Finally, it's done! Pretty fonts! New theme! Woo!
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Hey guys,
So I know that the renovations to this site have been slow-going ( why must I work?), but it's slowly getting there. Just updated a huge amount today and comments will be enabled soon. Should be entirely ready to go by June. Also, working on expanding my review reach to instagram. I'll give you great quotes during the week from books I'm reading, and occasionally ARCS (with the author's permission of course) and reveal what the book is at the end of the week. Why do it this way? I've found that so many times, I judge a book by it's cover or description, but really the writing can be phenomenal. So, give it a chance and start following me at @hetu91 !
Blegh, I hate writing reviews for these type of books, because they get so infinitely better as the series go on, so remember that as you read and really, give it a chance because the series is absolutely awesome. Eve is in her first year of college. Everything is going well until she bumps into Asher St. Michael. The hottest thing known to man kind. Except he hates her. Like immediately.
Well, Gemma isn't going to cry over the stone-hearted asshole, she has a life to live...or she planned until Asher and his family get all up in her space. BUT WHY? They can't tell her. Surprise surprise. So, this book starts out pretty twilight-esque. Two kids can't keep away from each other. Girl can't figure out what dude is. Dude takes girl to family dinner and family oddly resembles Twilight family minus parents. We've got an Alice in Abby, and a Rosalie (is that even her name, I don't remember) in Kenna (who is an epic bitch), and well, Callan (Abby's boyfriend) is something else entirely but he grows on you so fast. The writing was subpar and honestly made our girl Eve look so stupid. Which she is not. She also had a smart quirky friend in Aria who learns with right along with Eve about the supernatural world and the role Eve plays. NO SECRETS OR FIGHTING AMONG BESTIES. It's lovely. So why 2 stars? It seems to have a lot of good. Yes, yes it does. The plot had potential, but it was carried out so horribly in my opinion. BUT you may disagree. I do however, recommend you read it and get one with the rest of the series because it is "awesome."A word you will be sick of by the end of this series, btw. Also, fair warning, this series starts out as YA and develops into NA with violence, sexual content, and much swearing around book 3, so if you're not into that or exposing your kid to that, hold off on this series. Gemma. Nothing about her life is normal. She has violet eyes and recently came out of being an emotionless shell. She has never felt, but now? All that is coming back. Let's get back to the violet eyes part for just a second. I hate when author's describe characters' eyes as violet. No. Stop it. They do fucking not, that's not a normal eye color. I hate it so much that, in fact, I will drop my ratng of the book by .25. However, for once, there is actually an explanation to why Gemma has violet eyes, but you gotta keep reading. So if you hate that as much as I do, don't worry, there is actual logic to this for once. Anyway, Gemma is slowly getting used to life with emotions when her world dramatically changes when a pair of mysterious and gorgeous siblings get to town. She feels an immediate spark to Alex. No, really. Not insta-love but literally an actual ouchie-wtf-spark. In each other's presence they feel it strongly but have no idea what it is. This causes a lot of hate-love for a while. On top of that, Alex can't be trusted. He lies to her at every turn and knows secrets about her he refuses to share. Secrets that will change Gemma forever. So, I pretty much inhaled this series. That being said, the first book was a bit hard to get through. Alex is just a distrustful jerk (and no not the dream worthy jerks we all love). He lies so much and is quite frankly a terrible person in my opinion, but if you get through this book it gets so much better, I swear. What I enjoyed is that we don't know what Alex and his sister are immediately. In fact, we don't find out for the long time and we're kept guessing and going nuts right along with Gemma trying to figure out what's going on. Not really into YA? That's okay, Jessica Sorensen actually also wrote this entire series as a New Adult story as well, so check her out. I haven't personally read it, but had I known about it, I probably would have read that first. Though, there is an innocence to YA that I particularly enjoyed in this series, so I don't regret it whatsoever. I loved the Orphan Queen. Though I admit, this is my third time attempting to read it. Once I pushed through the first couple of chapters, I fell in love. As I'm sure you will if you also love, black clad vigilantes, swoon-worthy princes, forbidden romance, and dangerous magic. I believe "HOLY BATMAN" is the correct phrase to how I felt after finishing this book Wil is the Queen of a ruined empire, bent on destroying the current crown and raising her people to power again. By day she is the Princess, dedicated to leading a rebellion and living by a fake identity. By night she is a vigilante of sorts. Her fate changes one night when she meets the infamous masked vigilante Black Knife (swoon).
Orphan Queen was definitely a step up in writing and plot from her last series, Incarnate. The plot was fairly well developed, the romance a torturous slow burn but oh so sweet. Wil isn't a perfect character, but damn, she tries and you've got to admire her tenacity.
Tobiah the prince is kind of jerk, but we still like him because he's a swoon worthy jerk. Trust me, even if Wil doesn't know it. Then there's Black Knife (let's be honest here, we all knew who he was from the moment we met him) who is mysterious intriguing and beguiles Wil to take on a more active role and question all she has known. This is a book you definitely don't want to miss out on!! It's part of a duolgy and both books are out. Go! Go! Go! Received an e-copy in exchange for an honest review<br><br>This actually started out super terrible. And then got super amazing. Example A: the fist page features this dazzling paragraph
"So unfair. My parents decided to limit computer time again," Cora griped and rolled her eyes into the webcam. But as usual my best friend Raine has my back. So here I am with the next Hottie of the Week."
>
I didn't think I had space in my heart for more book boyfriends this month, but Torin St. James is definitely yummy. Raine is pretty boring, but around Torin, she's way funnier. For example, When she's trying to guess who/what he is:
"'Demon Wizard? Warlock? Am I getting warmer?' (Raine)
'Colder than Hel's Mist' (Torin)<' What's that?' (Raine)'I'll tell you after you guess what I am.' (Torin) I kept a straight face. 'Rumpelstiltskin?'" (Raine)
3.5 stars
okay first, that cover is gorgeous. Now, on to the plot. Rachel's father has disappeared with a mysterious package. She has now been left in the car of her father's apprentice and being pressured by the commander of her town to find her father. Logan has been assigned the protector or Rachel, by her father. He hasn't talked to her in two years since she confessed her feeling for him and he rejected her. Hawkward. Rachel and Logan must now work together to find the package her father strived to protect and stop the commander from getting his hands on it. All the while, they must tread lightly to avoid the cursed one's wrath. I started reading this as an audiobook, so I'd like to first pay tribute to the narrator. Her voice was gorgeous and she captured Rachel and Logan vividly. The book was good and I got impatient and switched to reading it on my kindle, but may go back to listen to it later on because really, the narrator was SO GOOD. The plot was enthralling and I think Logan's character was a bit more developed than Rachels, so I did enjoy his POV better. Rachel, for the most part, was a survivor, but she was also just so damn whiney. She never shuts up about how broken she is inside. Okay, we get it. Bad shit has happened to you. You are emotionally scarred. But please I need something to read other than "oh woes me, I am broken."
"The city is a carcass of bones and ash. Hollowed out. Every vestige of life burned into silence. We understand each other."
Oh for fuck's sake, shut up Rachel. Otherwise, a great book. Would love to learn more about Quinn and the Cursed One. What is their story really? Can't wait to pick up book 2!
4.5 stars
ARC in exchange for an honest review Marren has had it rough. Her father died before she was born and her mother just died from a "freak" accident. Shipped off to Scotland to live with her father's parents, she's ripped away from everything she's known and found familiar. She's pretty upset about it until she runs into a gorgeous stranger in the woods by the name of Gavin. Things only get better when she makes an upbeat loyal friend who helps her navigate the perils of high school in Scotland ( read demons, lords, bullies, etc.) Marren would be miserable if not for her every spotting of Gavin. There's just something different about him. Unwordly. Join Marren as she is thrust into a world her parents hid from her. Marren navigates through the paranormal with a little clumsiness, a little trust, and a lot of courage (also a lot of insta-love on her side.) Marren started out as the stereotypical YA female who loses her parents and is shipped off to who knows where paranormal community. She instantly obsesses over said hot paranormal mysterious guy who is nice but then is all like STAY AWAY FROM ME IT'S DANGEROUS. Gavin, luckily, does not keep this up for long though, don't worry. Side characters were adorable if not a little undeveloped. The bonds between Marren and her friends developed out of no where in my opinion (same can be said between Gavin and Marren, btw) and kind of left my head spinning. The book was interesting but REALLY got interesting around half way through when Gavin and Marren travel to London. All the plot points after are just: BOOM BOOM BOOM. I couldn't put the book down!! Overall, the only thing really lacking was the relationship between characters. The end of the book set up perfectly for the sequel and I NEED IT RIGHT NOW. PLEASEEEE!!
ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.<br />Anna is a aristocrat living in a world where power and bloodlines dictate who has access to magic. Except she is Barren of magic. To get away from a world which does not accept her, she is forced to travel to Hungary with her "grandmamma." She learns that there is a whole world of which she has never known. A world where she has agency and a role in society.
I REALLY REALLY wanted to love that book. It has been one of my most anticipated books of the year. <b> I mean look at the cover Unfortunately, the author got too caught up in describing history which made the first 75% really quite boring. We get how this society works about 20% of the way through. We didn't need to keep continuing the repetitive history. Yes the people of Hungary love their country. Yes, the Romani (gypsies) are treated poorly. I GET IT. Literally nothing happened to move the book forward. It was honestly just a repeat of different way of proving those ideas I just mentioned For the most part, Anna really didn't have a personality. She was literally a Jane Doe who used old language that just didn't really fit with the book's style of writing. Like old language was just thrown in there like m&ms and let me tell you, it was not working. She also never knows what she actually wants. She kept on switching back and forth on big decisions based on other people's opinions and that annoyed the crap on me. The saving grace of this book was the last 25%. Anna finally got her shit together and made a decision about what she wanted to do based on her thoughts and beliefs. AND THEN SHE TOOK ACTION. FINALLY!! It was also heart-wrenching. Secrets are revealed and there is really no right answer for what she has to do. Is it right? Is it wrong? There's really no saying. We lose characters we come to love and it hurts. I didn't think this book could pull that off the emotions in brought up in me, but it did. |
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