**QWERTY**

Talon by Julie Kagawa
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they're positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.

Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.

Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon's newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.

Two unimpressed faces

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of

those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.

But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?

Me gusta! 4-stars

View all my reviews

Impulse by Vanessa Garden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Buy from: Harlequin AUS website

When Miranda Sun returns to Marin on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, this time of her own free will, she quickly learns that her worst fears have been realised. The glittering underwater city is not as she had left it, nor too is Marko, the young king who has dominated her thoughts and heart for the last twelve months since leaving Marin.
Miranda, however, has not made the journey to Marin alone, and now must contend with not only Marko’s evil brother Damir but more surprisingly her sister Lauren who has an agenda of her own. Marko’s power begins to wane and with cracks beginning to show in the domed Utopian city, and veiled danger lurking everywhere, she quickly learns that in this dazzling city full of beautiful people she can trust no-one but herself.
If Miranda wants to survive, she must decide between the hardened sensibilities in her head and the hungers of her heart. Will her decision cause more heartache or can she help to save Marko’s throne?

A copy was provided by HarlequinTEEN Australia in exchange for an honest review.

In case you haven't noticed, I heavily panned Captivate, book 1 of the Submerged Sun series. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't go near its sequel, Impulse, for obvious reasons. However, I received Impulse together with Captivate and it has such a glorious cover (I mean, come on, look at that cover!), so I thought, why not?



Wow, I mean, wow! A sequel that is thousands times better than its intermediate predecessor? Dear Vanessa Garden, I don't know what happened between Captivate and Impulse...but deyyumm gurl, you made me rethink my entire existence. JK! You made me rethink of my 'dropping the series if the first book is no good' policy.

I think what worked so well in Impulse is the political drama-llama which usually reserved for high fantasy books. In Impulse, we have a small-scale, underwater Game of Thrones. No shit. I didn't know who to trust, who I should loathe, what's their motives etc. In Captivate, I was under the impression that Marin citizen are a bunch of boring, nice people. I didn't expect to see the darker, uglier side of Marin citizen when faced with desperation of wanting to bear children. Even the main and secondary characters whom I thought as very one-dimensional in Captivate such as Sylvia, Anne, Damir, Lily and Lauren have morphed into more complex, layered characters in Impulse. Special honourary mention: Blake - I loved this guy! He's so creepy in the right way! One thing that still bothers me is whether I should hate Lauren or not. I don't know if the author wants me to hate Lauren at first then to like her once I learned her true motive or just continue to hate her because ***spoilers ahead*** her motive is still very ambiguous up until the end of the book. ***spoiler finished***

Now, another interesting bit about this book is its undefined genre. It could be a dystopia - organised underwater civilisation but it's not set in the future. It could be a fantasy - because of the mention of a mythical creature and just the general atmosphere of the book, but the creature is yet to be verified to have existed. It could be a sci-fi - hell yeah, alien technology but this bit is also still very much wishy-washy. Honestly, it could be a romance and thriller and mystery book. Unbelievable, isn't it? I saw a lot of people shelving the books from this series under 'mermaid' tag and this confuses the hell out of me. THIS IS NOT TECHNICALLY A MERMAID BOOK. Yeah, there are some mentions of mermaid but mermaid isn't the main thing here, okay.

Okay, here's the thing that made me feel so relieved; the relationship between Miranda and Marko is properly built and developed in this book. No more outlandish, insta-love declarations, no more unnecessary pseudo love triangle. Although, in Impulse, there is a part where I actually held my breath because I felt like another love triangle is coming but this time it's for a good reason. So yeah, I felt myself warming up to Miranda and Marko although towards the end I cringed a bit when Miranda wants to take things too fast.

But Impulse still had the same problem as Captivate. The last one third of the book has once again suffered from sketchy plot and it felt like it was dragged forever but ended up at the same point. But contrary to the first book where it's just plunging to the abyss of the deepest hell-hole, this time it was still bearable and readable. I think with better editing, this last part of the book could have been much better.

So yeah, Impulse - totally worth 

Me gusta! 4-stars.

View all my reviews

Captivate by Vanessa Garden
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Buy from: Harlequin Aus website

In a glittering underwater world, nothing is as it seems...For the past twelve months since her parents’ death, seventeen-year-old Miranda Sun has harboured a dark secret — a secret that has strained the close relationship she once shared with her older sister, Lauren. In an effort to repair this broken bond, Miranda’s grandparents whisk the siblings away on a secluded beach holiday. Except before Miranda gets a chance to confess her life-changing secret, she’s dragged underwater by a mysterious stranger while taking a midnight swim. Awakening days later, Miranda discovers that she’s being held captive in a glittering underwater city by an arrogant young man named Marko...the King of this underwater civilisation.Nineteen-year-old Marko intends to marry Miranda in order to keep his crown from falling into the sinister clutches of his half-brother, Damir. There’s only one problem. Miranda is desperate to return home to right things with her sister and she wants nothing to do with Marko. Trying to secure her freedom, Miranda quickly forms an alliance with Robbie — Marko’s personal guard. However, she soon discovers that even underwater, people are hiding dangerous secrets...

A copy was provided by HarlequinTEEN Australia in exchange for an honest review.

Two unimpressed faces

Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hardships and heartache brought them together…now it will tear them apart.
Layken and Will have proved their love can get them through anything; until someone from Will’s past re-emerges, leaving Layken questioning the very foundation on which their relationship was built. Will is forced to face the ultimate challenge…how to prove his love for a girl who refuses to stop ‘carving pumpkins.’ 

Actual rating 3.5 stars.

**Minor spoiler ahead**

I wish I could've like this book more or at least as much as I did with Slammed but meh, the drama llama was getting tiring or maybe I'm just a douche who despise every second book in the series because I got bored.

I probably would still read anything by Colleen Hoover. She has this amazing talent - it's like anything wrote by this woman would sound deep and meaningful. But I started to notice that her choice of themes is not something I would really like to read about and this frustrates me. A lot.

I had the same problem with Point of Retreat as I did with Hopeless: I don't understand why sex needs to be hailed as the holy grail of a relationship. Ugh, I wish I don't have to point that out. I'm worried if I don't get my point across, people will misunderstood and given my limited capacity to express my thoughts clearly, I really wish I don't have to.

But let's have a go anyway. There was so much build up leading to Will and Lake *ehem* sex in the first half of the book as if their relationship wouldn't be whole and complete without sex. Like sex is the highest point of a relationship. Sure, issues like friendship and family were emphasized as well but seriously, I think the story was better invested on something else rather than their anticipation of having sex together for the first time. Sure, the build up adds to the value of the relationship itself but I don't know...it's really hard to explain. Personally I think that the first time for a couple should of course be uh, thought carefully beforehand to make it, urmm meaningful but it shouldn't appear as if it's the goal of a relationship. The part which annoyed me the most is when Will decided to reject Lake when she was still crying. I thought this thing needs a common decision from both sides and Will totally denied her right. I know many people will disagree but anywaaaay...

Kiersten and Sherry are nice additions to the story. Caulder and Kel are charming and cute as usual. I'm glad we still get to learn more about Julia, she is such an inspiring character. I'm not sure what the author wanted to prove or show with Eddie and Gavin relationship. Again, Vaughn and Reece are like the causes of some of major events in this book but apart from being the cause, their characters didn't get fleshed out more so they ended up to be very one-dimensional.

Similar to Slammed, the storyline is indeed cliche but unlike in its predecessor where the cliche was handled in such a way that you wouldn't think it's possible for the book to be that wonderful when the same plotline has been reused over and over again in countless other books, in Point of Retreat, the cliche remains as cliche. *sigh*

Me gusta! A four-stars

View all my reviews

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

tick
tick
tick
tick
tick
it's almost
time for war.
Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.
She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.
Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.
In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life 

DO NOT TRUST MY RATING.

I REPEAT, DO NOT TRUST MY RATING.

I hated Shatter Me.

After Unravel Me, I still hated Juliette and Adam.

But Kenji was amazing.

And Warner was...


Trust me, I think I might have given this book a 4-stars solely because of Kenji and Warner.

How can. A guy. A bad guy. Who doesn't even feel guilty reading a girl's diary. Be THIS HOT?

A quarter through the book, I had enough of Juliette's whines "It's my fault he's here, it's my fault he's in danger bla bla bla".
Really guys! She needs a good bitchslap to bring some sense into her mind. Adam was on his period and not helping as usual. Blegh~ At this point, all I could give was 1.5 stars.

Enter Kenji with his inspiring 'grow some balls' talk and I thought, hey, lets vote this guy as the next president.

But I was still waiting for Warner to make an appearance unimpressed.

Enter Warner and I couldn't read fast enough. Heeeeeeeee

Do you still want me to comment on the plot? Well, it was like every other dystopia in the market, this book is after all, still heavy on the romance side, so don't get your hope up. The twists were good, I guess since Juliette always makes a big deal of everything, every twist seems massively shocking when narrated from her POV.

Me gusta! 4-stars

View all my reviews

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.

View all my reviews

Title: Ashes & Ice
Author: Rochelle Maya Callen
Release Day: February 4th, 2013
Genre: Young Adult
Blitz Host: Lady Amber's Tours
Buy Link: Amazon

She is desperate to remember.
He is aching to forget.
Together, they are not broken.
But together, one may not survive.
Jade wakes up with no memory of her past and blood on her hands.
Plagued by wicked thoughts, she searches for answers. Instead, she finds a boy who doesn't offer her answers, but hope. But sometimes, when nightmares turn into reality and death follows you everywhere, hope is not enough.
LUST. LOVE. LOSS. Sometimes, all that is left are Ashes and Ice

Rochelle grew up dreaming up stories. When she entered high school, she tucked away her creative side and jumped head-first into academics, work, and service projects. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Political Science and Communication when she was twenty years old. After years away from her writing, Rochelle picked up a pen and started fleshing out a character sketch that she outlined when she was twelve. That sketch was the start of the Ashes and Ice story. Rochelle lives in the DC metro area with her husband and daughter. By day she works as a behavioral therapist. By night, she is a dreamer and is busy tapping out new stories on her keyboard. Website / Twitter / Goodreads / Facebook

Jade
            The girl’s glassy, dead eyes stare into me, through me, pierce me with a fierce urgency, with a wicked accusation. The blood is still on my hands.
            Red hair, blue eyes, a constellation of freckles on pale skin. She was fragile and innocent, a lovely thing. That is what I think until I see the gashes on her wrists and throat. With her blood spilling out, she looks delicious. She’s mine. Possessiveness shocks me, stabs into me. I run, tearing away from a craving I don't understand.
            Breathless, I grit my teeth and run harder, faster.
           
            My feet pound against the earth, away from the lifeless body and toward the lights of the city lingering on the horizon. Rot and death linger in my nostrils. Unscarred skin stretches taut over my freezing bones. Echoes of an empty memory reverberate in my mind, taunting me. The ice chases me, clutches me, and bites at my heels, sending shivers up my spine. The ice wants me back, but I run forward, toward the lights, toward the heat, toward a world that burns me, because I have no other choice.
            The lights are so close. Heat scalds my skin.
            Images race through my mind, paralyzing me. I skid to a stop, my boots digging into the mud. The vision’s blurred edges materialize into solid shapes.
             I gasp.
            A new horror rakes my insides. Desperation propels me forward; the pictures nagging at my seams threaten to tear me apart.
            Scorching fire licks over my skin. In my vision, I contort like a vile, ugly creature, eyes as black as decay. My frame hunches over the small, dead girl, like a demon looming over a defenseless child. Her blood drips from my mouth.
            I lick my lips and taste only salty sweat.
            I run, desperate to trample the vision under my feet, to crush it deep into the ground.
            I refuse to believe the image, refuse to acknowledge the monster within me demanding to be unleashed—and the possibility it has already been unbound. An unrelenting tide of fear washes over me. Past the denial, the fear, and the hope, I think I can still taste her.
            The cold stillness inside me cracks open just as the lights of the city slam into me.

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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.

PARTY.



How often do you find a book which terrified the shit out of you and made you cry, really cry, like really ugly cry? If you know other books with these criteria, puh-lease recommend them to me! Because man, my heart is ready to beat a hundred times faster and gets broken again for a book as amazing as this!

In Girl of Nightmares, following the departure of Anna to Hell (because she needs to drag Obeahman's butt away before he murders Cas and his sidekicks), Cas is having trouble coping with the loss of Anna. Worse, he starts seeing gruesome image of Anna being tortured and mutilated regardless if he is awake or asleep. Kendare Blake dedicated about a quarter of this book just for the part where Anna is haunting Cas. Although we already know this from the blurb and usually I detest this because why would you spent about a hundred of pages for something we already know from the blurb, in Girl of Nightmares' case, it works. We get to know a different facade to Cas, I feel for Cas, I feel his loss, his desperation and his longing for Anna. And remember Cas is this butt-kicking ghost hunter! In wrong hands, I believe Cas would sound like Richard Gere, but hell yeah, Blake truly knows how to handle this intricate characterization because he is still the badass Cas I always knew.

Once Cas has some ideas as to how to find Anna, the story stalls a bit but that didn't make me stop reading. During this short time-out, we also get a valuable insights into Carmel and Thomas relationship which was cute. I also liked how Blake dropped a few hints and made me wonder if a couple of characters are the antagonists.

The biggest highlight of the book is definitely the Suicide Forest part. It was scary as hell and I IMMEDIATELY regretted my decision to read this book at night. Shit, I wish I can erase my memory of this scene. I'm not sure if I'm able to walk into ANY forest ever again.

THE ENDING! I won't lie, I was hoping for this kind of ending for Hereafter (yes, I wish this was a standalone). The rougher and more brutal tone of Anna Dressed in Blood didn't convinced me if Girl of Nightmares is deserving of such ending.

*Chuckles*

I surrender to your wicked writing skills, Kendare Blake. This series deserves such ending and more. Much more. I had to repeatedly read the same two pages in denial, and when I came to my senses, as you already know...


As always, I'm really suck at writing a positive review. But trust me, Girl of Nightmares is much better than Anna Dressed in Blood.
Somehow.
I'm not sure how my body was able to absorb this much awesomeness.

Sweet baby penguins! A 5-star!

View all my reviews

Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

No one is like Daemon Black.
When he set out to prove his feelings for me, he wasn’t fooling around. Doubting him isn’t something I’ll do again, and now that we’ve made it through the rough patches, well... There’s a lot of spontaneous combustion going on.
But even he can’t protect his family from the danger of trying to free those they love.
After everything, I’m no longer the same Katy. I’m different... And I’m not sure what that will mean in the end. When each step we take in discovering the truth puts us in the path of the secret organization responsible for torturing and testing hybrids, the more I realize there is no end to what I’m capable of. The death of someone close still lingers, help comes from the most unlikely source, and friends will become the deadliest of enemies, but we won’t turn back. Even if the outcome will shatter our worlds forever.
Together we’re stronger... and they know it.

All hail Jennifer L. Armentrout! I'm so glad I continued with Opal. I almost stopped after being sorely disappointed with Onyx.

Being me, getting this far in the series is a huuuuuuge achievement and that speaks volumes about how entertaining Lux series has been so far. The trying-too-hard-to-show-Katy-is-a-hardcore-book-blogger was tiring and borderline annoying though. We got it, alright. People will still buy your books even if the protag is not a book-nerd/obsessed!

Saying that, I wasn't amused with the first half of the book because pretty much nothing was going on apart from recaps and some 'old friends' making a comeback. Okay, I lied. I was actually amused seeing Katy gets all the blames and feels all guilty because ya know, I think she screwed up pretty bad in Onyx. At times, she still goes all Wonder Woman mode but Daemon is there to knock some sense back into her, so yeah, apparently the douche is the better thinker.

Speaking of the douche, DAEMON IS A NEW MAN! I bet many fangirls are totally heads-over-heels with this new version of Daemon and I approve this idea. Daemon is more matured, not overly protective, sensible, reliable and still himself in the same time! How cool is that? Yes, don't worry. His insults jokes are still funny although I can't lie, I laughed more with Obsidian than Opal.

Daemon-Katy steady relationship was very admirable. AND HOW GLAD I WAS WHEN OPAL STAYED AS A YA NOVEL! I know the *ehem* dreaded sex is coming, if not in this book, it will be in the next book. ***Spoiler alert*** It's in this book LOL! And I'm very thankful when the sex is just mentioned instead of being shown! ***Spoiler finished***[It's in this book LOL! And I'm very thankful when the sex is just mentioned instead of being shown! (hide spoiler)]

The secondary characters also sort of grew on me, particularly Dawson. Suicidal energizer bunny? Hah! How sexy is that? Ash and Dee are somehow getting more likeable and Matthew! I wish I know more about him. He seems like a very cool teacher and I bet a handsome one too!

The twists and turns. Honestly, some I would have predicted already but it hardly affects the impact they had on me! The cliffhanger ending! The warning sign was raised even before the book was released so I braced myself for it.

*Confession bear mode*

I actually liked the ending. :/ It was a very powerful one. The emotions...the helplessness...I felt them all. Like, if this scene is translated into a movie, I could totally imagine it'll be in super dramatic slow motion mode.

Jennifer L. Armentrout is really a queen of cliffhangers. :)

So yes, I totally recommend Opal while simultaneously object the idea of you reading Onyx. Hear me, it's okay to miss the second book because all the major events will be highlighted in Opal. It will be as if you never missed Onyx. Trust me, I'm saving you from the heartache.

Me gusta!

View all my reviews

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.

View all my reviews

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
DNF. No ratings given.

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something frightening enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a government ′rehabilitation camp′. Ruby might have survived the mysterious disease that killed most of America′s children, but she and the others had emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they could not control.
Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.
When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now on the run, she is desperate to find East River, the only safe haven left for kids like her, and she joins a group of other runaways who have escaped their own camps. Liam, their brave leader, is falling for Ruby, but she can′t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.
When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all Liam. But there are also other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government.
Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice - and one that may mean giving up her only chance at having a life worth living.

DNF. Stopped at 20%.

What's written on the page;

His eyes darted over me, from my haggard face down my forest green uniform to my mud-stained shoes. To the Psi number that had been written on their canvas toes in permanent marker. A look of horror flickered over his face. "Did you just come from a camp?"

What's actually in my head;

Psi....

Wait, that can't be right. He is Psy not Psi. *Chuckles* *Looks at the cover* That's the symbol of Psi! (Duh!) I think I saw the symbol before. In math? Or was it in Physic? *Googles Psi*

The letters Ψ or ψ can also be a symbol for:
psychology, psychiatry, and sometimes parapsychology (involving paranormal or relating with the supernatural subjects, especially research into extrasensory perception).

Whoaa, that makes sense!

Wait, where was I??

(And that was how the book ended up in my DNF pile)

You see, even before that, The Darkest Minds and I fell into this unhealthy relationship; I picked it up, I dozed off, I picked it back up, I got bored, I moved to other book, I tried to pick it back up, tried SO HARD TO CONCENTRATE, failed miserably, I ended up watching five movies, tried to pick it up again.

Repeat 188 times.

I gave up.



I'm sure this isn't a bad book. Teenagers with superpowers? I'd totally dig that. But I just don't have the patience. This book is really difficult to be read.

Giving up was one of hardest decisions I've ever made. It's like admitting that I'm actually intellectually impaired.

I honestly couldn't understand anything past the blurb!

The writing. It's chaotic. It's all over the place. It's everywhere.I couldn't keep track of who's who, who's doing what, where are they, what's going on. It's so frustrating. And I couldn't actually point out what's wrong either. The sentences were long but I've read books with longer sentences. No purple prose, no fancy vocabulary - I don't know, can I just say that the writing is...messy? One second I was in flashbacks, another second, there's action and confrontation, next, the scene reeled back to Ruby's own thoughts, and the next thing I knew, I'm in other people's memory.

**An ARC was provided by HarperCollins Australia in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

In TIMESPELL, the brash and impulsive Julia must team up with her sweet and straight-laced best friend, Angie, and the malicious and power-hungry Kaitlyn in order to keep the witch-like powers of her inheritance. But these powers come at a cost. The girls are bound to serve the Fates, and their first mission sends them back in time to Marie Antoinette’s Paris and eventually, into the chaos and war of the French Revolution.

AUTHOR BIO

Diana Paz writes books about magic, adventure, and romance. She was born in Costa Rica, grew up on Miami Beach, moved to Los Angeles in high school, and went to college in San Diego. Basically, she’s a beach bum. Diana graduated from California State University, San Marcos with a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts. She loves old movies, epic fantasy, all kinds of music, and heading to the beach with a good book. Preferably sipping a highly sweetened iced coffee. Website / Blog / Facebook / Twitter

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

I love almost everything about this book. The title, the characters' names, the cover (from the tendrils of hairs to the haunted house to the blood-dripping dress, they are all accurate representation of the actual story).

I like how both of the male and female protagonists are supernatural in their own way because I'm so tired of this story of how an average Joe/Jane meets this feet-sweeping mysterious guy or girl.

Kendare Blake had undertaken a risky move by narrating the story from Cas, the male protagonist point of view. And armed with some killer moves and swear words (no kidding!), he is the new swoon-worthy bad boy from the block.

U JELLY, EDWARD?


But no! You wouldn't be jealous of Anna because she and Cas are totally made for each other. Anna is downright scary at first. She is, as quoted by Cas, the goddess of death. But yeah, you would expect that her death was a tragic one but just a friendly reminder, her tough exterior is for real as she is not the slightest bit weak emotionally.

There isn't much focus put on the other characters. Mike, Chase and Will were plain dumb. Thomas? Bo-ring! But I'm impressed with the characterization of Carmel. She is of course, the popular, prom queen (every young adult book set in high school must have one anyway) but she ain't stupid! (Thank God) She is indeed useful from time to time.

***Spoilers ahead***

The true villain, Obeahman is portrayed as one absurdly mean ghost (he ate human flesh for God sake!) He was like the love child of Coraline's other mother and The Shadow Man from The Princess and the Frog movie. I silently hoped that his motive is much more personal than for power in general. I also hoped that the readers were being told of what fate had in store for Anna's cruel parents.

The cat! Urghh!! THE CAT! NO ONE, AND I MEAN NO ONE SHOULD WRITE ABOUT HOW A CAT DIED IN ANY BOOK! Especially when it died because a psychotic ghost with no gut ate it! Urghhh!!! I was so furious, I could buried that freaking ghost 'alive'.

***Spoilers finished***
[Urghh!! THE CAT! NO ONE, AND I MEAN NO ONE SHOULD WRITE  ABOUT HOW A CAT DIED IN ANY BOOK! Especially when it died because a psychotic ghost with no gut ate it! Urghhh!!! I was so furious, I could buried that freaking ghost 'alive'. (hide spoiler)]

Anyhow, it was surely a good read. The first hundred pages or so started quite slowly. Indeed, there were a lot of swearing and gore, so if you are easily offended, stay away from this book. :)

Me gusta!

View all my reviews

Timeless by Michelle Madow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

IT'S A RACE AGAINST TIME.
In Remembrance, Lizzie and Drew changed the course of fate so they could be together.
In Vengeance, Chelsea set fate back on its original, deadly path.
Now, strange things keep happening to Lizzie. Things that are omens of darkness to come. A curse has doomed her to die an early death, just as she did in her past life. To make things worse, even if she can figure out who cast the curse, it's irreversible. There's only one option left for her to save herself. It's crazier than anything she's heard yet, and to do it, she'll need Drew and Chelsea's help.
Because to make things right, they must go back to when it all began …

My tablet is dead. And I don't know where did I put my charger cable. Probably got lost in the other dimension. So I can't look back at all my bookmarks and notes for this book. Boo~

Anyway, I'm not trying to state the obvious but if this series is a person, then that person is Taylor Swift (Happy birthday, Taylor by the way!). I don't know why she ends up with different guy everytime I saw her on the news, of course it's none of my business but I still think Taylor is a genuine, nice person despite singing lyrics such as "I'll follow you, follow you home." (???) And yeah, I do sing to Taylor on regular basis. And of course, at least she can sing.

Transcend Time series is like that. Commercial, fluffy, but not necessarily shallow. Michelle Madow can definitely write. I appreciate the fact that she didn't try so hard. She writes from her heart and I knew she was having fun writing the books in this series just by reading her works.

Well, to be honest, it's slightly embarrassing to say that I'm almost turning 24 and I did enjoy Timeless very much. This is a perfect guilty pleasure series if you think you just want to lay on your back, reminiscing the good old days without wanting to be critical. Reading Timeless was effortless and while the plot is predictable, it's not ridiculous and I could sense that Timeless had went through multiple rounds of proofreads.

Anyway, FINALLY! AN ACTUAL TIME TRAVEL! I've been waiting for the time travel part since book 1 and I iz satisfied. Lizzie tend to be a bit of a paranoid parrot, not that I'm complaining as it is her life which is at stake but I wished she could be more contributing. Drew - as if he isn't in this book. I don't think his character grew at all but that's okay, he is still a sweetheart. :)

On a final note, if you somehow really, really want to read this series and barely have enough time, I suggest you to just jump to Timeless as there is enough background story provided at the early part of this book.



View all my reviews

Pantomime by Laura Lam
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

R. H. Ragona’s Circus of Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada. Nestled among the glowing blue Penglass—remnants of a mysterious civilisation long gone—are wonders beyond the wildest imagination. It’s a place where anything seems possible, where if you close your eyes you can believe that the magic and knowledge of the vanished Chimaera is still there. It’s a place where anyone can hide.
Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of a noble family, is uncomfortable in corsets and crinoline, and prefers climbing trees to debutante balls. Micah Grey, a runaway living on the streets, joins the circus as an aerialist’s apprentice and soon becomes the circus’s rising star.
But Gene and Micah have balancing acts of their own to perform, and a secret in their blood that could unlock the mysteries of Ellada.

"Byssian music played - brass and nickel instruments, large drums, and twanging strings. It made me think of sunsets and yellow eyes and deep growls in dark jungles."

Ah, such a cruel way to end a book. But Pantomine...PANTOMINE...gee, I'm at lost for words.


Nope, I'm not just throwing a random picture from the internet. This picture gave me the same effect as Pantomine did - it messes with my head in the most wonderful way I could ever imagine.

This is an art.

*Takes a deep breath*

I don't know. I really don't know where to begin. I mean, of course I was looking forward to read it but I had my worry as well. I was afraid it turned out like The Night Circus i.e. a book filled with extraordinary imaginary plus amazing prose but sadly, I couldn't connect with it.

Pantomine is both commercial and experimental. It's odd, bizarre, shocking, fearless, magical and real. It's a combination of all things that shouldn't be put together but somehow it works. I mean, Laura Lam, is this truly your debut book? Seriously? Hah, I don't buy it. It reads like the author has a dozen books to her name previously. She did not create a book, she had created a world.

And I'm so grateful that there's no map plastered at the beginning of the book. This is a fantasy book, alright, but not that fantasy, fantasy book, you see. (Blah, classic Zuleeza, can't even explaining herself right).

Seriously, just take my words. Pantomine is not that fantasy, fantasy. And despite the similarities to The Night Circus, Pantomine's circus is no The Night Circus' circus.

I think I might have just given myself a headache.

Some might find the pacing to be a bit slow but I think it's just appropriate with the whole theme and the tone of the book. It's okay to take your time reading Pantomine because it's important to devour it, to imagine yourself in Micah's or Gene's position. To feel what they feel, to think of what sort of decision you would take if you were put in their spot. No books had such impact on me for a loooong time.

I'm positive that it's impossible to elaborate on the characters without giving anything away. Micah and Gene - WOW! I like how 'neutral' they sound. Drystan, the white clown - who would've thought a clown could be this charismatic! Overall, there isn't even one character I didn't like. I'm not even sure if there's anyone deserved to be called antagonist. Some characters made mistakes not by choice but because of the pressing circumstances or by accident. All the primary and secondary characters received just the right amount of character building and back-story. While I wish to know more about some of the other circus members, I wouldn't change anything about the way the characters were presented.

Scratch that! Actually, there's nothing I would like to change about this book. :)

But I have to mention this, about 15% through the book, a shocking secret would be revealed and at that point I thought 'Eh, isn't it too early to give away the big secret? I think this will kill my interest in this book soon.'

You know what? The big revelation didn't kill my interest even one bit. In fact, I felt more drawn into it afterwards. But as I said before, the book ends with a cliffhanger. There are still secrets yet to be revealed AND IT'S KILLING ME! :(


And it's decided that you have to pre-order this book ASAP! :D

Sweet baby penguins! Definitely a 5-stars read

**An ARC was provided by Strange Chemistry in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews