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Friday, February 15, 2013

Girl of Nightmares -Kendare Blake




It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on.

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

** spoiler alert ** This was a brilliant book and a pretty good sequel. I enjoyed all the characters and the twists, nooks and crannies. I got a little bored with the angsty teen bull shit that was in between the awesome creepiness, and Carmel annoyed me, till the end, but it wasn't too bad.

I missed Anna Dressed In Blood, I wish she had more parts, though the parts she was in were excellent. Like always the author weaved a really good tale. It was not as scary as the first one and I enjoyed the way Ms. Blake writes ghosts, I wish there had been more of them.

The Hell Realm that Ms. Blake created was one of the best creepy unending night and torture realms I have seen in a long time. This had dark dementia to it that I truly enjoyed. I would like to see a collection of spooky haunted tales from this author, short stories of Cass and all the ghosts he kills, or even his dad. The author blends the traditional stories of ghosts with urban legends and a smattering of old-school horror story in a priceless way.

Favorite part? Aunt Riika...


Read and Enjoy

Immortal Hearts (Vampire Kisses) - Ellen Schreiber

5/5



** spoiler alert ** So I have been reading this series since it started... And this is the last book. Which makes me very sad

I love this series and this book gave me all the right squeeeeee! moments. I love Raven and her clichéd gothness. Everything in this book is simple and fantasy without being stupid. I think the names the author gives places like Hipsterville and Dullsville is clever, simple and silly.

This is the type of vampire book I would have LOVED reading at 12 or 13. Hello Batty and all sorts of cool things 13 year old me would have had all over her room. Raven is smart, witty and her own person, she knows what she has wanted her whole life and it is to be a vampire.

I am that girl... Other little girls dreamed of being the princess and I wanted Dracula to make me into one of his wives. Sure this series is all about the romance between Alexander and Raven, she lives for the moments she can see him again and they are going to live in joint coffins happily ever after. But it’s written in such a way that unlike Twilight doesn't disturb me. I just find it cute and fun! I mean Raven still plans to finish high school, go onto college, hang with her BFF and do family time with her folks!

I love the vampires, they are traditional (pretty much) drink blood; sleep in coffins during the day light vampires. I find this series almost satirical in nature, like the author is poking at vampires a bit and those people who love them so much.

Raven finally becomes a vampire at the end of this book...Hey I already warned spoilers! The covenant ceremony was great and this book made me glowingly happy. Like the little girl inside of me who used to write vampire plays at age 10, read Dracula by sixth grade, was hooked on vampire romance novels by 13 and just wanted to marry Lestat jumped up and down inside my chest squealing with joy for Raven and Alexander.

I don't care what anyone says, if the writing was awful or the book juvenile. For me this was a happy easy read that for a few moments made me sit back in the break room of my work with a stupid silly smile on my face

Dark of the Moon- Tracey Barrett

5/5


Dark of the Moon was a brilliantly written book. It was a retelling of Theseus and the Minotaur. The characters had depth and I could actually relate to them and had genuine interest in their well being. It felt a little bit more like it should have been the story of the Minotaur’s sister, since that’s really who was high lighted, but the way the author merged her new ideas with old mythology was done very well.

This book had no love story, no insta love no love triangle. It was really very refreshing to see. The villains were not true evil villains, but normal people doing what people do.

You could tell the author did her research with Krete customs, clothing, mythology and history, which is what truly separates a book like this from one simply trying to re tell the story.

I gobbled up the pages quickly, interested in seeing what would happen next.

This was TOTALLY a five star book

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Kill Me Softly - Sarah Cross

3/5




** spoiler alert ** Okay so this book had some things I really liked and some things that were just shit…. Let’s go through the list of the bad first

1) The fact that the MC is a 15 year old girl, acting much MUCH older as in buying sexy lingerie older and running around without parental guidance.
2) The fact that this was supposed to be a Sleeping Beauty retelling among a dozen other fairy tales but we spend most of the book with angsty teen drama that totally takes away from the otherwise cool aspects of this book
3) Insta-love which is really just magically induced lust and makes no sense
4) The fact that in the space of like four days the MC falls in love with two brothers and this does not seem to bother the brothers at all, even though one is ridiculously too old for the MC to even consider dating.
5) The plot, which is the MC trying to find her parents, gets totally loss in the partying, snog fests and teen drama. Again, this book could have gotten five stars had the author focused on the fairy tales more than the other bull shit.
6) Not enough fairy tales. What I saw of the ideas was great but I wanted so much more of it.
7) The characters…. Uh…Aside from Blue and Felix I found them all rather shallow and without depth. There was the possibility of the MC and the other characters being really great but for me they just fell short and honestly…I didn’t care for the MC very much.
8) The ending- while brilliant in many aspects a huge chunk is left unresolved when it didn’t need to be. This will probably wind up a series, when a) I fucking HATE that and b) it doesn’t need to be.


Now the good.

1) The ending of this book surprised me… The author threw in the story of Bluebeard, which I love but never winds up in retellings so I totally spaced it and was really happy when I figured out where it was taking me…. Just like The Singing Bone Blue Beard is not a fairy tale you can make pretty.
2) The fact that Felix and Blue can kill you by kissing you, draining your love and life away. I love that dark sort of twisted bull shit… It’s horrible and creepy, but being in love with something that can kill you is kind of a turn on, albeit stupid as fuck.
3) The way the author changed up the fairy tale retelling. I enjoyed the concept that fairies curse or “bless” people into traditional roles of fairy tales. Snow white, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc…etc… And not just the nice ones…the bad ones too Like the Huntsman from Snow White and the Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood. The stamp on the character’s back showing which fairy tale they belong to was really creative.


Yeah so this book got better towards the end, which is why I have bumped it from two starts to three. The first half was kind of annoying. It was a fast easy read and I did enjoy myself, but it had so much more promise. The writing was good, it was just that the storyline failed in places and the characters didn’t inspire enough loyalty in me to love them. The only character I truly liked was Felix, and he’s the bad guy

Velveteen- Daniel Marks

1/5



** spoiler alert ** Bwwaaahhhhaa *rubshandstogetheringlee*

I have been waiting over a month to write a review of this festering turd of a novel. Yeah I said it F E S T E R I N G T U R D

This book gave me such high hopes, it was SUPPOSED to be about a bitchy angry teenage ghost taking revenge on the horrible serial killer who murdered her.

What it was really about was a bunch of slutty whiny angsty ghost children/teens that have SPESHUL magical abilities that make them kick butt in purgatory, part of the crew who figures out how to stop a revolution and shadow quakes, in said purgatory.

It took me almost a month to read this simply because I couldn’t care less about any of the characters. So let’s start there:

Velveteen- a bitch ok… not bad and angry bitch…. better…. And angry bitch who falls instantly in love with some boy who follows her around like a puppy and might cause her big secret to revealed. WHAT? Huh….. no.

Nick- all around nice guy, not much depth just a sweet heart who basically allows Velvet to abuse him and then stalks her.

Luisa/Logan- twins who are like 12 and apparently kick hard core ass…Neh, not horrible I just didn’t really care for them.

Manny- A dead Hollywood platinum blonde seductive actress who is their boss, basically. I will give you one guess who she is, and only one. She also has some deep dark secrets that at the end made me realize this is going to be a series and I am not coming long for the ride.

Bonesaw- best character of the book, not really fleshed out, but a true serial killer. This book would have been GREAT if it actually had focused on him and Velvet and the revenge the book cover promised.

Mr. Fassbinder- the big baddie of the story, who does… wait for it…. ORAGAMI and it was very obvious, btw that he was a bad guy and that Fassbinder wasn’t his real name.

There were some other characters, namely bitchy vapid slutty alpha females only created to try and make Velvet’s life horrible and try and steal her boyfriend yes a MAN wrote this book, seriously, right?

I could never quite understand why Purgatory was just filled to the brim with teenagers and why they all seemed to have special magical abilities that made them be the prime fighters of evil.

The action scenes felt rushed and entirely too put together. The part where they rescue Nick from the old evil ghost seemed to take no time at all and it ended well and nicely sewn up. Then they were mean to Nick cause he wanted to grieve, you know cause he just found out he was dead and all. But no, that would be weak.

I couldn’t really figure out what Nick saw in Velvet, I guess she was hot, all covered in ash to tamp out her spirit glow, but she was also mean to him. Maybe this is what guys like?

The book spent more time on how everything in purgatory worked then it did moving the plot line forward and tons on ghost politics and smooching insta-love yuckies then on moving the plot forward too.

Then finally came what I had been waiting for, Velvet to take her revenge on Bonesaw and rescue his current victim. What a FUCKING waste. It was the fastest part in the whole book, rushed and seemingly thrown together without care or thought. And even better, Velvet doesn’t actually do the killing, Nick does. Like the author went, “oh shit! I should probably wrap this plot line up before moving on.” to things that were stupid

The ending was rushed, everything wound up being solved, pretty much and was tied up with a friggin bow and ended with a snarky thought from Velvet as Nick kissed her. I could have cared less if they all damn well DIED you know… again.

So some good points

The descriptions were pretty good, I enjoyed the new way purgatory and the afterlife was portrayed kind of like a slum mixture of all types of cultures crammed together in a 1850’s kind of way.

The parts with Velvet and Bonesaw were actually very good and I wanted more of them.

I laughed…. A lot

Enchanted- Alethea Kontis

4/5







** spoiler alert ** Enchanted was a beautiful and sweet story. Full of magic, sunlight, evil villains, dancing, pretty dresses and fairy tales.

It was a bit silly, but in that way that made me smile while I read it and entertained me. I don’t think it was terribly creative or original because the author basically just pieced together a poem and about two dozen fairy tales, but it was nice and an amusing easy read.

The fairy tales I saw (and I am sure I am forgetting some) are: Jack and the Bean Stalk, 12 Dancing Princesses, Bluebeard, Frog Prince, Princess and the Pea, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty,

I thought the characters were awesome. Rumbold/Grumble the prince was a decent hero and love interest. He seemed to care about Sunday and was interested in what she had to say, write and her happiness. I thought he was the most interesting and flushed out character.

Sunday’s parents were both rather cool. Especially once I found out the mom wasn’t mean, she just didn’t talk because her words came true. And the dad, Jack a tree feller was a good father role.

But the best part about this story was Seven and Jack’s kids:

Jack Junior- Who no one knows where he is and spent a year as a dog

Trix- a fairy changeling child that talks to animals and is their cousin they found roaming the woods

Peter- well…honestly not much was said about Peter, just kind of stoic…He didn’t really matter too much.

And then the daughters:

Monday- Most beautified, girly girl in the whole world

Tuesday- the dancer who died

Wednesday- she who would be queen, the poet, the one with the most magical power

Thursday- The Pirate Queen (Honestly she is in like ten pages and was my FAVORITE character)

Friday- The one who sews and can manipulate fabric better than anyone, good and caring

Saturday- The quick healing tomboy

Sunday- The writer whose words come true and thinks she is destined o have a doomed life…The main character.

Also what fairy tale would be complete without fairy Godmothers?

Joy and Sorrow…Oh and yes it really IS that easy to tell which one is good and which one is bad.

And a MEGA VILLIAN

Rumbold’s father the King Without a Name.

I love a story that centers on a large colorful family, especially one with sisters who are close and loving. While I didn’t think Sunday was the BEST heroine ever I did think she was better and more interesting than a lot of the heroines I have been reading about of late.

I don’t know what else to say aside from I enjoyed reading this and didn’t want to put it down.

My only real issue was I found it a bit clichéd (and not in a cute way) at times, and the ending was rushed.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Ripper- Amy Carol Reeves

3/5

** spoiler alert ** Uh.... Oh... Ergh... Where do I start...


This is getting three stars because it is Jack the Ripper, which is the only reason I am keeping this, it is really just a 2.5 or 2 book though.

First off the main character Arabella. She's fairly interesting and not obnoxious, smart and didn't get on my nerves. But the way the author wrote events surrounding her was just ridiculous. Everything happens just so EASY. She doesn't faint at death, blood, babies being born, doesn't break a sweat or even bat an eye at STD's, prostitutes’ murder, corpses etc…etc…

She defeats four GROWN IMMORTAL MEN without any real training in fighting, all by herself.

The Inspector in charge of the Ripper case needs her to help him spy on doctors in the White Chapel Hospital cause she so dang special. I know that I am supposed to be suspending disbelief but come on!

And then the author does three things I really hate.

1) She introduced a bunch of other famous people from that time period, linking them together. Blah! Just because this takes place in the late 1800's does not mean I want to see every historical person interlinked within these pages as well. Blah!

2) LOVE TRIANGLE Need I say more? Ummm Well... yup. She is not that pretty or awesome to warrant the interest of two yes two handsome upper class doctors. And BAM! insta love, which I am ok with in paranormal books or when the author offers SOME explanation. But Arabella knows William for a few months, they spend barely any time together she even mentions she does not know ANYTHING about him and suddenly she is in lurv with him.... Stupid.

3) The idea behind the Ripper wasn't good enough. Conspiracy Theory Heaven is what I call books with Jack the Ripper that cannot find a more unique or better answer than just another conspiracy theory and secret club bruhaha. Sure the secret group was original but the rest has been done to death. ha ha

The author did do a good job of providing details and background, the writing was decent enough and I was entertained. The cover art was crap, but the premise was fun.

Monstrous Beauty- Elizabeth Fama

5/5
** spoiler alert ** I almost don’t have words for the beauty of this book. First off I don’t usually enjoy mermaid books; I find them all to be too much Little Mermaid pretty pretty princess. Though aside from that last part honestly this one was too. Mermaid falls in love with a human. But this book was so much MORE than that.

It was disturbing- the mermaids were vicious soulless creatures. There was rape and death, murder and horror.

It was creative- the storyline was good, the imagery was wonderful and the characters had depth.

It was clichéd, but in a new way- The insta love was explained away in a twisted version of reincarnation. The love triangle was there, but in a soft depressing macabre kind of way. The girl doesn’t wind up with either of them in the end and it was a peaceful, quiet, deep and distraught, albeit wet, ending.
The writing was fresh- it bounced back and forth between present day and the past, letting you get hints and glimpses of the hidden secrets waiting on every page. The writing was excellent as well, especially for a YA novel. And deep breath this will probably NOT be a series YAY!!!!

The history was involved- you could tell the author did her research, the graveyard epitaphs were truthful I love cemeteries too!. The slight mythology she used was intense and as accurate as mythology can be and the pilgrim info as well as the genealogy and treatment of old books was correct as well. My BF is works for the family history library
This was an excellent book and I didn’t want to put it down, there was nothing fanciful about it. Was it paranormal? Sure. Was it fantasy? Yes…. But it wasn’t pretty. Was it romantic? Of course. But it wasn’t as much a love story as it was explaining how one act effect so many people years down the road.

If you like paranormal romance but are tired of books like Twihard, Sookie Snatchhouse and even though I like it House of Night. Then please read this hauntingly horrible book.

Living Dead in Dallas- Charlaine Harris

3/5


Warning Profanity
2016 Edit: I use the word slut/whore in this review, negatively. In the past few years I have changed quite a bit. I try to not judge a woman by how many sexual partners she has had: her body, her business. I also try not to use slut in a negative way . I won't edit the review because it is who I was more than four years ago, but I did want to put in this notation as a warning. I do wish the author had allowed Sookie to embrace her sexual escapades rather than slut shame other women and make Sookie so hypocritical. Thanks.

** spoiler alert **
Alright, so this is my review of Living Dead in Dallas. The second Sookie Stackhouse novel. I have given this three stars, because it was, without a doubt, better than the first. Please remember this is possibly the fourth or fifth time I have re read this novel. I’ve just found myself annoyed with this series so I’ve decided to do a re read.

First off we’ll start with the fact that this story is jumpy. We begin with the murder of the beloved gay cook and go straight into the kidnapping of the Dallas vampire and then right back into the Bon Temps orgy parties. Ms. Harris mixes in a Bill/Sookie break up, some great hot Eric, angst and a bunch of crap where Sookie does what she normally does. I.E. cleans, works, dresses horribly etc…etc…

Second we’ll talk about things I friggin HATED.

1) Sookie, without any warning is suddenly a great hypnotist and can put someone into a deep meditation. She briefly explains that she has been using the human staff at Fangtasia as test subjects. However, we are given no time frame for how long she has been doing this. For a girl who only months (weeks?) ago wanted nothing to do with her gift, she is suddenly all about using it. Kind of unbelievable.
2) After she and Bill “break up” she sees him with another woman at a game. Instead of thinking, like most girls would, how she misses him and wants him back. Sookie’s first thoughts are of a carnal nature, how much she wants to do him right then and there. Can we say, “slut much?” Apparently this little barmaid is really just a whore in the making. Especially when Bill shows up on her door step and basically screws her like five times before they do serious talking about what “broke” them up to begin with. I can just not get behind this MC, she is all over the place.
3) During a rather good sex scene Ms. Harris has Sookie describe it as it was like being made love to by the Tasmanian Devil Ummm… In what universe is this hot? That should be more of an insult, but the MC seems to rather enjoy it. It’s not the way any real woman would describe that sort of furious love making… But too each their own, I guess.
4) The ending, it felt very thrown together. Sookie gets invited to the orgy where the evil people are hanging out and all conveniently thinking about killing the cook. She is there for ten minutes and needs fresh air, she winds up outside and BAM suddenly EVERYONE is there, Andy, Portia, Bill, Sam and the Maenad. And, of course, there is no need for law enforcement; the maenad takes care of all the bad guys leaving everyone else blissfully alone. Then we wrap the story up with a shower, a sex scene, a corny “best sex of your life” ending. Well onto the next I guess.


The best things about this book are: a) The Dallas part, I enjoyed the fellowship of the sun information, the kidnapping and defecting vampire were all rather clever. B) Luna the were-bat, probably the best character in the whole book and c) is the interaction between her and Eric. The chemistry is awesome, he has the best dialogue. *fang girl love for Eric* Like Bill would dress like a bisexual in lycra pants to help Sookie out, but then he does has the nerve to get all possessive and offended when he finds out, even though he left her alone without any sort of back up. I mean by the end of this book you’d think Bill would figure out she has a habit of getting into trouble. Like….. *drum roll please* BELLA!! LOL

However, in the end, much better than the first novel. Honestly it deserves 2.5 but since that’s not an option…three it is.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The Far West - Patricia C Wrede

5/5


First off this is probably one of my favorite books of the 2012. I couldn’t devour the pages fast enough; I honestly wanted to call into work just to finish it. In fact I was late picking up my boyfriend so I could do just that.

Some points I would like to touch on.

1) The author always manages to give off that warm happy fantasy feel with her writing; like I want to snuggle down into the story and that it should never end.

2) In this series Ms. Wrede does an AMAZING job of blending magic, science and technology. The explanations of how magic works is very creative.


3) With that said, there were times that I got a little bored with the technical explanation of how spells worked and how certain kinds of magic are different from others. But in my defense the main character Eff got bored here too. LOL

4) The characters are all really well thought out. Each one has individuality, spark and a back story which makes them all important. You can tell the author took a lot of time developing her characters.


5) I really enjoy the AU Oregon Trail/Old West feel that this story has where magic is common place. It’s the United States but it isn’t, at the same time. So much thought and effort went into this I can only imagine the story notes, outlines and diagrams the author must have made for these three books to be so cohesive and comprehensive.

6) The unique flora and fauna is another thing that just endears this series to me. Steam Dragons, Medusa Lizards, Hexberries, this list just goes on and one and each one more unique than the others. I love that they go on an expedition to the Rocky Mountains and it’s mainly just to discover what is out there. When I was a little girl I played Oregon Trail on the computer and it was my favorite game, this book makes me happy in the same way.

7) The Society of Progressive Rationalists- this is almost satirical in its creation. A society against using magic.

8) While this book ends with a bit of a love story I truly enjoy that this series has no romantic entanglements, unlike so many novels out there a love interest for Eff is the lowest priority.

9) Eff- is such a strong female character. When I’ve been re reading Sookie Stackhouse and Anita Black this is refreshing. While these characters try and be strong female leads and fail in so many ways…Here is a YA/MIDDLE GRADE novel that, just as Cimorene (Dealing With Dragons) did before this, succeeds to have a powerful woman who knows what she wants and goes out to get it.


So five fucking stars and a giant THANKS to Ms. Wrede for making my day with this brilliant novel.

Tiger Lily-Jodi Lynn Anderson

4/5
** spoiler alert ** This was simply amazing. First off a warning, this is a RETELLING, I have read reviews of people bitching because this book butchered the enchanting tale of Peter Pan. This is NOT Peter Pan, it is the story told in an entirely different way and should be read with the knowledge that it is literary ya fiction and not a magical children’s play.

1) I loved how beautifully simplistic this novel was, there was basically no magic and the plot, while basic, had such a great writing style that I just got sucked in. Like the movie Second Hand Lions No intense action, CGI, or Special effects. Just a good story, solid characters and a great back drop

2) Dialogue- there was very little dialogue, mainly the watching of things taking place.

3) Neverland- I love a retelling, it is my down fall and in this book the author manages to re create Neverland into something that could actually be. The inhabitants stop aging at different times and consider aging to be a disease. There are mermaids but they are kind of ugly, and harsh killers and the fairies cannot speak and are more like insects than the pretty sparkling things we are used to. It was a very interesting take on this story.

4) Tiger Lily- This novel is told mainly from the life of Tiger Lily. It shows her as a strong, independent tough heroine and actually one the first ones I could really get behind in a long time. She has faults but she is a 15 year old Indian girl just trying to find her way as the daughter of the cross dressing shaman. She makes mistakes and fixes them and while she falls in love with Peter, it does not consume her and when things falls apart she finds love elsewhere and lives as happily ever after as she can.


5) Tinker Bell- This story is from the point of view of Tink who loves and watches Tiger Lily and falls in love with Peter. She is more of a protective insect like creature than the spoiled irritating fairy that Disney turned her into. Fairies in this book cannot speak but can read minds and are empathic. Tink spends the story loyal to Tiger Lily and trying to help and protect both Tiger and Peter.

6) Peter Pan and the Lost Boys- In this Peter is a bit of a beast. He is 16, dirty, lost, and confused and does not fly. He loves Tiger Lily but still wants to be admired by her and better than her. Obviously his affection is stolen easily by Wendy. He tries to take care of the Lost Boys, all of whom washed up in Neverland or were kidnapped by pirates, from England. They are a rambling rowdy bunch of boys. The author writes them as real boys without the magic, and fun from the original story. They are not the cute adorable boys we are used to but real ones, much more Lord of the Flies and less ”We’re following the leader”.

7) Wendy- Here is something that I find the same in this book and the original. Wendy was annoying and I was glad when her character finally left the story.


8) Tik Tok and Englanders- Tik Tok is the Shaman of their village and he is a cross dresser, the people do not care and find it completely normal. He finds Tiger Lily as a baby and adopts her. He is well respected and there is never any mention of whether he is gay or not. Then the English come and one infiltrates their tribe with stories of how men and women have certain roles and of their male one true God. This causes a disturbance within the tribe which leads to Phillip (The Englander) cutting off Tik Toks’ braid, burning his dresses and Tik Tok taking to his bed due to, basically, heart break. This added just a touch of extra depth and meaning to the novel.

9) The reason for four stars instead of five- the ending was rushed and I HATE that. Also some other things happen I found unnecessary and it takes Tiger Lily forever to come to her senses and act the way the reader and Tink know she should. The book, while great, ended almost is a sad way, without being actually sad. If that makes any sense.

I recommend reading this. Unless of course Peter Pan is just the be all and end all of your existence, then you may not enjoy the tone and style of this book and where the author took it. But I loved it.

Beautiful Darkness- Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

 
3/5
 
 
 
So I finished the sequel to Beautiful Creatures I read it in a day. I can’t decide if I read it in a day so it would get over with faster and I could move on to something else? Or if I am a glutton for punishment? Or maybe it really was that good. I am going with the second one.

Basically this book left me torn in two. I have the same issues with it that I did with the first one, and some of the same enjoyments.

However, that being said: ranty rant time I think I shall put this one into letter format for the first half

Dear bitch Lena,

You are a horrible person. You are angsty, selfish and whiny. No one cares that you think you are doing all of your running away, dressing like a slut and hanging all over some guy because you are a “ danger” to those you love. You are simply selfish and mean. It is mean to be horrible to the people who love you like Ethan and then turn around and get pissy when they…Oh I don’t know, make new friends or move on with their life. You are truly one of the worst characters I have had the misfortune to read about in the young adult section in the past few years. There at the end I was hoping Ethan would grow a brain, snog Liv and you would die. I hope in the third installment of this series you are a better person, a better niece, a better girlfriend and a better grand daughter. I haven’t wanted to smack a fictional character and say, suck it in forever.

Love ,
Me

Dear Ethan a.k.a Lena’s doormat

You need to dump that cunt and run the fuck away. You could do SO much better.

Sincerely,
Me


This novel spent half the time with these people bemoaning their heartbroken fates and running through the Caster Tunnels, which I will admit was pretty cool. The plot was not difficult to figure out with the whole Macon/Lila Jane thing and Macon not really being dead, though I did enjoy both of those aspects to the plot. There was a Caster kitty, which was fun and I always love how the authors describe and shove in the many colorful characters living in Gatlin.

I felt bad for Ridley (though I have this whole time) and felt horrible for Liv cause she was actually a cool girlfriend. I praise the Goddess for Link cause he was truly the only one who could lighten the mood. I felt depressed and angry throughout all but the last maybe fifty pages of this novel. I still feel as if the authors are writing Ethan like women want to think boys act…but they really don’t. So like I stated before….I am not sure how I feel about the novel as a whole, so three stars it is.

I have no idea if I will be reading the third and fourth books in this series…

Come ON! Sixteen Moons, Seventeen Moons, and now Eighteen Moons? Its not clever any more, it’s repetitive.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Beautiful Creatures- Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

4/5







Beautiful Creatures…

*sigh* I read so many negative reviews that I geared myself up to hating the book. Which was my bad, I really shouldn’t let reviews affect how I feel. Though I must admit it wasn’t the description of the book that made me read this… It was the movie preview which looked so damn haunting and good I finally decided to jump on the bandwagon and read the novel.

I enjoyed this book. I found in entertaining, so unlike most of my reviews I am going to start off with what I liked first.

1) The characters accept Lena. The authors wrote brilliant characters. They all had depth and back story, personality, quirks, their own style and designs. Many quirky little juicy tidbits that made me truly care about what happened to them.
2) The magic- it was rather unique how they wrote about Casters, and gave each of their powers and abilities special names. The authors described the magic in a new and fun way that I enjoyed, giving the magic its own life, in a way
3) The world building and descriptions- Gatlin was given a very realistic description and I found myself really picturing life in this close minded small town with the churches, everyone loving the civil war, DAR and eccentric old ladies
4) The writing- I found the writing, while not the BEST ever, to be good, good enough that I read and read and read and didn’t want to put it down.
5) The story line- the concept was a decent one, I had issues, which I will get into later) but for the most part I was intrigued buy the thought that on her 16th birthday Lena would be Claimed for the Light or the Dark and that Ethan was trying to find a way to save her… Yeah I said ETHAN, not LENA.
6) The Caster Library- I want more info on Marian and Ethan’s mom, but the library ROCKS


Okay so the not so good stuff… Warning: There is A LOT but I still thought the good aspects outweighed the crap

1) First person Ethan- two women should probably NOT write first person a boy. He sounded more like what teenage girls WANT boys to actually be like, not what a real boy would be like
2) Lena- She was like, the MAIN character aside from Ethan and I seriously just don’t like her much. She is way too angsty, poor pity me, I am so going dark blah blah blah… Look bitch, if you maybe are going to lose yourself and become a Dark Caster why are you bitching, whining and moaning about it? Go, I don’t know LIVE YOUR DAMN LIFE Have a good time! Live to the fullest while you can!
3) The storyline- Eh, there were some things I didn’t care for. First off I didn’t need pages upon pages about the Civil War reenactment and for every few chapters Ethan to drone on about why the Civil War was important to Galtin, yeah dude, I got it the first dozen times. Also Lena spends all her time lamenting that she is going to go dark, but all I saw was Ethan trying to find a way around it, Ethan loving her and not letting go, Ethan struggling to keep her sane and good… And what did he get for it? A YA trope where Lena dumps him ”for his own good…” Which is just selfish bitch for : I can’t handle being in a relationship right now. Though they get back together like a day or two later
4) The Claiming- so in Lena’s family Casters are not normal, when they turn 16 they are Claimed for the Light or Dark and it doesn’t matter what they want, they have no damn choice. So naturally the Dark Casters are treated like shit? Does this sound like a self fulfilling prophecy to anyone else? Of course I am going to be an evil person if when my eyes turn yellow you all treat me like I am an evil person. This made some of the climax and plot twists feel just a little bit forced.


The ending was not bad, though a character I liked died, while characters that sucked did not. I can only hope that the sequel lives up to this book. I enjoyed this book I really did, did it have the insta love, angsty teen drama that most ya novels have? Yeah, sure… But it also had a hell of a lot of other fun things as well… Read and enjoy

Idrakula- Bekka Black

3/5



OMG! So this is getting three stars, and only because it made me laugh and laugh and laugh. Take an author with WAY too much time on her hands, give her something to butcher, add emails and cell phones and you have created idrakula.

While yes the original story is written through diaries and letter and transcriptions, it works because of the time period. This is ridiculous because no one really does all of their communication through emails and text messages. Especially not important things like best friends dying, finding out your boyfriend has cheated on you and that a good friend has been committed to an asylum and then has died.

The author has put her own spin on Dracula and made it from the point of view of teenagers, and the worst kind of teenagers; emo, stupid and horny. She left out characters and changed the dynamics and relationships between the characters as well. The count is only seen through the eyes of Jonathan Harker, and they try to scientifically explain away Jonathan’s craziness in Romania and Lucy’s death. Van Helsing and Mina hook up at the end because he is only a few years older than her at this point. This book if you can really call it a book would have been more successful had she twisted it and given Dracula a cell phone and email of his own.

There was also a bit of silliness in some of the websites she used like Ask Vlad, drakipedia and Tepes Travel.

Between the emails, screen shots of text messages and browser history this book was a jumble of crap, funny bull shit, basically. And I cannot understand how it got published. Though after reading it I can understand why I found it in a used book store marked down to five dollars from ten. I have never heard of this or seen it before, though the cover art is fairly good. I will keep it, simply because I love anything Dracula.

Infamous Lady- Kim Craft






When I got this in the mail I seriously read it all in one night. I read while making dinner, while eating dinner, while my kids watched TV and then after they went to bed.

It had a TON of great information, some of which I didn't know through my own research. I liked that she mentioned which rumors were totally false or that there was no real proof that certain things in folk tale, actually happened. Though she did not touch on stories of Elizabeth having a baby out of wedlock which my research has found many tales of.

I especially enjoyed that she included information of Elizabeth's sisters, children and hand writing analysis as well as information that Elizabeth's killings usually escalated after she had to pretend to be normal at a gathering or after receiving guests.

I think the author wrote these facts with great interest and it was done in such a way that kept me interested and I am not a HUGE non fiction person.

The one negative was that the trail transcripts of all the witness testimony and who the witness were, man…dryer than dry and repetitive. I mean it’s nice to have that information from the records, but reading it was tedious.

One of the BEST non fiction accounts of the Blood Countess I have ever read and my personal library is FULL of them

4/5