Review: Forever and Beyond by Jayde Scott (Ancient Legends #5)

Title: Forever and Beyond (Ancient Legend #5)

Author: Jayde Scott

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Mystery, Fantasy

Publisher: Scotland (self-published)

Synopsis/Summary: Hidden from mortal eyes and divided into three factions are the creatures of darkness that coexist with mortals.

In the witches’ town Morganefaire, an ancient legend tells the story of a mirror that was once shattered into four fragments, each able to entrap a powerful soul.

Eighteen-year-old Amber is a struggling necromancer on a mission: help vampire Aidan stop the Prophecy of Morganefaire and protect the innocents from the inevitable fate that will befall them should the wrong faction win. When bodies begin to pile up, Amber realizes she has no choice than to work together with the fashion-savvy yet irritating ghost of a young witch to solve the mystery and protect the one she loves.

In a world of forbidden love, of ancient enemies and bonds spun by fate, nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted. Amber’s life will never be the same again unless she finds out who the murderer is, and quick, before everything she ever loved is taken from her forever…

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

      Wow, a cliff-hanger, that's rare in this series! I know from the Feature & Follow post this week that many actually hated cliff-hangers, but I actually really liked them ;) I don't mind waiting, but if the book comes out 2 years later than the previous book, I would be really pissed. I guess it all depends on how the cliff-hanger was set up and how long 'til the next of the series was out. In Forever and Beyond's case, I love the cliff-hanger! Although, to be fair, Shadow Blood, the sixth in the series is already out, so I didn't really care about the cliff-hanger ending ;P

    There is another thing that I love about this book, it's the mystery. This time, the book features a murder mystery instead of the whole secretive boyfriend thing, and I must say I love murder mysteries much much more! The mystery was set up pretty good, we have Amber, still our protagonist, arrived in Morganefaire, an ancient witch/warlock town that no one knows existed and where it was located, and also immediately a dead girl turned up. The people wanted to blame it on Amber, since she was a new comer and a vampire (Aidan and Kieran had been there before), and Amber must solve the mystery about the murder before she was killed herself... As much as I love the whole mystery thing, I must say this book still didn't provide much in terms of answers to the mystery. Actually, it wasn't solved at all. There was a link somewhere between different events, but the book ended we can see how Amber links all things together. 

    Another complain I have on this book is how bad it handled all the unsolved mystery from the last book. At the start of the book, we had Amber do a brief recap on the events that happened in the last few books, since that happens in a lot of series books, I don't really mind. What really annoyed me is that the unanswered questions were kind of just glossed over and were just briefly explained within one paragraph or so. It was like Scott wanted to just throw away all the remaining loose ends immediately so she can start new ones. I like a good ending to each and every plot lines, so this whole explained-within-a-sentence thing really pissed me off.

    Also, the love triangle from the last book was kind of just brushed off the second Amber knew who was haunting her in the last book. She blamed the whole showing-affection-to-Devon thing as the ghost's fault, which I totally disagreed. She was the one who called him when she needed someone to talk to, and all the moments they shared together didn't seem forced. Deep down I know Amber actually had a thing for Devon, but for whatever reason, it was brushed off in this book. It was really unfair to this still-blooming love triangle, not to mention it was totally unsatisfying. It was actually a continuation of the whole throwing-away-all-loose-ends thing that I commented above.

    In this book we were introduced to Morganefaire, an ancient witch/warlock town which location was unknown. I liked the setting of Morganefaire, it was kind of original, a paradise (or at least, a safe place) for witches and warlocks to live in, so they won't be threatened by mortals. Good thinking, which definitely added some brownie points for my rating on this books.

 

     Sigh, still no Clare... I really want to read about Clare, it was mentioned that she lost her mate and I really wanted to know the story. Come on, Amber, give the mic to Clare already! Anyway, we did have some new characters in this book, the first one that I thought of is Julie, the ghost of the girl whose body was found shortly after Amber's arrival.

    I don't really like Julie all that much. She had many mood-swings, which Amber attributed to being a ghost. But I still hated it, she was mean to Amber and only wanted her to solve the mystery of her death and she didn't ask nicely either. She seemed spoiled to me, and I don't do spoiled characters. She did kind of bonded a friendship with Amber later in the book though, despite how treated Amber at times. I thought it was kind of annoying that she pushed Amber around, like she was the boss of her. Like I said, spoiled. I did like the mystery surrounding her murder, but other than that, I like nothing to do with this character :P

    This book was an acceptable addition to the Ancient Legends, and it definitely had its moments, but I really didn't think it was all that great, so I would give it a 3 stars. The book would be better suited for fans of the series, it was a good continuation on Amber's story. But if you're looking to butt into the series halfway, I don't suggest you to read this book first, as it was kind of a disappointment, at least to me, instead start with Doomed, the second book, which I gave a glowing five star review, I genuinely liked it! (Review here)

 

 

 

 

Rating: 3 stars!

How do you like cliff-hangers? What about a perfect way to tie up loose ends? What do you think a witch town should look like? And the most important thing of all, do you like this book? Personally I think the cover has some major problem, what's with the misshaped photo? :P Comment below, I would love to discuss ;)

Review: Dead and Beyond by Jayde Scott (Ancient Legends #4)

Title: Dead and Beyond (Ancient Legend #4)

Author: Jayde Scott

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Mystery, Fantasy

Publisher: Scotland (self-published)

Synopsis/Summary:Amber Reed is a dead girl walking.

Having just been turned by her gorgeous vampire boyfriend, eighteen-year-old Amber Reed is bestowed with the ability to see ghosts. Between trying to figure out how to control her bloodlust and solving the mysterious disappearance of a friend, Amber realizes someone wants to step into her shoes so badly, they’ll do anything to take her place.

When one secret after another pops up, the only person who believes her is her enemy, Devon. Amber can’t figure out if he’s here to help or save his own immortal race from losing the ancient war against the vampires. What she does know, however, is that she can’t resist his good looks just as much as she can’t help becoming someone else…

In a world of dark magic and ancient enemies, three powerful courts fight for supremacy, and Amber might just be the pawn in winning this war forever. But how’s a girl to survive when everyone wants her dead?

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

     After my slight break from the series, I am reading on again. The fourth book in the Ancient Legends Series took us back to Amber, where she decided to plunge headfirst into a mystery that might threaten her life...

    I must say I am not very satisfied with the book. It's still interesting, but I felt like everything that just kept happening. There was no twist at all, and basically no climax, there were mysteries but that was about it. However, I did find that the pages seep by without my knowing, and then the book ended. It wasn't a cliffhanger, but I felt the book really lacked climax. There was a big plot there, and would be stretched to the next book, and it was actually interesting. But the problem was that the reveal came too late, most, and when I say most I meant about 90%, of the book was spent spinning the mysteries for this plot, and that was it, no answers, and the book just ended. There was a vague paragraph about our protagonist processing what really happened and connected the dots, but she didn't elaborate and I didn't really want to think about it. Basically that means the book paved way for an interesting and exciting storyline but things stretched on for too long, and the whole book actually just felt like half the book, with all questions and no answers. That said, there were a few elements that I enjoyed in this book.

    First, I liked the love triangle. I know most of you groaned just reading or seeing that word, but the love triangle in this book was actually quite good. I mean, both sides were nice and I couldn't decide which team I'm in, like what happened when I read The Nine Lives of Chloe King Trilogy (review here!). In my opinion, that was a successful love triangle. I mean, what was the point of a love triangle if everyone knew from the start who the protagonist would end up with anyway? But of course, the love triangle in this book wasn't one sided, and I liked it :)

    Second, I love how smooth the plot went. Granted, there was only one POV(Amber) this time around, so there wouldn't be situations where readers confused from the switch of POVs and decided to take a break from the book (I did that!). The plot really kept moving and I just kept reading. But like I said from the beginning, the book lacked tension, drama and climax, even if it was able to lure me in and kept me reading, I wasn't really gushing about it. So actually this part was fifty-fifty. I liked that the plot went on without bumps, but I hated that there were no climax at all.

    It seemed that there were more paranormal creatures getting thrown into the mix this time. We had a werewolf, and a new demigod. These two characters didn't appear very often or hadn't appear until the very end of the book, so I really couldn't judge their powers and whether they made sense or not...

    The story was set back to Scotland in Aidan's mansion again. And the infamous shed made an appearance too. What I didn't understand was where did all the people go. The last time I checked, Henry and the house-keeper (the former one, I can't remember her name) should still be living in the garden shed, working for Aidan and Claire were still living in the house. But this time neither of them showed up which left a really big plot hole here. And I must admit I was upset because I was really looking forward to read about Claire's story, and now she didn't have an appearance at all, just some name-drop and it was like she moved to another planet or something. No one talked about her, which definitely didn't make sense.

    So, like I said, Amber was back for this book, and so was Aidan and some other characters that took a back seat during the whole Cass-losing-her-soul-mate debacle. (They did appear in that 2 book, and played a part too, but not an important one.) There was really no way to talk about the new characters because first of all, their parts were really small in this book, like a random name-drop here and the story just went on and second, there was really no way to introduce them without spoiling. So I will just talk about Devon, the guy that seemed interested in Amber in the first book, and was a recurring character in book 2 and 3.

    Devon was kind of like a two-sided guy. He could be really cold, like, no expression from his face or voice at all, or he could be quite cute, when he was flirting with Amber. I found that I have fallen in love with this character because his conversations with Amber were so funny, I didn't really have a LMHO moment, but it was good humored and I could feel that their flirting came rather natural, which spiked a hope in me despite Aidan being her bonded mate. I wouldn't tell you how that went but I think you will like Devon a lot more after you read this book ;)

    Blogger just started acting wonky when I finished the character part so I will be blunt and end this review. I have no desire to fight with blogger about the htmls in my blog.

    I would give this book 3 stars. It was a pretty good read if you were already a fan of the series and love Amber right from the start, but I am pretty sure just this book along won't be able to attract many readers to keep on reading. Because, let's face it, this book lacked the climax that I so needed in my stories. Since it failed to impress me but still managed to keep me interested throughout the whole book, I would give it an average 3 stars. I would recommend this to readers of light YA paranormal, as in the storyline won't too heavy, good for readers that didn't like reading a book that got all depressed and grim and stuff. Happy reading!

Ratings: 3 stars!

It was quite a light paranormal read I just had there, though it lacked some much needed tension to create a climax. So, tell me, what book you have read that had the most awesome climax? What do you think was needed to create a proper climax? And finally, the question that matters the most, what do you think of the book, or the series in general? Do you agree with me that this one was kind of a downer with the book 2 and 3 being so awesome? (Okay, technically, that was more than one question, but it's always good to have options ;) )

BTW: Anyone who uses blogger suffered the same formatting problem as me? You know, things shifting when you point your wicked little mouse at it? I must say, I am really annoyed. And that problem had been going on for weeks!

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: Doomed/Beelzebub Girl by Jayde Scott (Ancient Legends#2)

Title: Doomed/Beelzebub Girl (Ancient Legends #2)

Author: Jayde Scott

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Scotland (self-published)

Synopsis/Summary: Enter a paranormal world of dark magic, rituals, love bonds and legends… 

Fallen angel Cassandra wasn't supposed to fall in love with Dallas. It should've been just a bit of fun she couldn't resist. The bond they share could save her from her curse before she's forever bound to Hell. Trouble is, she's Lucifer's daughter and Dallas is mortal, and mortals don't survive in Cass's world. When strange things are starting to happen in Hell, Cass knows she must protect Dallas at all costs because where Cass comes from, losing one's twin flame is a fate worse than death... 

Will chaos-loving Cassandra find a way to sway her immortal family in time with a revengeful killer wracking havoc in Hell in her quest to get the one thing half the paranormal world desires?

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

    This book, is pure genius guys! It's totally worth the $2.99 on Amazon! I am not a big fan of paranormal romance, but I tell you, this book will suck you in even if you're not a fan of the genre!

    Okay, so, now that I have calmed down enough to compose my thoughts, I'll tell why you HAVE to read this book.

     First of all, Cass! But that shouldn't be discussed in the plot section, so... Second of all, humor! Seriously, this book had me cracking up the whole time, sure there are dramatic and sad parts, but most of the story focused on Cass as she tried to maintain his relationship with Dallas (Amber, our protagonist of the first book's brother) while keeping her paranormal identity a secret! Now, we all know secrets in a relationship is a big no-no, so I had a lot of fun (yes, call me a devil for watching people suffer from their own messes) reading about how Cass managed to hide Dallas from the fact that they are in Hell, literally. Most part of the book feels like a rom-com to me, and it actually lightens the mood while reading most of the book. For the remaining of the book, it was very dramatic and it was so gripping that I literally couldn't detach myself from my phone (sadly, I don't have a Kindle). So, in short, this book is equal part dramatic and funny, Jayde Scott pulled it off wonderfully!

     Another thing that I liked about the plot, the ending! Seriously, it's part cliffhanger and part closure, and I love it! It gave me hope after the tragedy that happened near the end of the book, while also telling me that it's time for the story to end and we as readers left Dallas and Cass alone to fight for their love and bond. I have always complain about endings of other books, because most either ended too abruptly and rushed or too perfect, leaving readers no room of imagination, this ending, in my opinion, is perfect! Ugh, I just love it to death, I'm even okay if there's no sequel, leaving me with the little cliffhanger, because I just feel the overwhelming hopefulness in the end and I know how things will turn out, doesn't mean it's predictable though ;)

    Third thing I love about the plot, the romance! Yes, it's very rare that I would love the romance of a book so much, recently there's only Alice in Zombieland (haven't officially started it, I bought the physical book and the ebook, and I might have taken a few peaks in the ebook, but I love reading  physical books, so I'll endure, for now. Until the book arrives...), but now I have one more to the list, Cass and Dallas! Seriously guys, these two aren't overly clingy like some couples and they never got more than just a few intense kisses but that's enough for me, 'cause I can feel that they are passionate about each other. However, if you're looking for romances that's so steaming hot it makes feel like you're in a sauna, it might disappoint.

    One weird thing about the plot though, is how fast Cass and Dallas progress. Sure, they're mates and all, but Dallas actually moved in after only three chapters, and it was mentioned in the start that they hadn't seen each other for months before the story began... Now, I don't know about you, but I think that's too fast, Dallas said he wanted to skip the dating part but really? He moved no more than 24 HOURS after their FIRST meeting in MONTHS, tell me I am not the only one finding this particularly weird. Well, I guess there really is nothing that could keep these lovebirds apart. Aside from this, I freaking love EVERY part of this book! Ugh, I am fangirling again, let me compose myself...

    Okay, I am finding the setting of Hell is really stereotypical. Unbearable heat, dying trees, cracking earth? It's definitely the typical image for Hell, so like A Job From Hell, the settings are common, yet again, Jayde Scott put a good spin on the idea and made it into the perfect backdrop for the romance between Dallas and Cass.

    So, there's a curse involve in this book too. I've found a formula, paranormal romance+fated bond+curse=Ancient Legends boos. I don't mind Jayde Scott repeating this formula though, 'cause I am sure she'll be able to whip up a tale filled with romance with unexpected twist I'll enjoy from this formula. So the setting doesn't really matter much in my opinion, well, unless you're crafting a completely different world like dystopian novels, what matters is the plot, and like I said, I love it!

    I love almost EVERY character in this book! Well, all except for Rebecca, that girl is a pycho.

    I couldn't love Cass more! If you've read my review on A Job From Hell (link here), you'll know that I loved Cass right from the start! She's mischievous and I love that kind of character, they're so much to watch because they seem to have ways to get out of EVERYTHING, and their constant funny yet genius plans don't hurt either. Cass has all of these traits PLUS she's kind-hearted, making me love her even more. Throughout the book, she had had many ingenious ideas, including making Dallas propose to her, clearing Hell's name (at least it's something like that) and I just love it. She's kind immature at times but that made me love her even more! Plus I would really like to someday her persuasion skills, it could be useful ;)

     I also really liked Dallas. Despite what Amber said in the first book, Dallas is definitely a very good guy, and a very hot one too. I like that he seems to put up with Cass' far-fetched lies to hide the paranormal world from him, and his concern on Amber made him so much more attractive. A guy that loves and cares for his family deeply, with charming good looks too, isn't he the package?

     Other characters like Amber and Aidan also made an appearance too, no Kieran and Clara though, what a shame. I am only now realizing how protective Amber is towards Dallas and it did, in some degrees, annoy me a lot. Can't she see that Cass is a really great girl for Dallas? Why did she keep insisting Cass is unstable? It's not like she know everything about her. Well, my rants aside, I still love Amber, and I understand her protectiveness towards his brother, I don't like it though. Aidan doesn't have much part in this book, which is kind of sad 'cause after the first book, he has grown on me a little. Well, I heard that the fourth book will be about Amber and Aidan's story again, so I don't have to worry ;)

Conclusion (notice the title graphics? I actually have one for conclusions too but I keep forgetting to scan it...):

    One thing that I want to note is that I love the cover of Doomed more than the cover and title for the Kindle edition. The cover that I featured in the info brings out the story of this book much better, and Doomed actually sounded way cooler than Beelzebub Girl (how can you be serious when you say the word "Beelzebub"?).

    Okay, covers aside, I really recommend this book to all of you, not just YA paranormal lovers, 'cause this book is great, with the humorous storytelling technique of Jayde Scott, this book sure provides a relaxing read for readers, with a hint of drama and thriller too. But be warned, the ending is not happily ever after but I think it suits the book well. This book can actually be read as a stand-alone, some previous events in book one were mentioned but Cass did briefly recap most of the events and readers would be fine learning about Cass and Dallas on the way, since Cass and Dallas aren't exactly heavily featured characters in book one. So, go on and buy it! The book is only $2.99 on Amazon for the Kindle version and the same on B&N but it promises so much more than its price! I am definitely giving this 5 stars!

Rating: 5 stars!

Do you guys love paranormal romance stories? Any suggestions? What do you think of Doomed? Great? Horrible? I would love to hear your opinion on the comments! :)

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?