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Boundless by Cynthia Hand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The past few years have held more surprises than part-angel Clara Gardner could ever have anticipated. Yet from the dizzying highs of first love, to the agonizing low of losing someone close to her, the one thing she can no longer deny is that she was never meant to live a normal life.
Since discovering the special role she plays among the other angel-bloods, Clara has been determined to protect Tucker Avery from the evil that follows her . . . even if it means breaking both their hearts. Leaving town seems like the best option, so she’s headed back to California - and so is Christian Prescott, the irresistible boy from the vision that started her on this journey in the first place.
As Clara makes her way in a world that is frighteningly new, she discovers that the fallen angel who attacked her is watching her every move. And he’s not the only one. . . . With the battle against the Black Wings looming, Clara knows she must finally fulfill her destiny. But it won’t come without sacrifices and betrayal.
In the riveting finale of the Unearthly series, Clara must decide her fate once and for all.

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

In the end, my allegiance lies with Christian...

Oh wow. I actually finished a series I completely and utterly adored for the past few years. And I feel satisfied. After a bitter disappointment over Hallowed, I can safely say that this series has earned that special place in my heart for years to come. I CANNOT wait for more from Cynthia Hands. She has this way of making her books so easy to read but thoughtful at the same time.

Boundless started slow for me. I found that there weren't much to anticipate once the characters left the high school. But when I was struck with what actually happened to Angela, the reading experience was effortless from here on.

Oh boy, how can I forget how hard I fell for Tucker after Unearthly. After Hallowed, Christian got me swayed a bit and in Boundless, well, lets just say, I'm all his. XD Kinda unfair to be honest, since Tucker didn't get much exposure in this book to begin with. [Still, when in the climax, we were convinced that Tucker actually had died, a single, lone tear actually rolled l from my eye and I thought, so it all came down to this, eh?

Lo and behold, this was the point where the book loses its 0.5 star because resuscitating the dead and somehow the guy who came back to life becomes the prophet was all a little bit too grandiose for my liking. But at least, the ending wasn't as silly happy ever after-ish as offered in Breaking Dawn where nobody loses a limb. So there's that.

The baddies weren't as badass as I expected. Heh, I couldn't even recall his name. Amyst? Armasd? Uh, this memory of a goldfish. Samjeeza was dashing in this book. Somehow.

That creep.

Gee...never thought I'd be rooting for him as the leader of The Watchers back again.

The annoyings. Jeffrey and Angela. Wished they could be more useful. But I didn't like them since the first book anyway.

The I-need-more-of-you-beybeh! Micheal and Thomas. Why didn't I get MOAR? They deserved more airtime, helloooo? (hide spoiler)]

***Spoilers alert***


Still, when in the climax, we were convinced that Tucker actually had died, a single, lone tear actually rolled l from my eye and I thought, so it all came down to this, eh?

Lo and behold, this was the point where the book loses its 0.5 star because resuscitating the dead and somehow the guy who came back to life becomes the prophet was all a little bit too grandiose for my liking. But at least, the ending wasn't as silly happy ever after-ish as offered in Breaking Dawn where nobody loses a limb. So there's that.

The baddies weren't as badass as I expected. Heh, I couldn't even recall his name. Amyst? Armasd? Uh, this memory of a goldfish. Samjeeza was dashing in this book. Somehow.

That creep.

Gee...never thought I'd be rooting for him as the leader of The Watchers back again.

The annoyings. Jeffrey and Angela. Wished they could be more useful. But I didn't like them since the first book anyway.

The I-need-more-of-you-beybeh! Micheal and Thomas. Why didn't I get MOAR? They deserved more airtime, helloooo?

***Spoilers finished***


So yeah, basically I think I used up my long weekend pretty well, considering I still can't stop smiling over this book and this series altogether. :)

Sweet baby penguins! A 4.5 stars.

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Cold, fine drops of rain fall softly on my cheeks as I emerge from the darkness of the ship's interior to the gray, overcast sky of the main deck. Pulling my dark pea coat tighter to my body, the wind lifts red tendrils of my hair. I walk slowly to the railing overlooking the water.
I catch my first sight of the Irish coastline; its craggy landscape makes me shiver in dread. I find it difficult to imagine now how the Gancanagh had made this their home for so long without anyone realizing it. The cold, moss-covered edifices practically scream their presence. As I study the shadows between the falling-down stone, I imagine creeping shapes of undead Faeries grasping the rock, waiting for our ship to draw nearer to their position.
Tipping my face up, I let the rain wash over me. It bathes away the frigid sweat of fear that has broken on my brow. "You don't know how fiercely beautiful you are, do you?" A quiet voice behind me asks, causing me to stiffen and fix my eyes on the rocks along the shoreline.

I live in Michigan with my husband and our two sons. My family is very supportive of my writing. When I’m writing, they often bring me the take-out menu so that I can call and order them dinner. They listen patiently when I talk about my characters like they’re real. They rarely roll their eyes when I tell them I’ll only be a second while I finish writing a chapter…and then they take off their coats. They ask me how the story is going when I surface after living for hours in a world of my own making. They have learned to accept my “writing uniform” consisting of a slightly unflattering pink fleece jacket, t-shirt, and black yoga pants. And they smile at my nerdy bookishness whenever I try to explain urban fantasy to them. In short, they get me, so they are perfect and I am blessed. Please visit me at my website: http://www.amyabartol.com/

A Shimmer of Angels by Lisa M. Basso
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Sixteen-year-old Rayna sees angels, and has the medication and weekly therapy sessions to prove it. Now, in remission, Rayna starts fresh at a new school, lands a new job, and desperately tries for normalcy. She ignores signs that she may be slipping into the world she has tried so hard to climb out of. But these days, it’s more than just hallucinations that keep Rayna up at night. Students are dying, and she may be the only one who can stop it. Can she keep her job, her sanity, and her friends from dying at the hands of angels she can't admit to seeing?

First, sorry for the mini hiatus.

Second, I will try my hardest not be bitchy with this review.

So...

...are you looking for a typical angel book? With classic good angels and bad angels? Good as in the usual guardian angels and bad as in the usual fallen angels? Do you crave for more lame good vs evil battle where human lives are the price to pay should the evil wins? Do you mind another trashy love triangle where somehow the girl is dumb enough to choose the heartless wimp over the friendzone guy who has done nothing but saving her ass? Insta love. Don't forget the insta love. Now the ingredient to yet, another shallow YA paranormal book is complete!

Okay, maybe that was a bit bitchy.

But what do you expect? I was really looking forward to read it. A girl who spent years in the asylum, who tries so hard to live her normal life only to find out her hallucinations were actually real i.e she can indeed see angels. It breaks my heart to say this but I think Tahereh Mafi handled Juliette characterization better than Lisa M Basso handled Rayna's.

So why 2-stars, you say. It's because the first fifty pages deserved a five-stars. No kidding! Although it reads like Twilight i.e. there's a new kid in school and Rayna feels an irresistible pull towards this guy bla3, it's because she sees that this new kid has wings. Totally acceptable, right? And on that very same day, a string of mysterious suicides begin to occur on people around Rayna. I did actually feel spooked whenever the story zooms into these bizarre suicide cases.

But the rest? A total trainwreck.

If you think Bella accident prone-ness is ridiculous, wait until you meet...

Bad Luck Brian Rayna.

At 10%... I jerked back. Too hard. My chair tipped over, talking me with it. I smacked Jeremy in my mouth on my way down. My head bounced off the floor...

At 42%... I messed up orders, spilled food, and broke plates.

At 42%... He stilled. "Actually I was going to tell you the coffee pot's overflowing. You added too much water."

At 50%.... The coffee pot shattered against the tile floor, littering me with tiny fragments of glass and a hot rush of coffee.

At 50%... I pulled the mop bucket out, accidentally doubling the normal amount of solution, and turned on the hot water.


ULTRA-HIGH-ANGLE REVERSE FACEPALM.

Trust me, I have nothing against clumsy people. I'm clumsy myself. But after screwing up so many times, isn't it ridiculous that she didn't get fired?

Le prose;

He wrapped his arms around me so tight, even my pancreas hurt.

Cam was the vacuum that took the bad away...

















Meh. I don't know. If this is my first angel book then probably I'd be impressed. Sadly, it's not.

2 unimpressed faces

**The ARC was provided by Month9Books in exchange for an honest review.

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Libera Me by Christine Fonseca
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What happens when everything you’ve sacrificed for is lost?
Aydan thought Nesy’s death would be the end of him, until he meets Nessa and his hope is restored. Could she be Nesy reborn? He is certain she must be. That is, until her lack of memories and incessant nightmares begin to erode his faith.
Zane is used to trusting his mind, his wisdom and his angelic senses. But these attributes are no help with Nessa. He has no way to be certain of her identity, no way to know the truth. That is, unless he listens to the one thing he has refused to acknowledge throughout his existence - his feelings for Nesy.
Blind to both angel and demon, Aydan and Zane must figure out the truth behind Nesy's identity before all is lost, Azza discovers the truth and the Beast is again unleashed.
The lines between good and evil have never been so blurred.

I'm in agony, alright? How could I NOT LIKE any Christine Fonseca books? She's born to write for meeee!!!

Okay, that probably crossed the line but heyyyy, this woman has a gift with words. I think if I to die and reincarnated seven times as an emperor penguin, Darth Vader, an orc, a Ferrero Rocher, a bottle of mineral water, Sheldon Cooper, and Batman love interest, I still can't write as good as Christine Fonseca.

Before I decided on my final rating, I had to keep asking myself, am I being too harsh? I mean, I rated some books with sub-par writing more than 2-stars.

But girl,


And the message I got from this book was 'it's okay to cause so much destruction, to cause pain to everyone around you as long as you get to follow your heart'. For instance,

"And if she unleashes the Beast? What then? You know that it means if you can't control it."
"Oh yes, I know. And it's a risk I gladly take if it means there's a chance to save Nessa from all of this."

Wow. So every other human lives in this planet don't matter?

Okay, maybe I was being too harsh just now. But get this, the reading experience was not pleasant for me at all. But I have to applaud Christine Fonseca for her courageous attempt to make this book really different from its predecessor, Lacrimosa.

She was able to explore so many different emotions such as guilt, despair, longing and making sure you feel them too. Sadly, that didn't work for me because I kept going back to how the problem emerged in the first place and I always found the person to blame. Study these lines for example;

"What if it's a trap, Zane? Did you think about that? What if she's a demon sent by Azza?"
"Then I guess I'm going to die."

So instead of getting connected with the characters, I laughed and said 'serve you right' instead.

Yeah, I'm not a good reader in that sense.

Nessa. *sigh* Instead of being creep-ed out by a new guy who claimed he knows you all his life before, you feel guilty because you can't get your memories back? What evidence Aydan has for you to trust him that easily?

And you really need to stop crying.

Aydan. STOP CALLING YOUR GIRLFRIEND, BABY. Enough said.

Cass serves nothing more than Zane's personal angel. She has to keep telling Zane to do the right thing and sadly, Zane never listens.

But yeah, at the end of the day, if you think you like to enter a labyrinth of dreams and delusions with serious make outs in between while the actual story is static then this book is for you.

2 unimpressed faces

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Welcome to the Virtual Blog Tour for LIBERA ME, Book #2 in the Requiem Series by Christine Fonseca.
Beginning after Lacrimosa and the short story Mea Culpa, Libera Me follows Zane and Aydan as they try to figure out who Nessa really is. Here's the blurb:

What happens when everything you’ve sacrificed for is lost? Aydan thought Nesy’s death would be the end of him, until he meets Nessa and his hope is restored. Could she be Nesy reborn? He is certain she must be. That is, until her lack of memories and incessant nightmares begin to erode his faith.
Zane is used to trusting his mind, his wisdom and his angelic senses. But these attributes are no help with Nessa. He has no way to be certain of her identity, no way to know the truth. That is, unless he listens to the one thing he has refused to acknowledge throughout his existence - he feelings for Nesy. 
Blind to both angel and demon, Aydan and Zane must figure out the truth behind Nesy's identity before all is lost, Azza discovers the truth and the Beast is again unleashed. 
The lines between good and evil have never been so blurred.

Libera Me officially releases October 30. And be sure to check out the other books in the series:

LACRIMOSA

DIES IRAE (Free from Amazon and Smashwords)

MEA CULPA (Free from Amazon and Smashwords)


Introducing Nessa
 ~~
Thanks so much for hosting a leg of my tour today! I’d like to introduce you to the chracter that is the center of the mess in Libera Me – Nessa:

Decidedly human, Nessa is the human embodiment of the Sentinal Nesy. At least, Aydan thinks she is. In truth, he doesn’t know. No one knows. Nessa believes herself to be a girl that was abducted as a young child, subjected to horrific cruelties and abuses and now returned to her previous life. She has no memories of a time before living with a woman she believes is her aunt. No recollection of a life Aydan has told her about. And, she’s not sure she wants any part of that life.

Zane, too, believes Nessa to be Nesy. But, even he has to admit that she isn’t what she appears to be. She has no memory of being angelic, nothing to indicate she is more than human. Except, she can see Zane and the other angels. And she knows the ancient prayers. Still, something isn’t right. Not even close.

To get to know Nessa a little more, I thought I’d invite her to stop by and answer just a couple of questions:

1.      What do you think about Aydan and the life he tells you about? I love Aydan and his devotion to me. But, I don’t remember the life he speaks of, or the love we shared. I know that he makes me feels special, safe. And I know that he sincerely loves me. For now, that is enough. But I worry about our future. What if my memories don’t return? What if I am not the girl he thinks I am? These are the questions that plague my heart now.
         
2.      I hear you can see things others can’t. What do you think about that? It scares me, actually. Most of the time I think it’s just my mind playing tricks on me; you know, from all of the abuse I endured. But other times...well, other times I am fairly certain I’m just crazy. I mean, who actually sees things that aren’t there other than being with a mental illness, right? So yea, these visions or whatever they are scare me. A lot.

3.      What does your aunt and therapist think about your lack of memories? Both my aunt and my therapist think that I must have endured years of systematic abuse and the lack of memory is my brains way of protecting me. They are probably right. I just know that I remember nothing before standing on the porch of my aunt’s house, knocking on the door!

4.      What’s your biggest fear? Biggest hope? I have a lot of hopes and fears. But as it relates to Aydan, my biggest fear is that I will never remember the “Nesy” he speaks of and that I am nothing to him if those memories don’t surface. Worse, what if they do and I am just not that girl. My biggest hope is that he will love me regardless.

5.      What do you dream about? I don’t have dreams, I have nightmares. The scenes are always the same, alternating between an ancient world with caves set deep within a mountain that flanks a majestic blue sea, and a misty forest filled with stone ruins and the scent of rotting flesh. In both, I see horrific things I can’t bring myself to talk about aloud. In both, I feel a sense of terror that has no words. I really don’t like to sleep anymore...don’t like what the sleep brings.

So, there you have it – an introduction to Nessa. You will have to decide for yourself if she is Nesy or not.

About Christine:

School psychologist by day, critically acclaimed YA and nonfictionauthor by night, Christine Fonseca believes that writing is a great way to
explore humanity. Her many titles include TRANSCEND, DIES IRAE, LACRIMOSA, MEA
CULPA, and in nonfiction: 101 SUCCESS SECRETS FOR GIFTED KIDS and EMOTIONAL
INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS.

When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she canbe sipping too many skinny vanilla lattes at her favorite coffee house or
playing around on Facebook and Twitter. Catch her daily thoughts about writing
and life on her blog.
For more information about Christine Fonseca or theseries, visit her website –
http://christinefonseca.com or her blog
http://christinefonseca.blogspot.com. 

To celebrate to release and thank her readers, Christine is hosting a little contest honoring each of the main characters. Prizes include a new release YA book, Book swag, and even some of her own titles. She is also giving a Kindle as part of her Fall Release Party. Check out both giveaways below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Few Are Angels (Few Are Angels, book 1)

Amazon / BN / Author Site

Mea Culpa by Christine Fonseca

Everything has a price, especially duty. And love.
Azza's attacks are always deadly...ALWAYS. But that was before Nesy. And before Mikayel and Zane. Now, death has a new enemy. But, what's the cost for saving a life?
MEA CULPA follows one angel's quest to save his best friend.

Okay, to be honest at first I wanted to skip this novella because Zane is not among my favourite characters from the Requiem series. But then when I tried to read Libera Me, I couldn't get into the story. Luckily, I followed Christine's advice to read Me Culpa first because now, everything makes more sense! Hehe.

Well, Christine's writing is spectacular as always but with only five chapters, there was barely enough time to really feel for the characters. Not that it should be written longer, I just feel it's unfair for me to rate it based on these five chapters alone.

And yes, Mikayel really gotten on my nerves this time. I know he was just trying to be diplomatic or whatever but he came across as being hypocrite for me.

Okie, I'm off to read Libera Me now! ^_^

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Angel Diaries: Volume One (Angel Diaries #1)

He was forbidden. Uncontrollable. Never to be seen, mentioned, or otherwise talked about. Until the nightmares began. Searing the screams, carnage and death into her skull. Forever.
Before this, Lindsey had a normal life. Somewhat. She had a boyfriend who was acting strange, an ex-boyfriend who has been too flirtatious and a best friend who turned psychic.
Once upon a time, the hardest decision Lindsey had to make was who she would take to the upcoming Winter Dance: her boyfriend, Phillip, or her ex, Luke. Now, she's not even human. She's an Angel.
This book is recommended for 16 years or older due to adult scenes and situations.

Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Embrace the Forbidden
What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?
This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.
Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.
Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

Look, I'm aware of just how many of my GR friends are fans of this book. But, Kaidan didn't work his magic on me, nor I can tolerate everything else about this book.

Buckle up, boys. This ain't going to be pretty.

The whole time, I was trying to figure out the author. What was it actually that she wanted to convey? It was as if she was drunk herself while writing this!

I'm not saying that this is a total trainwreck. My 2-stars rating proved that. Somehow, Sweet Evil managed to sustain my attention until the end, and I actually almost fell for Kaidan. Almost.

Maybe I should show a figure to illustrate how I was feeling.


The prologue was okay, unfortunately its Chapter One was the worst first chapter I've ever read.

"Kai, like Thai, only yummier. Gah! Who was this girl invading my brain?"

I asked the same question myself, Anna.

"A freckle was not beautiful. It was a small dark attention grabber. I hated the way everyone's eyes went to it when they talked to me."

Tell me people with freckles, don't you find that offensive? Dear Anna, keep your idea of ideal beauty to yourself, will ya?

"I didn't really know what gonorrhea was, except that it was an STD"

Ugh, Anna. I thought you are this good girl who always scores in class. Even if you never learn about it in school, it doesn't hurt to have broader general knowledge.

After a couple of brief encounters, Anna made promise to Patti that she'll stay away from Kaidan, but the next thing she did was to go to Kaidan's apartment straight away?



And then, that 'a half-naked half demon was burying his face in my neck' thing (I seriously don't know what to call this)...was just disturbing in the sense that Anna got all excited and had to keep her hands from going everywhere on Kaidan.

I was sitting there, dumbfounded and thought


Look, I got that this Kaidan is the son of Lust and being sexy is indeed his job on this earth, but I would appreciate if Anna had more self control, considering she is ***spoiler ahead*** a half angel. ***spoiler finished***[considering she's a half angel! (hide spoiler)]

And then the road trip! So, they were short on time because Sister Ruth was dying, why wouldn't Kaidan and Anna just take a flight then? Come on, Kaidan is filthy rich right?

Don't get me wrong, I did miraculously enjoy the road trip part except when Kaidan slept naked and all those foreplay with Anna (seriously, Wendy Higgins, why wouldn't you just rename your book as FANSERVICE). I got to learn more about Kaidan's actual stance and the other side of his personality. Also, Anna became less annoying during this part.

Then, it went downhill from there. The awkward conversation between Anna and this father, the messy introduction of the other Nephilims, Anna's obsession for Kaidan, bla3. Like I said before, some other random shits.

So, tell me again what's up with all these Team Kaidan stuff? Because he hardly made an appearance after the road trip part.

Oh well, I should have known better than to read books with highly sought after bad boys. Maybe I should steer clear from Obsidian, Existence and Perfect Chemistry series.

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Lacrimosa by Christine Fonseca
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“LACRIMOSA reaches out, grabs readers by the heart, and takes them on an emotional journey from the first page to the last. The last novel you’ll need to read to understand true sacrifice.” ~Elana Johnson, Author of POSSESSION
It’s been three thousand years since the fall of Azzaziel and the rebirth of evil; three thousand years since the Sentinal Order, an elite group of warrior angels, returned to Celestium. Their job—rid Earth of the dark creatures, the UnHoly. And with luck, end Azza’s rule.
As if casting out demons isn’t hard enough, five-hundred-year-old Nesy has to masquerade as a teenage girl to do it. Nesy is the best of the Sentinals. She never makes mistakes, never hesitates, never gets emotionally involved. Until she meets Aydan.
He is evil incarnate; a fallen angel that feeds off the souls of others. Everything Nesy is supposed to hate. But she can’t, because he’s also the love of her former life as a human girl—a life that ended too soon, tying her to emotions she was never supposed to feel.
Now Nesy must choose between doing her duty—damning Aydan to the fiery depths of hell—or saving him, and condemning herself. And her choice may cost her, and Celestium, far more than anyone realizes.
How much will she sacrifice for love?

This needs to be awesome because;

1. Lacrimosa by Mozart is one of my favourite songs.

2. Lacrymosa by Evanescence is one of my other favourite songs.

3. Lacrimosa by Kalafina is another of my favourite song.

Not related to the book you say? Well, I'd read a book for strangest reasons because I'm weird like that.

Full review

Actual rating 4.5 stars

It was indeed awesome. I thought I had enough of angel books but this one truly changed my mind.

First, I had to take back my words by saying, Christine Fonseca's writing matches Maggie Stiefvater's but in a completely different way. Hence, I was wrong when I said in my Dies Irae review that Maggie Stiefvater's writing is better suited for stories like this.  Heheh.

What prevented me from giving this book a full five star? I felt like I couldn't grown attached to any of the characters. I did feel their pains and torments but I don't know, somehow it felt like everything was overly dramatic but I guess, that's just the way this story was supposed to be written.

Pick this one up if;

1. You do like larger than life love stories and tragic Shakespeare's plays such as Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.


2. You think you would feel comfortable talking with Master Yoda because the prose goes like this;
Visions of my lips on Nesy turning her blood to poison
-I won't allow thiis
Intimate embraces that turn her body into flames
-I'll never hurt you
The sound of her screams as I end her life
-I'll protect you. Somehow

3. You don't mind the abuse of Tab key. The author seems to love paragraphing.

4. You can tolerate a bit of insta love (just in the flashbacks)
"My name is Elle." Our gaze meets and I'm locked in sacred moment, just the two of us. Her eyes search mine and I wonder if she knows what I am. But it isn't my wings or my glowing skin she seems to see. It's my soul-the part of me I show no one.
  In that second I know...
    I will never forget her.

Other than that, I think everybody should give this a try and probably enjoy it.

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DIES IRAE by Christine Fonseca
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some sacrifices should never be made—even for love.
Mikayel lives by one rule—obey the orders of the angelic Council at all costs. That is, until he and his friends, Azza and Demi, are sent to Earth. Assigned as Watchers while they await their decision of which angelic order to serve, the three assume the bodies of teenagers and experience life as human.
The sensations are overwhelming as the angels experience a host of human emotions—rage, terror, love—and come ever closer to breaking one of the unbreakable rules—never fall in love.
But being human isn’t the only problem facing the three angels. Unbeknownst to the Council, demonic activity is on the rise, threatening to break a tenuous peace that has existed for a millennia; a peace Azza seems bent on destroying.
Caught in a struggle for power with unseen demonic forces and Azza, and fighting against his rising emotional attachment to Demi, Mikayel must now decide how much he is willing to sacrifice for his new found love—a decision that could reignite an ancient war and will threaten the only thing that matters to the angels, the survival of humanity.

Oh my God!!! This book is full of tragedies, it reminded me a lot of Shakespeare's plays.

If fact, I think I'm not fit to continue on with Lacrimosa anytime soon. I'm depressed enough with my exams coming soon

Oh yes, I can be that melodramatic.

First of all, can't be have a better cover art than that? Please pwetty, please...

Second, I think the writing was just stunning. But I won't lie, I did expect Maggie Stiefvater's level of awesomeness when I read my GR friends' reviews but well, I'm more than happy with this level of writing.

I don't know about you, but this book just fell short from getting the full five stars because I was a bit annoyed with one after another big mistakes committed by every single character in the story. It felt like those mistakes weren't fully justifiable, yet the author decided to throw them in to make the story more tragic. It felt overdone for me, so...yeah.

Another thing, I'm a bit disturbed by the premise that 'nothing good would come out of all these human emotions'. I mean, there must be something, anything that these angels could learn while inhabitating their human hosts, they couldn't be all bad, could they?


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Neophyte by Emmalee Aple
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Addisyn White thought she had her new life, her after life, all figured out. Granted death had not brought her to the pearly white gates, she hadn’t even left Earth. But death had its perks; she got to live forever with her best friend and her assigned Link of Angels, in a beautiful beach house. Even with the changes she was going through to turn her human body into an angelic one, everything seemed pretty easy. Until a gray winged angel comes into her life, then all the secrets and lies her Link had been keeping start crumbling away, exposing a whole new world of dangers she didn’t even know about.
Now Addisyn must fill in the blanks before things escalate too far. Will she save her Link? Or will she be buried in their secrets forever?

Okay, my mom once taught me that when people give you free stuff, say thank you, no question asked regardless whether the thing you got is beneficial or not to you.

So dear author Emmalee Aple, I am very grateful for your generosity. But in exchange for an honest review, I had to give your book a 1 star because Neophyte wasn't a great experience for me. I tried, like, I honestly tried to finish reading it but no, it's really hard when you simply didn't care much about what happened to any of these characters.

So, confession time. The book has about 500 pages or so on my e-reader, I read only until about page 261...about halfway.

Honestly, I think I could tolerate or even enjoyed this book if I never read Unearthly, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and Angelfall. I wish I can be unbiased but it's virtually impossible not to compare any angel books with that three holiest of holiest angel books.

The premise was very promising, I'd give the author that. Like, how if you died a noble death, you may be reincarnated as an angel. The concept of unclaimed, blooming, Link, period of time before you become a full-blown angel...this book had so much potential, you see.

The book started with some butt-kicking actions despite it was executed a bit messily. And I thought, 'okay, you have my attention, please continue to amaze me'. But the moment never came. Maybe once. Nowhere near the testosterone-fueled opening scene, but the part which we learn about Greysan's past life was very interesting.

Apart from that, suffice to say that the first half of the book revolved around how her Link tried to protect Addisyn from the truth, how Addisyn was pretty mad about that yada yada. And oh, don't forget the typical prom scene which need to be included in every Young Adult book!!! :3

*sigh* Sorry if my sarcasm is offensive but I believe we can still write a young adult without any prom scene mentioned.

My biggest deterrent from finishing this book most likely was Addisyn herself. At some points, she did admit that she can't continue being this irrational, hormonal teen. But the next thing you know, she was being her old annoying, clingy, immature self. And her major crush on Greyson was very tiring to read. She practically chasing over him like an obsessed fangirl.

I think that's all for now. I may elaborate later with actual quotes from the book and some seizure-inducing gifs.


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