girl. But soon Todd is kidnapped by a new species of fey known as The Forgotten, and, in an escape from The Forgotten, Ethan and Kenzie travel to the Nevernever, and attempt to save Todd.
Review: This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
Courtney Summers
Series: None
Release Date: June 19th, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Number of Pages: 336
Source: Amazon
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self.I’m bringing nothing new to the table in writing this review, because everything I could possibly say about this book and more has already been said, but it’s worth a try from me.
To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live.
But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside.
When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?
I don’t want to write this review. I simply want to scream, “I love this book!” off a rooftop (or, you know, write it in my review space) and hope it encourages you to pick it up and hopefully love it as well. But I don’t know… I feel like I need to write a review for this book, but I know it will never come close to portraying how thoroughly amazing this book is, so please, just bear with me if you’re reading this review.
This is Not a Test was one of my most highly anticipated reads of the year, and when glowing reviews from friends of my had started to roll in, my anticipation for this book only grew. Sadly, This is Not a Test was removed from NetGalley shortly before I started using NetGalley, so I was forced to wait a few months to read This is Not a Test. When it finally appeared on my Kindle the day of its release, I was extremely anxious to read it, but also nervous, not wanting my months of waiting and anticipation to only lead to disappointment. I can say—and very happily, might I add—that it did not.
Review: Something Strange & Deadly by Susan Dennard
Susan Dennard
Series: Something Strange & Deadly, #1
Release Date: July 24th, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Number of Pages: 400
Source: Edelweiss
The year is 1876, and there’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…
Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper—
The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.
And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor…from her brother.
Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she’ll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including their maddeningly stubborn yet handsome inventor, Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.
Holy crap this was awesome. I don’t even want to write a review; I just want to bask in the awesomeness that is Something Strange and Deadly. (But you know, I kind of have to write a review, so here goes it.)
Eleanor Fitt is a sixteen-year-old living with her mother in Philadelphia, in the dawn of attacks from the walking Dead brought upon Philadelphia by a mysterious and unknown necromancer. To make matters worse, Eleanor receives letters from her long-lost brother, Elijah, and the content of the letters leads Eleanor to believe the necromancer has held Elijah hostage. Desperate to save her brother from the hands of the evil necromancer, Eleanor teams up with a group known as the Spirit-Hunters, all the while having to keep her strive to save her brother a secret from her overprotective mother, and everyone else.
Something Strange and Deadly was such an incredibly fun read, and I just loved it. There. That’s my review. What? I need to write more? Well, crap.
Review: The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa
The Iron Queen by Julie KagawaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
My name is Meghan Chase.
I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who's sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it.
This time, there will be no turning back.
I cry at everything, and when I say everything, I mean everything. When I read the reviews for The Iron Queen, it was on shelves such as “cried my eyes out” and “made me cry”, so I was really expecting a tear-jerker ending. I can see why others cried at the ending, but, shockingly, I didn’t cry. I did tear up during the epilogue, but that’s it. More often than not, I was actually smiling during the ending, which makes me feel like there’s something wrong with me. That doesn’t mean the ending of The Iron Queen isn’t sad, because I suppose it is. It’s just not as sad as I thought it would be, based on everyone saying they cried.
Despite that, the Iron Queen was extremely awesome, and so much better than its predecessor, The Iron Daughter. Meghan grew a lot as a character from The Iron Daughter to The Iron Queen, and I actually really liked her. She took responsibility for her actions and wasn’t anywhere near as whiny as she was in The Iron Daughter. As well as liking Meghan a lot more in this book as opposed to The Iron Daughter, I also really liked Ash more in The Iron Queen. Throughout the first book, and the first half of the second book, I didn’t like Ash too much. Then Kagawa gave his character more depth with the backstory of Ariella, and I liked him a lot more. My like for him only grew from the middle of the second book on, and I can say with total honesty that Meghan and Ash are perfect for each other. If you would have asked me if I thought that when reading The Iron Daughter, I would’ve laughed in your face, but they truly make a really good couple, and that shows in this book. That still doesn’t mean I’m on Team Ash, though.
As usual, I loved Puck and his wit and sarcasm in this book. My only complaint is that there wasn’t really a lot of his wit and sarcasm, and that he really was serious throughout most of the book. Of course, I also love Grimalkin for the same reasons I love Puck, but he wasn’t in the book much, and when he was in the book, he wasn’t as sarcastic or witty as he was in the other two books. That was a bit of a disappointment, but it didn’t phase my rating of The Iron Queen at all, because the other characters were awesome. (Come on, how cute was Razor?) I was hoping there would be some growth in Oberon and Meghan’s relationship, but I do like how Meghan is trying to make her relationship with Paul grow.
As well as the awesome characters, Kagawa’s writing is, like usual, breathtakingly beautiful. I loved the way she described the Nevernever slowly fading into the hands of the Iron Realm, and let me tell you, this lady knows how to write a fight scene.
Now, if you excuse me, I’m going to go start reading The Iron Knight.
*happy dance*
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Review: Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama
Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth FamaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences.
Almost one hundred forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect . . . or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean—but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.
Wow. I can’t even begin to explain how thoroughly excellent Monstrous Beauty is. It’s to the point where I don’t even want to write a review, because, and I’ve said this before, it’s not going to come close to truly showing how amazing this book is.
Monstrous Beauty has everything that would make a book awesome: mermaids, ghosts, a curse, an awesome mystery, and an absolutely excellent plot.
The plot…. Oh my, that plot was… Wow. It took me some time to get used to the transitioning time periods, but when I did get used to it, I realized how awesome it was. Have you ever seen the movie Memento? If you haven’t, the main thing about it is that it’s presented as two different sequences of scenes: one in black-and-white sequences that’s shown chronologically, and one in color sequences that’s shown in reverse order. The two sequences eventually meet in the end, forming one story.
Monstrous Beauty is like that. There’s one set of sequences set in the late 1800’s that follows the main mermaid, Syrenka, and then there’s another set of sequences set in the present day that follows the main character, Hester. I really can’t say a lot about them, because so much in this book could be a spoiler, and I really don’t want to spoil this book for anyone.
Review: Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin
Masque of the Red Death by Bethany GriffinMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Everything is in ruins.
A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them.
So what does Araby Worth have to live for?
Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.
But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.
And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.
*sigh*. This is going to be a hard review to write, but here’s my attempt at writing a review for Masque of the Red Death, even though I know it will not do it justice.
I’ll start off with saying this: I. Loved. This. Book. I loved it with a burning passion, I loved it from the first page, all the way to the last. There was honestly not one moment of this book that I didn’t love.
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