[REVIEW] Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Published: January 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: Everneath #1

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...(From Goodreads)

Everneath. A modern take on the myth of Persephone and Hades.  Well honestly if there wasn't a quote on the cover indicating the connection, I would have never known.  Thank you HarperCollins for your strategically placed quote.

This book was okay.  I was disappointed due to the raving reviews about how good the book is. Well to me it's just okay. 

I don't like how the author split each section.  There's too much.  First she has the chapter headings.  Then she has the frequent flashbacks and present day time that is represented by a bolded, capitalized heading of either NOW or LAST YEAR.  Under each heading, is italicised font of the location and how much time is left to the feeding or until her time is up.  Honestly I felt like I was reading a crime report.  There's no need for all the added information. The only thing I appreciated was the time just so I got an understanding of how much time was left, since she only has six months on the surface.  Also the transitions between past and present are instant.  Often the flashbacks relate to what is currently happening in the past but it happens so quickly that I feel a break from the text when I read it.

The three main characters are developed quite well. Each one has their own distinct identity that is evident the further you get in the book. I felt that some characters could have been given more of a part, such as Nikki's best friend Jules, who is meant to create a sort of barrier between Nikki and Jack but that didn't work out that well, probably because she was a minor character and wasn't really needed since there was already Cole who I think brings enough drama to the book.

The other thing I like about this book is how emotionally connected I felt with Nikki.  Not because I went through exactly what she went through but the fact that even though I didn't go through her pain, I could still understand it.

I'm glad that this book is part of a series because if it wasn't, I would not accept the ending at all.

If you like romance driven books with some mythology mixed in to it, then give this a try.

Enjoy!

PS: the cover is absolutely amazing! So pretty!

MEH

[REVIEW] Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Published: June 2011
Publisher: Scholastic
Age Group: Young Adult

A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares.

Epidemics, floods, droughts--for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued from a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her: the Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her. (From Goodreads)

Sigh. When I saw this book, I thought it would be absolutely amazing.  Clearly I was wrong.  not that this book was bad...just that it wasn't good either.  Ashes, Ashes could have been so much better, perhaps an entire series dedicated to it but it's only a stand alone novel. 

The beginning of the story started out well.  If you can't tell by the cover, this is a dystopic novel and we findt he main character Lucy trying to survive in her shelter.  What really struck me hard about this dystopic world is the fact that Lucy had forgotten who Alice, from Alice in Wonderland was.  I'm pretty sure her shelter was located near/in Central Park in New York City because she was using the Alice statue a measure of how high the water is.  It gave me the sense of sadness that in this dystopic world, people begin to forget information that they've know all their lives.

After the first 100 pages the story kind of goes down hill.  First, SPOILERS ALERT, Lucy finds a boy, her first human contact in a year, and immediately it is evident that he is the romantic interest of her's in this novel.  Then Lucy's shelter floods in and she has no choice but to seek out the boy again and hopefully stay with him.  The reson the world was destroyed is because of a plague.  The very few survivors are living together but there are sweepers who come and abduct them. Lucy runs in to quite a few of them.

Now her romantic interst, Aidan. I thought he was very well written, probably one of the only characters. I don't mean to bash the author but when I read the book, I found that the plot felt rushed and most of the characters weren't developed enough.  The love rival doesn't seem like a love rival but it is evident that she is.  Also, I guess due to the lack of people, it's really hard to have sub plots which might have been why the story was cut short.

The ending of this story could have been much longer.  I was expecting much more and I got worried when I got to the last 50 pages and realized that this story would end and that it couldn't possibly end well in only 50 pages.  I guessed right.

So I guess this is one of those books that really could have been good if it became a series. 

BORROW

[REVIEW] Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Published: October 2010
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: Caster Cronicles #2

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems. (From Goodreads)

First, I've tried very hard to like this series but no matter how much I read it, I just can't seem to like it as much as I thought I would.

Beautiful Darkness starts out almost exactly after the events of the prevous book.  There is little introduction and little facts about the previous book that I found to be quite helpful since it's been awhile since I've read Beautiful Creatures.  That's probably the only thing I have positive to say about this book. (Do you see where this is going?)

The characters in this book are very generic.  And it is blatently obvious when the authors include some plot turning event or information to move the story along and continue it.  Honestly, the story could have continued differently from what the current path is, but I have a feeling that since this is young adult, there is a need for there to be a happy ending, or somewhat happy ending, for the two main characters. i.e. we get plot turners that are very obviously put there so the story goes in the right direction. I've honestly encountered multiple occasions when reading this book where I've pondered to myself how stupid the characters are. 

SPOILER
Lena becomes all depressed during this book and decides to leave Ethan.  By concidence (probably not) a new MORTAL girl comes to town catching Ethan's attention.  Seriously, Ethan ditch Lena and make the mortal your girlfriend. He really should have just left her but of course it is revealed that Ethan is actually a "wayward" i.e. he has to guide Lena and when he realizes why Lena left him it's like a ephiphonal moment and now he needs to save Lena if it's the last thing he does.  "What just happened?"  That was honestly my first response to this when I read it.  What happened to leaving Lena and living a normal life? Hmm? Of course not because then the story wouldn't be intersting.  Then they decide to really mess things up by showing what Lena claimed.  MAJOR SPOILER but clearly they didn't make it so she picked either light or dark.  No, of course Lena had to be special and pick both, making it so the entire second book was pointless searching and depressing moments.  Hurrah.  But seriously, her choice, at the last 50 pages or so made the previous parts absolutely pointless.  The driving force of the second book was Lena's choice and look what happened.  Complete dissapointment.  Now the story is taking a different route but honeestly I'm pretty sure it's going to be the same outline. 

I've rarely found books about witchcraft that I've absolutely loved, and Beautiful Darkness is no exception.  It's not good, but not bad.  Just that a lot of scenes became too predicatable and generic and didn't make sense but was added anyway.

I have nothing else to say about this book and if you choose to read it, please write what you thing about this booka nd let me know.  I'm quite curious to see what other people think of it. Whether you agree with me or not.

(might be a little bit too generous...)

BORROW

[RANT] Insurgent - Free Four

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As you can tell by my countdown widget, Insurgent is nearing it's release date (less then one week left!!!)

If you can't tell, I'm kind of in love with the trilogy (it's confirmed!) Divergent.

Now for equally exciting news, Veronica Roth has had a proposition, that if pre-orders reach 35,000, she'll release a chapter written in Four's perspective...Well, I'm happy (more like extremely excited) to say that yesterday, officially 35,000 pre-order copies have been sold.

And so, the release of the chapter.

Here's Veronica's blog post about it.  A link will be in it.

Anyone else as excited as I am?

P.S. 6 MORE DAYS!!!!

[REVIEW] Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Published: November 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: Shatter Me #1

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior. (From Goodreads)

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi was definitely a book that got better as you read it. At the beginning I really didn't like the story.  Perhaps it was the author's writing style.  Tahereh Mafi wrote this book with repeated words and crossed out lines (which looks strange at first but you get use to it.) Personally, I'm a reader who enjoys fast paced and to the point writing so repeated words and confusing slashed sentences made it very confusing for me. Now my reasoning behind the repeated words was that it did emphasize the situation without having to bold the text or make it larger for that matter. Also the crossed out words seem to be what Julliette is truly thinking because, usually, right after the crossed out words is the opposite of what she wants to say.  For instance, towards Adam, she'll be like "Touch me Don't touch me" Like that.

I also found that this book, mainly at the beginning, was written like a journal. I'm not sure if this is her writing style either but the writing changed half way through the story.  It blended perfectly together so it wasn't easy to tell but I instantly enjoyed the story much more after the change.  It got quicker and less crossed out and repeated words. 
The author also likes to use internal monologues to countdown days, seconds, breaths etc.  Basically there are a lot of numbers in this book...that I don't particularly think add anything exciting to it and honestly, if they were taken out, I feel the book would be the same (maybe even better)

I thought the descriptions were different, in a good way, and written in a way that metaphors or analogies are compared to things that I wouldn't normally compare them to, and yet it makes perfect sense when you think about it.  I've read very few books that describe actions and emotions like this book does.

The characters are also very well written. Juliette seems like the frail, innocent, peaceful  girl who has this deadly touch but she can also be stern and violent if need be.  Adam seems to be the rigid, rule-following guy but can be a total softy when need be too.

I love a good romance and Adam and Juliette's romance together is something that I absolutely adore.  If I were to critic anything, it is that their love blossamed a little too quickly for me.  There was no build up just a sudden click and they were a couple.  They make a very good couple so I'll let that go but it's a little hard to believe in their love it happens like that first.

The love triangle (or corners as I have been repeatedly told by my friends) in this story is...unusual.  Usually it's a girl that's torn between two guys, both equally amazing and she has to choose one.  In this case, it's two guys torn between one girl and yet the girl only reciprocates her love to another.  I have a theory that Juliette's touch doesn't work on people that truly love her. Because Warner and Adam are both immune and both love her.  It'll be interesting to see how this triangle/corners turns out in the future.

Shatter Me is a Dystopic novel (no surprise that I would find another one).  The story line reminds me of Legend by Marie Lu. And even a little bit of the Hunger Games.  I feel like the whole escape and finding the resistance is like it but of course that's entirely my opinion.

The ending was definitely written for a sequel in mind.  There was no definite ending so I guess I'll have to wait a year to read the sequel (Released early 2013)
Enjoy!

MEH

[REVIEW] Fifty Shades Darker by E L James

Published: September 2011/April 2012
Publisher: The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House/
Vintage Canada
Age Group: Adult
Series: Fifty Shades #2

Daunted by the singular sexual tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house.

But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.

While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life. (From Goodreads)

NOTE: THIS IS ADULT FICTION, i.e. for MATURE audiences.  It's best not to read this if you're not an adult. Read at your own discretion

This trilogy is probably my new favourite romance.  Of course a great deal of the story is the relationship between Christian and Ana and their, ahem, vigorous love. 

I will admit I didn't fully finish reading the first book before reading this but I was fine.  It was confusing a little bit but it made sense the more I read. 

Christian is probably the ideal man for every women. Think Twilight's Edward Cullen but an adult version.  Then add a troubled past and a very controlling man and that's Christian.  Christian's rich, powerful, handsome and practically AMAZING!!! (if you can't tell, I'm definitely a Christian lover)

Ana on the other hand is supposedly like Bella but I see little to no relation between them.  The fifty shades trilogy started out as an adult twilight fan fiction so I was thoroughly surprised when I kept reading and Ana's personality became more apparent.  In all honesty, this trilogy is much better than Twilight, the only problem is that it's targeted for more mature audiences.

Throughout the book Christian treats Ana like a princess. Sigh, who wouldn't want to be treated like a princess! You can tell he absolutely loves Ana and Ana loves him back. 

I often complain about the fact that romances happen to quickly in stories. Even though this story was probably the exact same thing, it didn't feel like it when I read it.  It felt normal and just right that they would fall in love so quickly. Honestly I didn't even think about it until I started writing this review.

NOTE: When I heard this song on my i-pod, I immediately thought of Christian and Ana.

If anyone`s wondering, the song`s "Smile" by Uncle Kracker.  Although the song`s  little bit more cheerful than the actual book, in my opinion, I still think it fits.
There's a lot of BDSM (think bondage and s&m) but I don't think it takes away from the romance at all. The romance and the struggles they encounter is the main plot.   They also do a lot of, as Christian calls it, "vanilla love."  Oh Fifty, haunting the dreams of so many. Ana seems to be playing along more in this book than from what I've read of the first book. She's getting stronger and a little bit more demanding.. Oh well, Fifty needs to loosen up (which he does).

Whether this story was meant to be written as a fan fiction to begin with, it's still very well written. I'm not sure how much they edited but I honestly couldn't put the book down until I finished reading it, which I've found recently to be very rare. Usually the beginning of a book will be amazing and then I slow down near the end or vice versa. I think the last time this happened to me was when I read Divergent by Veronica Roth, which was back to late last year, so it's been a while.

This book reminds me of the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong, not because they`re alike but because they seem to be complete opposites of each other.  Kelley Armstrong`s series has the main focus on the struggles and the events of the story as oppose to the love, Fifty Shades has the love as the main focus and the events as the sub plots. The complete opposite. I love both these books so I`m not complaining, just thought it was intersting.

On  a last note. I found another song, guess I'm too much of a romantic

The song's "Wanna be Loved" by Scotty James. ♥ describes them so well!

If you love romance, you'll definitely love this book.  It's really really (really!) good. Give it a try!

BUY

[REVIEW] Fateful by Claudia Gray

Published: September 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Age Group: Young Adult

A tragic tale about falling in love on the world’s most infamous ill-fated sea voyage as heroine, Tess, discovers darker secrets that lie beneath the doomed crossing… and a hidden brotherhood that threaten to tear her lover from her forever.

The RMS Titanic is the most luxurious ship ever built, but for eighteen-year-old Tess Davies it’s a prison. Travelling as a maid for the family she has served for years, Tess is trapped in their employ amid painful memories and family secrets.

When she meets Alec, a handsome upper class passenger, Tess falls helplessly in love. But Alec has secrets of his own… and soon Tess is entangled in a dangerous game. A sinister brotherhood that will do anything to induct Alec into their mystical order has followed him onboard. And Tess is now their most powerful pawn.

Tess and Alec fight the dark forces threatening to tear them apart, never realising that they will have to face an even greater peril before the journey is over…

New York Times best-selling author Claudia Gray delivers adventure, dark paranormal suspense, alluring romance, and a truly surprise ending, set against the opulent backdrop of the Titanic's first — and last — voyage. (From Goodreads)

First of all, the cover for this novel is absolutely amazing.  Well mainly the font...but the colour is good too!  My first thoughts from seeing this cover was that this book was definitely about ghosts...well clearly I'm not very good at guessing because this book was not about ghosts.  After reading the story the cover quite accuratly depicts the story.

Fateful is about a girl, Tess, who is a servant of the Lisles family, an old noble family, that board the Titanic with them on a trip to America.  At this moment, you can already see where this is going.  Of course the story is about the sinking of the Titanic.  Claudia Gray puts her own twist in to this by introducing werewovles and this werwolf cult called the Brotherhood that has some buisness on this boat and Tess ends up in the middle of it.  On the boat, Tess also meets a wealthy nobleman called Alec.  The only problem is Alec is hiding a secret that could possibly harm Tess if she were to get closer to him.

Of course in Claudia Gray fashion Alec is a man that is of different background or social standards than Tess.  It is predictable and quite frankly tiring to read every time but I guess that's one of her signature trademarks and makes her special as an author.

The only major criticism I have with this book is that there are several sub plots that seem pointless.  Closer to the end, the purpose of them is revealed but I am pretty sure that if they weren't included in the story, the story would be equally as good, if not better.  For instance, when Tess starts reminiscing about the past and the mistake her sister did, I was constantly thinking "so? What does this have to do with the fact that you're on a boat bound to sink in the cold, freezing water?" Clearly I was very confused and then later the sub plot reaches a purpose and I'm still thinking "What did that have to do with the story?"

There are also dates, probably to show what happens during one day or the time line of this voyage.  I didn't really understand those either.  If the story is written well enough, readers should be able to tell when a new day has come or if several days have passed.  There is no need for prompting dates (as I call them) in this story.  The story is so simple that these dates only hinder the reading.

What I did like about this book is mainly how Claudia Gray explains emotions.  She does this in her Evernight series as well but all the characters have their own distinct emotion that is explained so detailed and written so well that sometimes I feel like I'm in the room with them when a daughter and mother get into a fight or when Tess is running for her life or when she experiences love.  This writing also made this Titanic tale much more interesting.  Claudia Gray's writing brought the sinking to life.  I'm pretty sure most of us, in our lives, have written or seen something detailing the catastrophic tragedy of the Titanic.  Fateful is written that I felt the explanation of the sinking and what the passengers actions and emotions were, was different to what I've encountered before.  There was pure emotion there and I really felt sorry for the passengers that couldn't make it off the ship.

Fateful is a stand alone novel and I really wish there was a sequel to this but there isn't. 

Give Fateful a try, perhaps you'll find you like it.  I didn't hate it but there were definitely parts that I was iffy on.

MEH