Review: Sweet Venom

Author: Tera Lynn Childs

Series: Medusa Girls #1
Pages: 345
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 2.5/5

Summery:
Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster.

Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though.

Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters.

These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.

Review:
I was really, really looking forward to reading this book.  I totally judge books by their covers (sometimes I don't even read the summaries before I buy them) so I thought this book would be amazing, because the cover certainly is.  But, sadly, I was a little disappointed.

The story line was ok, average.  I didn't really see the point of two girls having different romances at the same time, especially when the romances contributed nothing to the book itself.  I did, however, like that the book was told from three different views because when one is laying around at home, another could be fighting a monster, and if it was just one point of view, you wouldn't get to "witness" the fight.  The did like the ending though, and the cliffhanger is completely necessary to keep people interested.

There are three different points of view here: Grethen, Grace, and Greer.  Of all three of them, I honestly can't choose which one I like best.
On one hand, Gretchen is kick-ass, no nonsense, and really smart and strong.  I like a strong character.  On the other hand, Grace is shy, a self-proclaimed door-mat, but I also like that she stood up for herself and she's the one that I relate with most, not because I'm weak or a door-mat or anything, but I just feel for her.  And Greer-I can't really say why I like Greer.  Maybe because she's popular, which I know is a really shallow reason to like someone, but oh well.  I did like that she changed though.
I said in the beginning that I didn't really get the boys in this book, and it's true: they are useless in this story.  Milo (I totally don't like his name, btw) is just Grace's brother's friend and Grace happens to think he's cute.  Now, if he was a monster with rare powers to conceal his true identity or something like that, then I would totally understand him being in this book.  As it was, he contributed nothing to the book.  And as for Nick, same with him.  They were useless and I have no idea why they were in the book.

All in all, definitely not my favorite book, but I will definitely look forward to and read the next on when it comes out.

In My Mailbox: (#6)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, where we spotlight the books that we've received for review, swapped, or purchased that week.

FOR REVIEW:

Love Story, by Jennifer Echols

(Huge thanks to Jennifer Echols for sending me this book and signing it.)

BOUGHT:

Darker Still, by Leanna Renee Hieber

Carrier of the Mark, by Leigh Fallon

(I've wanted to read these two for forever so I'm so glad I finally bought them.)

BORROWED:

The Near Witch, by Victoria Schwab

Supernaturally, by Kiersen White

The Son of Neptune, by Rick Riordan

(Gosh, these books look really good.  The Near Witch, I've heard, is scary.  I can't wait to read Supernaturally because I read Paranormalcy and it was hilarious, and I really, really hope The Son of Neptune is good because Rick Riordan's last book, The Throne of Fire, sucked.  And I've wanted to read Dead Beautiful  for forever.)

what's in your mailbox?

Review: Vanish

Vanish

by Sophie Jordan
Series: Firelight #2
Release Date: September 6, 2011
by HarperTeen

Goodreads / Purchase

An impossible romance.
Bitter rivalries.
Deadly choices.

To save the life of the boy she loves, Jacinda did the unthinkable: She betrayed the most closely-guarded secret of her kind. Now she must return to the protection of her pride knowing she might never see Will again—and worse, that because his mind has been shaded, Will’s memories of that fateful night and why she had to flee are gone.

Back home, Jacinda is greeted with hostility and must work to prove her loyalty for both her sake and her family’s. Among the few who will even talk to her are Cassian, the pride’s heir apparent who has always wanted her, and her sister, Tamra, who has been forever changed by a twist of fate. Jacinda knows that she should forget Will and move on—that if he managed to remember and keep his promise to find her, it would only endanger them both. Yet she clings to the hope that someday they will be together again. When the chance arrives to follow her heart, will she risk everything for love?

After reading and liking Firelight ok I was fairly excited about a second book.  Firelight was just ok for me, but this book, wow, this book is something special.

I loved it.  That pretty much sums it up.  The story line was amazing, the romance was amazing, the
writing was amazing.  I couldn't believe the tight spaces Jacinda got into but still managed to worm her way out.  And I know I say I don't like triangle in books because it lowers my opinion of the main girl character, but it totally worked for this book.

I have mixed feelings about Jacinda.  On the one hand, she's smart, fierce, and doesn't give up.  On the other, she's conflicted, weak, and can't choose the right guy.  Although, overall, the likes outnumber the dislikes, so for me she's a pretty solid character.
Now, on to the love triangle: I like Will, and I like Cassian.  But I like Cassian better.  Like I said in my review of Firelight, will is too buff and unfeeling for my taste.  While there wasn't a whole lot of Cassian in Firelight, there was in Vanish, and I can't help liking him more overall.  He's strong, caring, gentle, and I just think Jacinda should stay with him.

One more things I have to add is that I love this cover.  The whole scales, blond hair, white face thing works together perfectly.

All in all, I really like this book and can't wait to read the next one.

5 pink flowers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Firelight series:

Firelight: Goodreads / Purchase

Waiting on Wednesday (#13): Dark Companion

This is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlites upcoming new releases that we're highly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Dark Companion, by Marta Acosta

Add this to your to-read shelf on Goodreads

When foster teen Jane Williams is invited to attend elite Birch Grove Academy for Girls and escape her violent urban neighborhood, she thinks the offer is too good to be true. She's even offered her own living quarters, the groundskeeper's cottage in the center of the birch grove.

Something's not quite right about the school -- or is it Jane? She thinks she sees things in the birch grove at night. She's also beginning to suspect that the elegant headmistress and her sons are hiding secrets. Lucky is the gorgeous, golden son who is especially attentive to Jane, and Jack is the sardonic puzzling brother.

The school with its talented teachers and bright students is a dream for a science and math geek like Jane. She also loves her new friends, including hilarious poetry-spouting rich girl, Mary Violet. But the longer Jane stays at Birch Grove, the more questions she has about the disappearance of another scholarship girl and a missing faculty member.

Jane discovers one secret about Birch Grove, which only leads to more mysteries. What is she willing to sacrifice in order to stay at this school...and be bound to Birch Grove forever?

Teaser Tuesday: (#11)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Anyone can do it.  You just have to do is:

 (1): Grab your current read.

(2): Open it to a random page.

(3): Share 1 or 2 "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.  BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!! 

(4): Make sure you also mention the author and title.

Vanish, by Sophie Jordan

Add this to your to-read shelf on Goodreads

#1: "And there it is again.  Footsteps keeping a steady pace behind mine.  Gratified that I'm not paranoid, I steer my thoughts into losing whoever it is trailing me.  Definetly not a friend.  A friend would announce himself."

#2: "Instincitely, fire surges to the back of my throat, ready to defend, to protect myself.  I bite my lip until the taste of blood flows over my teeth.  Coppery sweet, it mingles with the flavor of char and ash."

What is your teaser this Tuesday?

Review: Deadly Cool

Author: Gemma Halliday

Series: Deadly Cool #1

Source: Gemma Halliday

Rating: 5/5

Summery:

Hartley Grace Featherstone is having a very bad day. First she finds out that her boyfriend is cheating on her with the president of the Herbert Hoover High School Chastity Club. Then he's pegged as the #1 suspect in a murder. And if that weren't enough, now he's depending on Hartley to clear his name. Seriously? Not cool.

But as much as Hartley wouldn't mind seeing him squirm, she knows he's innocent, and she's the only one who can help him. Along with her best friend, Sam, and the school's resident Bad Boy, Chase, Hartley starts investigating on her own. But as the dead bodies begin to pile up, the mystery deepens, the suspects multiply, and Hartley begins to fear that she may be the killer's next victim.

Review:
Wow.  This book is amazing.  I absolutely love it!!  And I usually don't like murder/mystery books, but this is one I'll remember.

The story line is amazing.  The writing is amazing.  I LOVE THIS BOOK!!  I was hooked on page one and just couldn't stop reading.  And laughing.  This book is really funny, it ranks up there with Percy Jackson, which I found hilarious.  The one problem I had with the story line was the reason for the murders.  It's lame.  I mean, who would kill just to save her/his group's reputation.  I really with Gemma Halliday had come up with a better excuse than that.

I love Hartley.  She's smart, strong, and smart-ass (which I love because I'm like that :P)  She had the guts to investigate the murder and I loved the was Gemma Halliday portrayed her.
Although I don't like her as much as Hartley, I also like Sam.  She's funny and just as smart-ass as Hartley.
And, of course, there's always the boy.  I hate him.  Josh is a  slimeball, jerk, idiot, ****************  (I'm censoring like Sam :P).
OK, so here's the other boy.  I love Chase.  He's cute, buff, and has the whole "Bad Boy" thing going for him.

All in all, this book is amazing and I can't wait to read the next one.

Huge thanks to Gemma Halliday for sending me a pdf version of this book.  Thanks you!!  And I might actually end up buying a paperback of this book because I love it so much.

Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Anna #1
Pages: 316
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 3/5


Summery:
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.

Review:
I was so excited to read this book.  And although I was a little disappointed, I still liked it.

I usually don't go for these kinds of books: Scary, with a boy as the main character, the whole ghost killer thing going on, but I'm really glad that this book introduced me to this genre because it was actually pretty good.  The story line, while good, wasn't amazing.  I don't really understand the early defeating of Anna (I really thought it would be the ending of the book), but the real ending was very good.  And I've never read a book where the hero falls in love with the dead villain, and I have to admit, I kinda liked it.  And the ending was so sad, I just have to find out what happens to Anna.  This book is brutal, scary, and kind of gory, but I really enjoyed it.

My favorite character is definitely Anna.  She didn't want to die in the first place (she died horribly, btw.  But I won't tell you so you have to read it :P), and she didn't want to become the demon she was as the dead.  I also liked that she was a part of the ghost-hunting group (Thomas, Carmel, and Cas) and that she helped in the end of the book.  And I'm glad she likes Cas.
I don't have much to say about Thomas, just because he didn't do a whole lot, but he's nice.
I like Carmel because she was kind of a strong character, though she didn't do much either.
And, last but not least, I kind of liked Cas.  Although he wasn't as kick-ass as Percy Jackson, he was still a pretty strong character.

All in all, not my favorite book ever, but not bad either.  And one thing I didn't mention earlier was that I did NOT read this book at night. :D

ARC Review: Halflings

Author: Heather Burch

Series: Halflings #1

Pages: 286

Format: ARC paperback

Source: Zondervan
Rating: 3/5

Summery:
After being inexplicably targeted by an evil intent on harming her at any cost, seventeen-year-old Nikki finds herself under the watchful guardianship of three mysterious young men who call themselves halflings. Sworn to defend her, misfits Mace, Raven, and Vine battle to keep Nikki safe while hiding their deepest secret—and the wings that come with.

A growing attraction between Nikki and two of her protectors presents a whole other danger. While she risks a broken heart, Mace and Raven could lose everything, including their souls. As the mysteries behind the boys’ powers, as well as her role in a scientist’s dark plan, unfold, Nikki is faced with choices that will affect the future of an entire race of heavenly beings, as well as the precarious equilibrium of the earthly world.

Review:
For some wierd reason, I thought this book was about fairies (both with the cover and the title) but I was wrong.  And I feel like it would have worked out better had it been about fairies.

I was all geared up for story about human/fairy creatures called Halflings but instead I got angels.  Yes, angels.  And for some reason, I wasn't crazy about it.  The plot wasn't that great, it started stuff but didn't finish them (I'll probably understand in the next series).  I usually don't like love triangles AT ALL and this book was no different.  I don't even know why Nikki likes Raven.  And it makes me think less of a girl when she has two guys.

My favorite of the two boys fighting for Nikki was Mace.  He was the nicest one, besides Vine (who I also like) and he really cared about Nikki.
The other boy in the triangle is Raven, and I don't like him at all.  He is not appealing to me AT ALL.
In the beginning I really liked Nikki.  She was strong, self-confident, and completely uniterested in boys.  Even when she met Mace I still liked her because it was just him, not two guys.  But the minute Raven came into the picture my opinion of her started to slip.  I wish she had just stayed with Mace.

All in all, not the best book I've read, but it was still good and I want to read the next book for sure.

Huge thanks to Heather Burch for talking to me and letting her agent know I wanted a book and Zondervan for sending me one.  THANKS SO MUCH!!!

Waiting on Wednesday (#12): Forbidden

This is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlites upcoming new releases that we're highly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Forbidden, by Syrie James & Ryan M. James

Add this to your to-read shelf on Goodreads



She should not exist.

He should not love her.

Claire Brennan has been attending Emerson Academy for two years now (the longest she and her mom have remained anywhere) and she’s desperate to stay put for the rest of high school. So there’s no way she’s going to tell her mom about the psychic visions she’s been having or the creepy warnings that she’s in danger.

Alec MacKenzie is fed up with his duties to watch and, when necessary, eliminate the descendants of his angelic forefathers. He chose Emerson as the ideal hiding place where he could be normal for once. He hadn’t factored Claire into his plans. . . .

Their love is forbidden, going against everything Alec has been taught to believe. But when the reason behind Claire’s unusual powers is revealed and the threat to her life becomes clear, how far will Alec go to protect her?

ARC Review: The Selection

Author: Kiera Cass

Series: The Selection #1

Pages: 327

Format: ARC paperback

Release Date: April 24, 2012
Source: HarperTeen
Rating: 5/5

Summery:
It's time for the Selection, a lottery where girls will be randomly chosen to compete for Prince Maxon's heart.  Seventeen-year-old America Singer has no interest in being a princess or ruling a country plagued by violent rebel attacks.  All she wants is a future with Aspen, the boy she's forbidden to be with.  But when she's Selected, America finds herself unexpectedly torn--and must choose between  the life she thought she left behind and the future she never dared to imagine.

Review:
I don't usually go for books like this one, with the whole princess competition thing going on (actually I've never even started one because they don't look good), but let me tell you, this book is amazing.

I loved it.  That's all I can say.  It went right into the story, and I was hooked from page one.  I just couldn't stop reading.  The plot was AMAZING!!  I loved how Kiera Cass manipulated the characters (Aspen) to make America sign up, and then dropped him, but still kept him around.  Does that make any sense to you?  I probably didn't explain that right, but I did my best. :D
About half-way through the book I stopped and looked at all the pages I had left to read and there were still like twenty girls left and I was like How is someone going to win when there's only fifty pages left?  Well, when I finished, my question was answered: None did.  Kiera Cass decided to put me through the torture of the biggest cliffhanger ever and not tell me who won.  HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?!?!

From page one America was in an interesting situation, what with getting Selected and having Aspen as a boyfriend.  This book wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as it is if it didn't have the love triangle.  I usually don't like books with it in them, but it totally worked for this one.
I love Maxon.  He is totally misunderstood.  He isn't stiff, aloof, mean.  He's actually really sweet and CUTE.
The other side of the triangle is Aspen.  I don't like him.  The little slime-ball dumped America because she gave him some food then had the gal to come crying back to her. I hope she ends up with Maxon.
And, last but not least, I really liked America.  The whole theme with her in the Selection was that she wanted to be herself, not someone fake, and I really like that.  She's a very strong character and speaks her mind.  Sort of like me. :P

All in all, I BETTER GET THE SECOND BOOK ASAP OR I WILL EXPLODE!!  DO YOU FEEL MY PAIN, KIERA???

Before I sign off I have to give a huge thanks to Kiera Cass (for answering all my messages and passing on my request for an ARC) and to HarperTeen for sending me a copy.  THANKS!!!!!!

Teaser Tuesday: (#10)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Anyone can do it.  You just have to do is:

 (1): Grab your current read.

(2): Open it to a random page.

(3): Share 1 or 2 "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.  BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!! 

(4): Make sure you also mention the author and title.

The Selection, by Kiera Cass

Add this to you to-read shelf on Goodreads (it's totally worth it)

#1: "I rolled my eyes but obeyed.  I was glad Illea existed considering that this very land had nearly been turned to rubble, but these regulations were starting to make me feel like I was suffocating, like there were invisible chains keeping me down.  Laws about who you could love, forms about your virginity being intact; it was infuriating."

#2: "I was the first one to the airport, and I was beyond terrified.  The giddy excitement of the crowd had faded, and now I was faced with the horrific experience of flying.  I would be traveling with three other Selected girls, and I tried to get control of my nerves.  I really didn't want to have a panic attack in front of them."

What's your teaser this Tuesday?