Review: Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson (Valkyrie #1)

Title: Valkyrie Rising (Valkyrie #1)

Author: Ingrid Paulson

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Mythology

Publisher: HarperTeen

Synopsis/Summary: Nothing ever happens in Norway. But at least Ellie knows what to expect when she visits her grandmother: a tranquil fishing village and long, slow summer days. And maybe she’ll finally get out from under the shadow of her way-too-perfect big brother, Graham, while she’s there. 

What Ellie doesn’t anticipate is Graham’s infuriating best friend, Tuck, tagging along for the trip. Nor did she imagine boys going missing amid rumors of impossible kidnappings. Least of all does she expect something powerful and ancient to awaken in her and that strange whispers would urge Ellie to claim her place among mythological warriors. Instead of peace and quiet, there’s suddenly a lot for a girl from L.A. to handle on a summer sojourn in Norway! And when Graham vanishes, it’s up to Ellie—and the ever-sarcastic, if undeniably alluring Tuck—to uncover the truth about all the disappearances and thwart the nefarious plan behind them.

Deadly legends, hidden identities, and tentative romance swirl together in one girl’s unexpectedly-epic coming of age.-Taken from GoodReads

From the book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository

      This book included a very special element, it incorporated Norse Mythology, like the Percy Jackson series, only that I have never heard of Norse Mythology (yeah, not really an expert in mythologies... :P), and that made the book that much more interesting.

     The plot introduced a new kind of paranormal creatures that hardly ever appeared in books, Valkyries. I had a lot of fun reading about them, although I still think that they are not that different from vampires and werewolves, at least in their abilities. They can move super fast, fight extra hard, heals fast and hypnotize people. Well, that fits the description of vampires pretty good, right? Minus the blood-drinking part of course. Anyway, despite their similarities, it was still interesting to know about Valkyries, apparently they collected dead soldiers' souls and give it to the God of Death, Odin. Their purpose was really what set them apart from other paranormal creatures. Still, I appreciate Paulson's effort in putting something new in her story.

     Most of the story took place within two days, and events just kept happening one after the other. To put it simply, this is a fast-paced story. True, there were still moments when after a long chapter (actually most of the chapters are pretty long, like 30 pages or so, which proved inconvenient especially since I insist on finishing the full chapter before dropping a book), things are still in the same place, but things can progress really fast if the author so wants. Truth be told though, the plot didn't quite pull me in, the whole wild-goose-chase thing wasn't really my thing, plus, I found Ellie to be incredibly frustrating. That said, the plot was still enjoyable and wasn't really that bad, just that it wasn't my thing, but I loved the romance! Tuck is a great love interest!

     The ending was kind of great, most of the things were resolved, and there were a few loose ends that was left to the reader's imagination. I am totally fine with this being a stand-alone, but apparently it's going to be a series. There are many series these days, huh? Anyway, I like the idea of reading about Valkyries again, though Ellie wasn't my favorite, I did want to see her grow into a proud Valkyrie.

    As mentioned before, this book featured Norse Mythology, which was refreshing. However, I don't think Paulson had used the concept to its full when writing Valkyrie Rising. The only thing that resembled Norse Mythology was its mythological creatures, however, I would love to see a more Percy-Jackson approach, you know, with the story sort of alluding a story from the mythology, that would definitely attract me, plus it allows readers to know more Norse Mythology.

     As mentioned, I didn't like Ellie. Sure, she was kind of sweet and kind, at least not really that bad. But she kept getting more and more impetuous by the story, and that really annoyed me. I know that was part of her Valkyrie nature, but being a Valkyrie didn't mean you should go around taking risks that were A) Not worth taking and B) Totally stupid. I actually hate these kind of behavior on a heroine, you've got to keep a clear head especially in the heat of battle, and while Ellie was rational at times, her choices were really stupid, she kept doing dangerous things, didn't she understand that if she was killed, she could never save her bother? Think before you act. Although, now that I think about it, she did think, though her head most be wired very differently from mine, because I disagreed with most of her decisions.

     Now, let's talk about the love interest, Tucker! He was portrayed as a player, yet he had been friends with Ellie for years, as he was also Graham, Ellie's brother's friend. That gave the perfect reason for their relationship. I knew many people actually hated insta-love, so this friendship-turned romance should be pretty satisfying. Despite being a player, Tuck was pretty good guy, he was sweet with Ellie, funny even in the direst of situations, and most importantly, he was a really good friend. He kept away from Ellie even though he likes her because of Graham, showing that he is a really loyal friend. This one's a keeper!

    I would give Valkyrie Rising 4 stars. It was enjoyable, though the story was kind of fussy with all that was happening at times, and I hated our protagonist's constant reckless choices, the refreshing mythology incorporation made up for it. Valkyrie Rising was a unique kind of paranormal featuring a fast-paced storyline and a sweet love interest, I would recommend this to YA paranormal fans, especially ones who are tired of reading about vampires, werewolves, fallen angels, etc. all the time. Hope you guys enjoy it!

I was totally clueless about Norse Mythology, actually, I knew very little about mythologies around the world. So, tell me, any particular mythology that was very interesting? I would want to know more ;) Did you enjoy the book? Tuck was charming, right? Tell me in the comments below! :)

Review: Red Glove by Holly Black (Curse Workers #2)

Title: Red Glove (Curse Workers #2)

Author: Holly Black

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Mystery

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Synopsis/Summary: After rescuing his brothers from Zacharov’s retribution and finding out that Lila, the girl he has loved his whole life, will never, ever be his, Cassel is trying to reestablish some kind of normalcy in his life. That was never going to be easy for someone from a worker family that’s tied to one of the big crime families—and whose mother’s cons get more reckless by the day. But Cassel is coming to terms with what it means to be a transformation worker, and he’s figuring out how to have friends.

Except normal doesn’t last very long. Soon Cassel is being courted by both sides of the law and is forced to confront his past—a past he remembers only in scattered fragments, and one that could destroy his family and his future. Cassel will have to decide whose side he wants to be on, because neutrality is not an option. And then he will have to pull off his biggest con ever to survive….-Taken from GoodReads

From the book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository

This review doesn't contain spoilers, so go ahead! Read on! ;)(This is going to be pretty short, since I've said most of what I had to say in my review of book 1, White Cat.)

    Again, I am astonished with the pure smartness of this book. This time, the story was more of a murder mystery, and I just love how Holly Black never held onto any evidence, instead placing it all on the table, letting us discover things alongside Cassel. I have read mysteries that drop hints by brushing over something significant with only a sentence or two. Some may admire it, but I call it misleading. Luckily, this never happens in this book :) Oh, and I just love all the con knowledge and such. Con works actually requires a vast range of knowledge, and though I don't think I would ever be a con person myself, it's still so fun to read about them. Especially with motion deceptions, they are so true!

    This is not much of a plot twist or climax this time, but everything flew through well and kept me interested 'til the end. Plus, trying to intercept Cassel's actions is fascinating enough, he is a guy full of surprises, and he's actually very loyal to his family, while his family members all have a secret agenda of their own.

    The political aspects are toned down a little for this book, but there is still our protagonist dancing around the edge of law (actually, he does plenty of illegal stuff :P). And the whole proposition 2 thing is pretty new in YA books, where we seldom talk about politics.

    I have grown a fond love for Cassel and his (real) friends, Sam and Dancea. The characters are all full of surprises, and all have their own characteristics. I still loath Lila, but I will bear with her, since Cassel likes her :P

    I would give this book 4 stars. Red Glove is a good installment to the Curse Workers series with its colorful characters, thick mystery and originality in including little parts of politics in its plot. Personally, I like solving murder mysteries more than facing life-and-death experiences (book one), but both books are good. And I should confess this, I read about 30 pages of Red Glove before I started White Cat. Not that I wanted to, but I grabbed the wrong book by mistake and didn't notice it :P Despite not having read the first book at all, I had no problem understanding the first 30 or so pages of the book, it goes to show that Holly Black does nice recaps of her previous books, she doesn't throw a recap at you with a lengthy paragraph and the main protagonist launching into a monologue of we happened in the last book :P I would recommend this book to YA mystery and crime novels readers, they are gonna love the conspiracy and mystery featured in this book! :)

Ratings: 4 stars!

Do you like murder mysteries? Any must-reads? I would love to expand my TBR list ;) Did you like White Cat? What about this book? Better or worse? Personally I think this book is better. The mystery is deeper, and while there are no "ah ha" moments, I love it :)

Review: Once a Witch By Carolyn MacCullough (Witch #1)

Title: Once A Witch (Witch #1)

Author: Carolyn MacCullough

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Paranormal, Fantasy

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books

Synopsis/Summary: Tamsin Greene comes from a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most Talented among them. But Tamsin's magic never showed up. Now seventeen, Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very Talented sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him. The search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all. This is a spellbinding display of storytelling that will exhilarate, enthrall, and thoroughly enchant.

Find the Book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

 

    When I picked up Once A Witch and went into it, I never once expected it to be a time travel novel, but I when do, I smiled. This book is good!

    The plot was a little flat and childish to me at the first half of the book,but in the other half, when things picked up, I genuinely enjoyed it. I like intricate and complex plots, so needless to say a book that dealt with the ripple effect of time-traveling is right up my alley. I liked to think about how things that the main characters did in the past would affect them and how. Of course, that's just me doing some excessive thinking, because MacCullough explained things to us very clearly. So even if you're the kind of person that just went along with the book and doesn't do too much thinking in between, you'll understand the plot and wouldn't be too confused. :)

    The book was also very fast-paced, a lot happened in the first half but then again, I always underestimate the amount of plot development an amazing author can do with 140 pages. However, there's definitely not enough plot twist and the climax wasn't gripping enough. Usually by the climax, I am racing with my brain to try to catch up with how fast my eyes were reading, but this book didn't make me feel like this. And there's no knock-your-socks-off moment at all.

    I must note that I love MacCullough's writing very much. The sentences she wrote painted a poetic picture in my head, and though it was a little hard to get used to at first, since most author is kind of straight to the point with the exclusion of describing surroundings. But MacCullough described her characters' actions with such beautiful words and comparisons, I can't help but feel intrigued in her writing :)

    Needless to say the world-building of this book is amazing. With a time travel plot, an author must be very careful. That means they can't treat time travel lightly, giving it only mild disturbance in the future, because as you know, there's a ripple effect with time traveling. McCullough handled it nicely, as most of the later parts of the plot were sprang from the ripple effects of time traveling. She did a good job to break down some time traveling laws in the characters' conversations without being too educational and practical. The time travel in this book wasn't confusing, yet it was good and handled nicely.

    I felt that there were not nearly enough character development in this book. It being so fast-paced, there were not many time to develop characters in terms of describing their feelings and addressing their changes throughout the story.

    Tamsin is the main protagonist of this book. I thought she was very whiny at first, and she was. She was born in a powerful witch family with no power and a perfect older sister, why wouldn't she be grumpy and whiny? But since she was a 17-year-old, I thought she would handle things more maturely, I guess I was wrong. Not that I don't like Tamsin, but I thought that her characteristics in the first half of the book was not fitting for her age. Lying just so she could prove herself? Getting in a fight with a child about using her Talent? Seriously, she was acting like a whiny brat and I couldn't stand it. Luckily, she evolved throughout the book and became more mature and assured with herself.

    Rowena was the evil older sister of Tamsin. Well, she was not necessarily evil, just that Tamsin thinks that she was oh so perfect and have everything she wanted handed to her. Actually, that was true. I have an older sister, and she was kind of like that too, not the perfect part, but the having everything she wanted part. She was away to study aboard now but I would never forgot how selfish she was when we were child, and how unreasonable she was treating me, yelling at me all the time, criticizing my every. Move. Okay, now my anger is flaring up... Anyway, I get why Tamsin didn't like her older sister very much. Rowena didn't grow much as a character either...

    Gabriel was the love interest. I liked him, he was easy-going and funny. I am not sure how and when he fell in love with Tamsin though. Their romance was just so right, and MacCullough just didn't bother to tell us how Gabriel fell in love and how Tamsin developed the same feelings towards him. Basically, they were acting all like best-friends within most of the book, and then they kissed, but they never talked about it. (At least not in this book) I like their romance, but it really was feeling kind of like it wasn't developed enough.

    I would give this book 3.8 stars. The plot was intriguing and fast-paced, not very shocking though. I like the time traveling but just that aspect couldn't really brought up my rating for the plot of the book which was 3.5 stars. The world-building was great, the idea of Talents wasn't unheard of, it was just named differently, but I like it. And I like how the world was kind of constructed based on the time-traveling, so I gave 5 stars to world-building. The characters were definitely not in depth enough and some characters were definitely acting out of their age, so I gave characters a 3.5 star. 

    I would recommend this book to YA paranormal readers. This one should definitely be shelved as paranormal powers (If you don't know what I am talking about, click this post where I discuss different kinds of paranormal). 

Rating: 3.8 stars!

This book was actually about witches, the witches in this book all have a special power they were born with that was called the Talent. So what Talent would you want to have? Do you want to try time traveling? Would you dare to do it? Discuss! I am waiting for your comments ;)

Review: Dead is a Killer Tune By Marlene Perez (Dead is series#7)

Title: Dead is A Killer Tune (Dead is series #7)

Author: Marlene Perez

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Paranormal

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books

Synopsis/Summary: A diabolical pied piper comes to town in the the seventh installment of this hot paranormal mystery series. High school freshman Jessica Walsh is a virago, a woman warrior who must protect her hometown from danger. And in the unusual little town of Nightshade, California, trouble is always lurking. At Nightshade’s Battle of the Bands, Jess’s boyfriend Dominic and his band Side Effects May Vary are up against Hamlin, a band so popular that their fans follow them everywhere. Soon, Nightshade’s musicians are doing risky, illegal and even fatal things—and claiming that strange music they heard right before falling asleep told them to do it. Could a diabolical pied piper be sabotaging the Battle of the Bands? It’s up to Jessica and her friends track down the tuneful tyrant.

Find the book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

    I think the Dead is series is one of the most under-appreciated series in YA. The books in this series are so great, they are short yet packed with mysteries, there are so many sub-plots that I must applaud Perez for stuffing them all in then resolving them in about 200 pages. Well done! Perez! *insert enthusiastic clapping here* As you can see, this is the 7th book of the series, but don't worry, Perez doesn't drag her plots, each installment actually has its own story, with the same characters of course. From book one to book five we have Daisy as our protagonist, and from book six onwards we have Jessica as the protagonist.

    Dead is a Killer Tune is another great installment to the Dead is series. Like I said, this book is packed with mysteries. And it's fast-paced. Within the first five chapters, we already have several plots set up and ready to go. The writing itself is crisp and direct, though there are not much development to the characters, I still enjoyed it. Dialogues are an important part of the book, there are many dialogues and they actually pushed the story forward. The plot itself is sometimes messy, what with so many sub-plots, but not necessarily confusing, it's easy to pick up a sub-plot even if it had been neglected for some chapters. The mysteries itself is not hard to figure out, so there are not really some knock-your-socks-off plot twists, but I enjoyed them just fine, I usually enjoyed plot twists a lot and demand big plot twists in a book, but Perez casted her magic on me and I love this book so much that I don't care really about the plot twist, I just wanna keep reading. There is also some romance in this book, it's sweet but very slow-burning, and it lacks kisses at times, so don't your hopes up for a steamy romance in this book ;)

    The book is set in Nightshade, a town in Cali. But don't get it wrong, there is no sun bathing and beach party in this book, there is only weirdness. Seriously, the town is just weird, weird visitors, paranormals, murders, you name it, Nightshade seems to have it. And I love this town. Somehow murders didn't seem like a really big deal and had a great impact on people and the town, and people didn't really react when they see paranormal occurrences, but it's like the understatement for this town, it's plain weird. Everything seems to happen in here too. It seems like an exciting town to live in but I would have to become psychic if I want to move in :P

    The town provided the perfect setting for the story, since everything happens in Nightshade, you can't really blame anyone when the plot takes a weird turn, you just have to deal with Nightshade being weird and get on with it.

    Characters are a big weakness of the series.

    Since the book is very short, we actually don't get to see the emotionally struggles the protagonist goes through after dramatic events, we don't really know much about them either. I find Jessica to be hard to connect to sometimes, she doesn't seem really confident in herself in this book but in the 6th book (which is the first book to feature Jessica), she said she's ready to be popular/queen bee at high school (freshmen here). So, is she confident? Or is she just another ordinary teenager? She can't really be the queen bee if she don't even view herself as queen bee material, it's just contradictory.

    In fact, the characteristics of other characters changes a lot and doesn't make sense too. Selena was supposed to be a little love sick and gorgeous witch (don't worry, she's in high school, not the old women kind of witch), but in this she has gotten a lot meaner. It's just weird. Is that even Selena? The characteristics are all wrong! Selena is a more extreme case, but you can imagine, characters in this series actually come back with different characteristics... Not a good move here, Perez.

 (I finally uploaded the header for conclusions! Yay for me!)

    I would give this book 4 stars. I would have given a higher rating if the character settings are better, but other than that, this book is very good. It's a fast-paced novel filled with several strange, mysterious and creative plots, and sometimes offers a little humor too. The book reads like a MG book, right until there are murders, but don't worry, there are no graphic details about the murders so I think this book is good for younger YA readers looking for a quick read. It doesn't matter whether you're a paranormal fan or not, the book is intriguing! I hope this series will get more hype like the other famous books out there though, it's definitely worth fan-girling for ;)

Rating: 4 stars!

This book is such a quick read, I finished it within two hours! Do you have any favorite quick reads? What are they? Tell me in the comments below, I would love to look for quick reads to fix my reading rants! ;)

P.S. Sorry the review is a day late, I am having a very busy week at school and I just read several pretty crappy e-books therefore completely killing my reading mood, good thing Dead is a Killer Tune cured my short reading rant! ;)

Review: Voodoo Kiss by Jayde Scott (Ancient Legends #3)

Title: Voodoo Kiss (Ancient Legend #3)

Author: Jayde Scott

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Mystery, Fantasy

Publisher: Scotland (self-published)

Synopsis/Summary:Aspiring rock star, Sofia, had her whole future figured out. Or so she thought until her sister's sacrificed in a horrific ritual. Now Sofia's haunted by dreadful nightmares and terrifying visions from a past she never knew existed. Until this year.

On a trip to Brazil, something awakens inside Sofia -- her legacy, a blessing and a curse, drawing to her every paranormal creature out there: vampires, demons and reapers, ghosts and Shadows, and something much darker that's been twisting its way into her heart and soul. With the help of Thrain, a striking demon of the highest order, she sets out to uncover the truth about herself and the ones she loves.

In a world of love and betrayal, of reincarnation and ancient bonds, to solve the mystery of her sister's murder, Sofia must embrace her own century-old legacy. But do do so, she must also let evil into her soul.

Find the book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

      Voodoo Kiss is another wonderful installment to the Ancient Legends series. The book is very fast-paced, a lot seemed to happen in one chapter. While I do like to have a more complex story, sometimes I tend to forget details from previous chapters when I put down the book and picked it up later. Luckily, I wasn't exactly lost, I could pick things up again after a few paragraphs, when the memories come back.

     The story this time is more mystery-like. We had a lot of questions about Sophia and we got to discover the answers with her. The previous book, Doomed, is a little more like a rom-com, so I think this book is a nice change. I do have a little complaint though, there was a sub-plot in the first half of the book that was forgotten to make way for the main plot and another sub-plot, we got to see it got resolved in the end, but I felt like the lack of mention of this sub-plot made it seem like Jayde Scott was just remembering it after she ended the main plot, so she just added another chunk of the story to resolve it. I think there needs to be a balance on how several plots develop, not just introduce several plots at the start, and then develop one plot and resolve it and move on to the next one. I want the plots to go more simultaneously.

    I wanted to note that I like how the series progresses. It move onto another character every book in the series, while continuing the story from the previous book. It was refreshing since I've never seen another series like that before. Also I love that we get to know the characters as we go through the story in their POV. I do hope that there will be stories with Kieran and Clare as the main protagonist though, I heard the 4th book is going to go back to Amber, but I really liked the idea to change the main protagonist every time...

    I had a hard time getting into the book. Other than the plot amnesia I mentioned, I also found that there were a lot of editing mistakes from start to about 60% into the book. There were repeated passages and misspellings, and I was annoyed by it. Especially the repeated passage problem, it was a little confusing to me when reading. The first 2 books didn't have much editing problem, and since this time the book is 4.99 instead of 2.99, I expected higher quality, meaning a more thorough edit, hope it's just a one time thing. The editing problem lessened as we near the climax of the book, and I was able to really enjoy the story during the climax.

    The climax, like former Jayde Scott books, were full of twists and I thoroughly enjoyed everything, and was really surprised at how things worked out (not really the knock-your-socks-off kind though).

 

    The story this time involved Voodoo magic, instead of just paranormal creatures, and I loved it. I got a little bored just watching paranormals, and adding magick to the mix is good. There wasn't really a lot Voodoo in this book, but there was a ritual, and I can see Jayde Scoot had done her research.

    I liked every character in this book, including Gael.

    Sophia is a very likable character, she is a typical strong female heroine, wouldn't back down from anything but what really made me like her was how much she was similar to me. At the start of the book, she was one of those person who couldn't say no to anything, because she felt guilty for turning people away and I could really connect to her feeling. I feel bad when I turned people down, not exactly guilt, but close enough that I could relate to Spoh. And as the story progressed, I saw her growth. By the end of the book, she was stronger, more sure of herself, and much more happy then she was in the start of the book, and I was really glad for her. However, I did have a small complaint, Soph was really humorless. Sure, she'd giggle at jokes, but she wasn't really the joking type herself. While I do like a protagonist that would treat things seriously, it made the book less funny than the previous installments, since there was no snarky character in this story.

    Thrain was one character I didn't really care about. Sure, he was the male protagonist but really, I would rather see a story of Kieran instead of his. He was sweet, there was no mistake about that, but I couldn't really connect with him. So I don't exactly like him, but I don't hate him either. I usually felt a lot like that towards male characters, Aidan was another example (although now he has grown on me), the only male character that I really loved is Kieran (yes, I kept saying that).

    Jayde Scott actually developed her characters really well, even the secondary characters. Gael didn't have a large part in the story, but I could really understand his person and his feelings, though I am not connected to him, I understood him, and that was no easy feat because Gael almost only appeared at the start and near the end of the book. Also, I really liked Clare. She wasn't really an important character in any of the books so far, but this time, Scott kept mentioning that Clare had a dark past, and I hope that's a hint that there will be a story featuring Clare.  (That would me awesome.)

    The romance between Sophia and Thrain were the same as the last two books, insta-love. I know a lot of people hate insta-love, but there's the bond so the insta-love was kind of justified.

Conclusion: 

    This book is another suspenseful installment for the Ancient Legends series with likable yet mysterious characters. I really enjoyed this book, especially towards the end with the climax scene and no more editing mistakes. I would give this book 4 stars because I think the ending is wrapped a little too nicely and the editing mistakes really took the joy out of most of the book. The sub-plots were a little messy, being forgotten then suddenly the plot continued without any foreshadowing. However, I do enjoyed the plot and loved how the mysteries in this book were resolved. I would recommend this book to YA paranormal romance fans, be sure to check out the series ;)

Rating: 4 stars!

 Do you like a more mysterious story, or a more romantic one? What do you think of insta-love? How do you like Voodoo Kiss by Jayde Scott? I would love to see what you think of the book in the comments below ;)

Review: A Job From Hell by Jayde Scott (Anicent Legends #1)

Title: A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends #1)

Author: Jayde Scott

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Romance Paranormal

Publisher: Scotland (self-published)

Synopsis/Summary: The moment Amber starts her summer job in Scotland and sets eyes upon Aidan, her fate is sealed. Summoned by an ancient bond, she can never love another. Lost in the woods one night Amber enters Aidan's deadly world when she unknowingly participates in a paranormal race and promptly wins the first prize...a prize worth killing for.

In a world of forbidden love, ancient enemies, legends and rituals, nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted. Life will never be the same again, unless she enters the Otherworld. But to do so, Amber must die...

Find the book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

 

    Holy cow I love this book! The plot wasn't exactly very original, however, the story flowed fast and I really enjoyed Jayde's writing.

     Okay, I should say something about what I loved and hated about the plot. First, I loved that the story didn't drag, the events were actually flowing to you chapter after chapter. The book was actually written in dual POVs, and I felt that things really started to pick up after Chapter 7, when there started to have chapters in Adian's POV. The characters in this book were all very tightly woven, there was no excessive characters in this book, no cardboard-cutout sidekick, no mean girl (well, there was one that kind of resembled it, but I wouldn't say she was actually mean, more like obsessed). There were a lot of deals in this book too, which made me think that all the characters were, in some degree, calculating. Well, the stakes were high for every character in this book, so I wouldn't blame them for thinking about themselves and their love before the others. (And I really enjoy watching characters interact that way, they were neither friends nor enemies, I love those kind of relationships!)

     As for something that I hated about the plot... Well, I actually felt that the book started to drag when all of the characters were gathered together, there were so many conversions and distractions going on that it was kind of confusing. I love watching Amber and Adian deal with different characters, but not with all of them on the same time! I was lost reading the countless dialogues and wasn't really sure where the plot was going. Luckily, this only happened in a few chapters. Also, I found that Jatde's writing at the beginning of the story was actually more enjoyable than during the later part of the book. I don't know how this happened, wasn't things supposed to be better rather than worse? Jayde started pouring many jokes in the later part of the story, while some did actually manage to crack me up, some were confusing. I don't mind a few jokes, but sometimes when I was reading dialogues and jokes kept popping up, it actually derails the story and after some time, appears to be boring and excessive. Another problem I had with the plot, was the ending. It was... Weird, several characters that rarely appeared in the story suddenly popped up towards the end, giving readers a final twist, and they way that Jayde saved the main characters from this twist was unexpected, but not in a good way. That solution appears to be too random and awkward and left me thinking, "How convenient that things managed to happen just at the right time. It was genius. Yeah, Not."

    The world-building was not exactly original, but I think Jayde managed to put a good spin on the paranormal world without complex settings.

    I also found that there were a lot of scary mansions in self-published works, whilst I haven't seen the setting on publisher-published works (okay, Anna dressed in Blood should count as one). I don't really mind reading about scary mansions, but of all three of the self-published works I am currently reading are set in scary mansions? That's just weird! Well, I guess that's not exactly the author's fault, I just think they should go different ways other than scary mansions and vampires.

    Which brought me back to the paranormal aspect of the book. The paranormal aspect were actually what crafted the story, unlike the recent books that I read (Envy, Touch series), where paranormal just sort of felt like a device to attract readers, I could almost imagine what those books would be like without the paranormal features. I enjoyed the paranormal in this book, but I couldn't help but cringe when I found out that vampires were involved, again. I haven't read the blurb before reading the book and the blurb actually didn't prepare me for another vampire story, I did enjoy this one though, apparently vampires don't always kill-joy. (I, however, don't enjoy other vampire series like HoN very much, and I haven't read the Twilight Saga OR the Vampire Academy series, so you could see I am not exactly the biggest vampire fan.)

    I really liked the characters of this book, all except Layla, which I think many people would share my hate once they read the book (go read it!)

     Amber was an very average protagonist, she wasn't overly confident with herself, she was brave when needed to be and naturally curious. I didn't expect her to be the snarky kind though. She started cracking a LOT of jokes starting from the middle of the book. That's problem I was talking about  with many jokes popping up in the later part of the story. We already have one snarky character, we don't need another one and Amber's sudden humor actually confused me, she wasn't that funny in the beginning, what changed? I think Jayde should develop Amber more thoroughly before starting to write, instead of adding a new personality to her in the middle of the book. It's weird. I don't hate Amber though, and there weren't times that I want to smack her head which was a very rare situation lately (I seemed to be reading a lot of crappy books lately and it really frustrates me. Some characters irritated me to the point that I wanted to smack his/her head. Ugh!). Amber wasn't without flaws though, actually her biggest flaw was her commitment issue. She couldn't commit herself to potential friends, let alone a guy, she had a hard time trusting people what with the things going on around her and a heartbreak. That changed throughout the book and I really loved the trust that she slowly developed with the characters. I do hope she was more friendly to some characters though. Oh well, I am satisfied.

    As for Aidan, he was hopelessly in love with Amber. But truth be told, I don't really like their romance that much. Sure, I was excited when they first kissed, but after that their relationship just didn't appeal to me anymore, I don't know why. Aidan was a the mopey type, and I was shocked that I didn't hate him as much as I hate Ben from the Touch series (While I don't exactly have any bias towards the mopey type, they usually end up irritating me), maybe it was because of what he did for Amber, I don't know, I usually just go with my instincts with characters. So, my feeling to the guy is neutral, I do think he needs to treat his friends better though. From what I gathered, he didn't have a lot of friends and I think he really need to treasure the few that he had.

   I like Cass, and I also love Kieran a lot. What can I say? I am a sucker for funny guys. And like I said, I need only one snarky character and that's Kieran. So Amber, stop trying to be funny! That's Kieran's job!

Conclusion:

    I would give this book 4 stars and I am now starting to really appreciate the self-published world. The settings might not be the most original but at least there was no confusion on the world-building. The plot was intricately woven with interesting and likable characters and I am very glad I stumbled upon this book when it was free on Amazon. I recommend this book to all of you paranormal fans out there. The setting might disappoint a little but the story does not! Have fan reading!

Rating: 4 stars!

Have you guys read any good self-published lately? I am planning on reading more self-published works, any suggestions? Did you guys enjoyed A Job From Hell?

Review: Insurgent (Divergent Trilogy #2) by Veronica Roth

Okay, so I finished Insurgent today, so I will review this before I forget anything I want to note...Yeah right, as if I can forget anything about this book, it's amazing! It's so much better than Divergent and now I am definitely eagerly waiting for book 3!!

(If you haven't read book 1, there might be spoilers ahead.)

Title: Insurgent (Divergent Trilogy #2)

Author: Veronica Roth Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopia, Apocalyptic, Fantasy

Publisher: Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Summary/Synopsis: One choice can transform you--or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable--and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

Review: 

Plot:

     Oh, what can I say, I've totally underestimated the Divergent Trilogy! While I was reading the synopsis of Divergent, I knew this was going to be a story with the end of the world epic feel to it. And now it has finally showed exactly how great this story are. I am not going to say what I said about Divergent was wrong, because I still feel Divergent is actually not that great, it's just that Insurgent changed my view on the whole trilogy. That being said, let's start reviewing.

     Okay, the first thing that made Insurgent so great is that in this book, the stakes are higher, and it's more interesting and exciting than reading about Tris' initiation training. This time the stakes are on the factions, which is much bigger than worrying about whether Tris will make it through her initiation, which, by the way, I honestly don't care, not that I don't care about Tris, I just think making her factionless might actually be far more interesting, and her relationship with Tobias will be even more appealing with the whole 'betraying his faction to be with her thing', now that I said(typed?) it, I actually want that to happen :p  Anyway, with the stakes now on factions, the story becomes way more epic and let's just say I love epic stories!

     The second thing is that the plot twists are great! In Divergent I actually didn't realize what or when were the plot twists because they were not shocking at all, Insurgent gives me WAY better plot twists that are so shocking that my mouth actually opened into an O (and this time I was reading in my classroom, no need to tell you how that ended...). With the two big reveal about Tris' family, I am sure you are going to be shocked! Maybe even right out of your seat... I love good plot twists and this book delivers them very well.

    The third thing is that the plot is actually more complex than Divergent. In Divergent we were left with many of the main mystery answered (TOO many, actually), so it feels kind of like a closure. This time, Veronica digs the seemingly solved or unquestioned moments from Divergent and elaborate them into the more complex plot of Insurgent. Long story short, readers are raised with questions and mystery that we didn't know it was even there before,  maybe it's because Veronica hides them so well, anyway, LOVE it.

     The only thing that I am not happy with is that the ending is too abrupt. In Divergent, we are left with a Tris monologue that gives the readers something to wait for (her life after what happened to the factions) but also gives a sort of closure, and I am actually cool with that. But this time, I think the book ends too abruptly, I am an either cliff-hanger or closure kind of girl, I can't settle at the middle and I kind of feel like that's what happened. On one hand, I think that the ending sentence actually meant something shocking will happen, but on the other hand, I think it was just the people's cries of outrage, so I am confused. I am not sure if that was Veronica's intent, but if she was hoping for a cliff-hanger ending, I think it needs more work. However, all in all, the plot of Insurgent is great, and no plot is actually perfect, you can always find something you don't like even if you absolutely loved the book (at least, it was like that for me), so I don't think that's really a great problem.

World-building:

    I actually don't have much to say about the world-building, it's dystopia so as long as the living standards are not too high, I don't see anything that can't be written into the story, as long as it is being explained, I am able to accept almost all kinds dytopian worlds. So the world of Divergent is expanded in Insurgent, with us seeing the remaining two faction headquarters, Candor and Amity. We also get to know about the big mystery about the gate surrounding the world of Divergent and I am looking forward to seeing the world of Divergent further expands as the story goes on. 

Characters:

    The character developments in this book is as good as it was in Divergent. I think developing characters are actually Veronica's strength.

    Tris was faced with guilt and grief when the book started. She killed Will and her parents sacrificed themselves to save her. In a way, she was looking for a way to sacrifice herself too, she thinks this can condemn the fact that she killed Will and honor her parents' sacrifices. My heart actually aches for her because of this. She is too strong/stubborn to admit any of these feelings to anyone, maybe not even yo herself, trying to throw her life away without really thinking things through. Good thing she finally figured out that she actually didn't want to die and faced her fears in the end. She was healed a little, somehow.

    Another character that I really want to talk about, Peter! I actually have a strong love/hate feeling towards Peter. I hate that he insists on being so harsh to Tris, without really explaining why, love that he had such a different view on life than all the other characters. His life might actually be hard, with his unique view on life, and I actually want to know more about it. I hope Veronica doesn't kill off Peter though, his death won't serve much use on shaping Tris into a stronger heroine anyway and I would really hate for him to die. I want to see him realize that the way he sees life is actually wrong (at least, wrong in many ways, he might not be ALL wrong though) and watch him experience love, to see how he will react to it. I want to see him change for the better.

Conclusion:

    This book, as I kept saying, is so much better than Divergent and it actually made me fall in LOVE with the trilogy, I hope the ending will be able to keep up with the good work in Insurgent. I also want to note that, I actually only realized now there are some sort of similarities between The Maze Runners Trilogy and this trilogy. Of course, the story goes in different directions, but if you read both Insurgent and The Maze Runner, you will see what I am talking about. (The Maze Runner Trilogy is actually really worth reading anyway, so go read it!) Okay, so overall, I will give this book a four star, I think the pace is still a little bit slow in the beginning and the ending kind of dragged the rating down a bit. Anyway, a 4-star read is actually really good, I don't think I should go around giving 5-stars all the time, and this actually haven't reached 5-stars in my heart yet anyway. I definitely recommend this to all of you YA readers, it's good!

Rating: 4 stars!