Mandi
I am currently having a love/hate relationship with these books because of the emotional reactions I have to them. The writing is absolutely fabulous, and the story continues to thrill me.
Christian and Ana are the perfect flawed couple. I adore reading about them and the dynamics of their relationship. What I would absolutely love is seeing inside Christian's head instead of only seeing him from Ana's perspective. But I'll take what I can get, and I look forward to the final installment.
I stayed up til 2 am reading this one. Then I dreamed about it. It still lingers with me this morning. James writes the internal monologue of a sub very well.
If you have an interest in kink/BDSM, this one will rock your socks right off. If you don't, it will make you develop an interest in kink/BDSM... and then it will rock your socks right off.
[email protected] This book had a lot of ups and downs, but overall I liked the story. I think it's a great story for any confused or curious teen to read.
The writing did leave a lot to be desired. It really frustrates me when authors choose to turn all of their teen characters into some fake caricature based on silly stereotypes. Teens do not all text like complete idiots (“can't w8 2 c u” etc), especially now that there is this thing in the world called a full qwerty keypad on most phones. It ends up leaving a bad taste in my mouth, and it makes me think the author is trying too hard to get into teen space to write her story.
A lot of the dialogue felt fake and forced, especially between Immy and Fickle. But the overall theme of the story is certainly one I can get behind. I am no stranger to falling in love over the internet, nor of having my heart broken in the very same manner. My heart was with Imogen when she was trying to figure out what to do with her boyfriend and this new online friend, and I felt just as betrayed as she did when she found out some not so nice things about her new friend.
In the end, I was happy with the way things turned out – though I'm not at all certain it's a realistic portrayal of this type of situation. But then again... don't we all want the fairy tale ending?
Once again, I find the publisher's summary to be woefully inadequate. This time, however, I truly enjoyed the book.
While Blood on the Moon is very Twilight-esque (several scenes were ripped straight from Stephenie Meyers' debut novel), Faith is no Bella. Faith is the heroine we all wished Bella Swan would have been.
The world created by Knight is similar to many others that we've seen: vampires and werewolves both exist. Vampires kill and werewolves are meant to protect humanity. Without realizing any of this, Faith manages to meet one of each and gets thrown into the middle of a centuries old feud between Lucas and Vincent.
The unexpected twist comes in the final pages of this novel - a cliffhanger that leaves you wanting the next installment right now to find out what happened after Derek opened his eyes.
I give it 4 out of 5 stars, and I am looking forward to the next installment. The only real negative thing I have to say about the novel is that the back story of Lucas and Vincent should have been developed more. It was an integral part of the story - it explained what fueled the feud and why it had lasted so long. It also explains why it mattered so much that this time was different.
This was neither the best nor the worst book I've ever read. I found parts of it very disturbing to read, particularly at the beginning. However, McKinty does an excellent job putting the reader inside the villain's head. I was reminded of Ted Dekker several times throughout.
Overall, the book doesn't flow very well. The point of view switches characters often, sometimes in mid-paragraph, making it somewhat difficult to keep up with. That being said, the story was an interesting read. While it does involve a killer and a school with a “supercontrolled environment,” the publisher's summary really has nothing to do with the plot of the book. There was an anti-religion undertone to the novel that also had nothing to do with the story line itself, and I often found my questioning why it was there.
I give it 3 out of 5 stars, and believe teenage boys would probably enjoy it more than I did – as well as horror/suspense/mystery aficionados.
At first, I was disappointed in this book. It seems as if every dystopian novel has the exact same plot, but eventually this one managed to stand out on its own. By the end, I was completely emotionally invested - bawling my eyes out while driving to work, no less.
I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the trilogy to find out if Lena and Alex are united and if they manage to make a difference in the world.
This one definitely wasn't as good as the first three in the series. New characters are the focus of the story and the world is completely different after Tally and Shay saved it.
Tally finally makes an appearance in the last half of the book, but she bears little to no resemblance to the Tally that we met and fell in love with in the first two books.
I spent a good deal of time being angry at Tally and the author in this book. Her character and personality completely changed, and while I get that some of that was the point... part of the story was that Tally is able to rewire herself. But she never did end up the Tally we'd grown to love from the first two books.
In the seven kingdoms of the world created by Kristin Cashore, some people are graced with abilities while most are not. Those who are graced have two different colored eyes. Katsa is the most well known of all of the graced throughout the kingdoms, not only because of her brilliantly blue and green eyes, but because she is a woman graced with killing.
While Katsa is used by her king to dole out his punishment across the land, she is not a monster. She secretly forms a council that seeks justice and compassion in the kingdoms. During a council mission to rescue a kidnapped grandfather, she meets a stranger with one gold eye and one silver. Po is also graced with what appears to be fighting.
The two embark on a strange and dangerous journey to find out why one of the kings would want to kidnap an elderly man and learn that everything is not what it seems. Together, they must work to save a princess and the entire world from the grips of a man who is adored by everyone.
The story itself is fantastical and original; I've never read anything like it. This is one of the few books that generated both an audible and physical reaction from me at various points throughout.
I found this book to be quite a departure from other books I've read by Orson Scott Card. The general storyline was interesting, and I'm curious about what will happen in the next book, but the writing and some of the descriptions were really distracting. There were a lot of parts that were about sex or sexual things and really added nothing to character development or plot. They seemed odd and out of place - almost as if he were writing with a directive to “sex things up”. It was disappointing, to say the least.
While this book was a little slow at the beginning, it didn't take long before I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what was happening to Diana. Deborah Harkness has created a world within our world full of witches, demons, and vampires using a new (to me, at least) and refreshing mythos.
Diana has spent her life as an alchemical historian, avoiding the use of magic and witchcraft since the death of her parents when she was 7. Unbeknownst to her, Diana is suppressing more power than any witch has seen in a very long time. Life as she knows it begins to unravel when she requests an ancient alchemical manuscript from the library. When it comes, she realizes it's bewitched and that all is not what it seems with Ashmole 782. But because she avoids magic, she sends it back when she is done with her ordinary alchemical research. This sparks a chain of events that changes Diana's life - and possibly the world as she knows it.
I didn't realize until closer to the end that this was the first in a series - and I absolutely cannot wait until the sequel arrives.
I had two problems with this book. First, I hated Megan's character for most of the book. By the end, she grew on me. But she was whiny and weak and terrible for most of it.
Second, the chapter titles contained spoilers! I always knew some of what was going to happen because of them, and that bothered me to no end.
Overall, I'm glad I read (listened to) it. And I'll start on the sequel tomorrow.
