Underworld Review

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

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Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera isn’t dead.

Not this time.

But she is being held against her will in the dim, twilit world between heaven and hell, where the spirits of the deceased wait before embarking upon their final journey.

Her captor, John Hayden, claims it’s for her own safety. Because not all the departed are dear. Some are so unhappy with where they ended up after leaving the Underworld, they’ve come back as Furies, intent on vengeance…on the one who sent them there and on the one whom he loves.

But while Pierce might be safe from the Furies in the Underworld, far worse dangers could be lurking for her there…and they might have more to do with its ruler than with his enemies. And unless Pierce is careful, this time there’ll be no escape.

Review

Meg Cabot is one of my most favorite authors, and she usually writes amazing novels. And this, is another one. After reading Abandon, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Underworld, which actually turned out to be better than Abandon.

In this 2nd novel of the Abandon trilogy, we have all the old characters, like Pierce, and her Underworld boyfriend, John, but we are also introduced to some new characters, whom I really liked. When they were first introduced, I didn't think we'd actually get to know them, but as the book went on, I was pleased to find out we did. They really helped to mold the story.

Pierce is still just as dumb as she was in the last book, but not as much. She seemed to gain some depth and smarts to her character. As for John, well, he's amazing! He's not a creepy Underworld, death creeper, stalker, whatever, that they seem to try making him out to be. I really like him, especially in this novel.

Underworld has a lot of things going on, that happen throughout the whole book. Unlike Abandon, we're given a lot more emotion, and depth to the story. I really enjoyed reading it from beginning to end. And the end btw, is a total cliffhanger! After I read the last paragraph I was left with wanting more so bad that I read the little blurb at the back of the book for the 3rd installment of the trilogy. I never read them, it just makes me want the next book RIGHT NOW.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes the mythology stuff, and of course, Meg Cabot fans especially.

News!

Unearthly and The Selection tv shows!

By now I'm sure a lot of you have heard that Unearthly by Cynthia Hand was in the running to get turned into a tv show by the CW. Today I have just found out that Kiera Cass' novel, The Selection, is being made into a tv show also! 

After digging into this a little further, I found some websites that said Unearthly has not yet gotten passed for a pilot, but so far The Selection is well on it's way to hitting the CW channel this fall! 

I thought Unearthly was for sure a go, but I guess we will see...

So I have to admit, I'm sort of on the fence about the CW and it's books to shows business. On the one hand, I'm super excited, especially for The Selection to be made into a tv show. I think it will be amazing. I highly doubt, however, that it's anything close to the Hunger Games, as I've heard a lot of people say. I really hope Unearthly ends up making it onto tv too, but I wouldn't be that heartbroken if it stayed as a book. 

Getting to my next point, I LOVE shows like the Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl, and really hope these 2 books turn into shows as well, but can the CW really not come up with their own original material for shows, that they have to always turn popular YA books into their tv shows? I'm not saying I'm against it in any way, I'm just wondering, since it seems like all the movies and tv shows these days are either based off of best selling novels, or are remakes of things already done. 

I guess what I'm really trying to say, is I think it'd be a lot better if it was 50/50. Sure, make awesome books like the Hunger Games, Gossip Girl, etc. into books and movies, but still have some original material happening here. It's getting a bit old seeing all the same stuff all the time, how about something new for a change? 

What are your thoughts on this? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Witches of East End Review

Rating: ♥♥♥




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 The three Beauchamp women--Joanna and her daughters Freya and Ingrid--live in North Hampton, out on the tip of Long Island. Their beautiful, mist-shrouded town seems almost stuck in time, and all three women lead seemingly quiet, uneventful existences. But they are harboring a mighty secret--they are powerful witches banned from using their magic. Joanna can resurrect people from the dead and heal the most serious of injuries. Ingrid, her bookish daughter, has the ability to predict the future and weave knots that can solve anything from infertility to infidelity. And finally, there's Freya, the wild child, who has a charm or a potion that can cure most any heartache.

For centuries, all three women have been forced to suppress their abilities. But then Freya, who is about to get married to the wealthy and mysterious Bran Gardiner, finds that her increasingly complicated romantic life makes it more difficult than ever to hide her secret. Soon Ingrid and Joanna confront similar dilemmas, and the Beauchamp women realize they can no longer conceal their true selves. They unearth their wands from the attic, dust off their broomsticks, and begin casting spells on the townspeople. It all seems like a bit of good-natured, innocent magic, but then mysterious, violent attacks begin to plague the town. When a young girl disappears over the Fourth of July weekend, they realize it's time to uncover who and what dark forces are working against them.

With a brand-new cast of characters, a fascinating and fresh world to discover, and a few surprise appearances from some of the Blue Blood fan favorites, this is a page-turning, deliciously fun, magical summer read fraught with love affairs, witchcraft, and an unforgettable battle between good and evil.

Review

This book had sat on my shelf since last summer, since I bought it a few days after it came out, and finally I decided to read it. At first I was really excited to read it, I love Melissa De La Cruz and her Bluebloods series, but after reading people's reviews on it, I got a little less excited.

I didn't end up being as disappointed as I'd expected though. Overall, it was a really good read. The thing that bothered me the most, was the mother, (Joanna?), and her "obsession" with the Tyler kid. Like where did it even come from? It seemed like one minute she hired this housekeeper and hung out with the housekeeper's son for like an hour and already had this whole "motherly" relationship with him, there was nothing leading up to it or anything. Just found it a bit weird.

My favourite character would have to be Freya. She was the most real character, she had a lot of personality and the whole "torn between 2 guys" thing going on, which, I'll admit, I can be a total sucker for. Ingrid was a very flat and boring character, not much else to say about her.

I have to say, I was actually a bit surprised by the ending, I really thought it was going to turn out different. It turned out to not be as predictable as I was expecting, which was nice. I really enjoyed this book for the most part, but not as much as I enjoyed Melissa's Bluebloods series. I would probably recommend anyone who wants to read it to get it from the library, or not pay more than $5 for it, it just doesn't have that WOW factor.

Stacking The Shelves

 Meme hosted and created by Tynga's Reviews

Bought: The Vow DVD

Acsend by Amanda Hocking

Underworld by Meg Cabot

The Selection by Kiera Cass

For Review:  In Dreams by Robert Logan

♥Wishlist Wednesday♥

Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris has been on my wishlist ever since the cover was revealed across the blogsphere. I sooo cannot wait to get my hands on this one!

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What It's About!

Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she's opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn't possible, she knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her revival, and Ben's possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father's files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what's right in front of her: Everything that's happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben's sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she's going to need to uncover Ben's secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

From debut author Elizabeth Norris comes this shattering novel of one girl's fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.

Thoeba Review

Rating: ♥♥♥.5

*A copy was provided for review*

Thoeba's world fell to darkness forcing her to flee. She came to Earth to protect the Energy, losing everything in the process.

Darkness has found a way to follow her and threatens to take this world as well.

With only humans as allies, can she succeed?

Thoeba is Donna Milward's debut novel, the first book in her new anthology, and will be released June 26th/2012.

 Review

I had mixed feelings about this book, so that's why it ended up with a 3.5/5 hearts. I love pretty much all novels about angels, mythologies, that type of thing, so that's what I mostly liked about this book. However, I feel like the author could have given us more background and story build-up in the beginning of the book, instead of rushing in and leaving the reader to piece things together. It took away from some of the story, because instead of enjoying the story, half the time I felt like I was trying to figure things out. 

Another thing I didn't really care for was the switching of character POV's. I love it when an author has different character POV's and has a chapter for each character. With Thoeba, though, it feels like it randomly switches between characters, all we get is a little ~~~ to indicate the new POV. Sometimes I wasn't even completely sure which character's thoughts I was supposed to be reading about. 

The story itself was really good. It keeps a good pace, things continuously happen, and the main plot was pretty well done. Most of the story is very descriptive, very easily seen in the mind's eye (when your not going WTH? sometimes lol). As you get farther into the story, you get to know the characters a little better and don't feel so lost as to who they really are, but sometimes it still didn't quite click for me.

Overall, I kind of feel like the author rushed everything down on paper (or computer, whichever, whatever), and didn't take enough time to fully build her characters, and the background of the story and its characters. Some parts of the story felt like they got more time than others spent perfecting and tweaking, but maybe it's just me. I recommend it for mythology lovers, for sure.

 

The Fame Game Review

Rating: ♥♥♥
  

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In Hollywood, fame can be found on every corner and behind any door. You just have to know where to look for it. Nineteen-year-old Madison Parker made a name for herself as best frenemy of nice-girl-next-door Jane Roberts on the hot reality show L.A. Candy. Now Madison's ready for her turn in the spotlight and she'll stop at nothing to get it. Sure, she's the star of a new show, but with backstabbing friends and suspicious family members trying to bring her down, Madison has her work cut out for her. Plus, there's a new nice girl in "reality" town—aspiring actress Carmen Price, the daughter of Hollywood royalty—and she's a lot more experienced at playing the fame game... When the camera's start rolling, whose star will shine brighter?

Filled with characters both familiar and new, Lauren Conrad's series about the highs and lows of being famous delivers Hollywood gossip and drama at every turn.

 Review

I didn't have really any expectation going into The Fame Game, but it was better than I thought. I still haven't read Lauren's first trilogy, L.A. Candy, so I wasn't familiar with Madison Parker's character, or any other of the characters from the first trilogy, that I've seen other reviewers talk about. That aside, the characters, old and new, were not that hard to get to know. They're a bit flat, especially Madison and Gaby, they don't seem much more than a pretty face. The other characters had more depth to them, but not by much.

I was somewhat surprised how well Lauren's writing was, I guess I expected it to be a little sloppy, since she's a celebrity author, and most of them can't write worth a crap. The writing is simple, to the point, and easy to read. I think this is one of the fastest books I've ever read, I read it in almost a day.

I love the story line. I loved watching Mtv's The Hills when it was on, so it was kind of cool reading this and seeing what really probably happens behind the camera and "reality" tv. The Fame Game is a fun read. It's a good book to read on a rainy day when you just want something normal to read, and get a break from the paranormal, dystopian, other genres that everyone's been reading lately. I am going to definitely be getting the second book when it comes out.

Cover/Book Reveal!

The Torn Wing (The Faerie Ring #2) by Kiki Hamilton

Release Date: Oct. 2nd/2012

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What It's About!

Tiki’s greatest fear suddenly becomes all too real: the fey have returned to London seeking revenge. As war escalates in the Otherworld, Queen Victoria’s youngest son, Prince Leopold, is attacked. In order to protect her family and the ones she loves, she needs to know the meaning of an fáinne sí, the birthmark that winds around her wrist. But will Tiki be brave enough to face the truth?

A bloody escape, a deadly threat, a shocking revelation…

The Gates Review

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 

*A copy was provided for review*

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Paranormal Fantasy Romance

Getting There is Half the Battle...

Armed with more unsettling knowledge about Gavin Devereaux and her circle of friends, Camille Hart is faced with new adversities and lethal propositions when she returns to the Amaranth exile to carry out Gavin’s risky crusade.

Realizing her journey through the bayou was only the beginning of her struggle to stay with Gavin, she finds that leaving her Louisiana home is the least of her worries. New evils await her on the other side, and as she and her friends press on with their mission, they are confronted with the reality that everything doesn't always go according to plan.

As secrets unfold and alliances are formed and broken, only the strongest will survive and the power of love will be tested when a war between witches, humans, and vampires erupts into an all-out power struggle and all is on the verge of being lost.

Review

I had also read & reviewed Amaranth, the first book in this trilogy, and I had loved it but The Gates definitely feels like a step-up! I had been DYING to know what happened next with Gavin and Camille, since they're my favorite characters. Camille is such a kick-ass female character that you don't usually see too often (but I'm noticing more in the YA genre now, thank god), and Gavin is the hot and steamy guy character that everyone loves to read about. ;)

Once again, Rachael did an amazing job with the world and character building that started in the first book. Where Amaranth left off with a cliffhanger, The Gates picks up where the story left off and we find out what happens next, and there are again a lot of things that happen that I can't say without giving away spoilers!

I enjoyed reading this one more than the first book, probably because as with every 2nd book in a series, you already have the backgrounds/info on the characters, so you can just jump right into the story. I highly recommend this book, especially if your craving for action and romance.

Cover Reveal!

Scent of Magic (Healer #2) by Maria V. Snyder

Expected publication: Early 2013 (??!!)
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My Thoughts: I am seriously DROOLING over this book!! This is the sequel to Touch of Power. I don't like the cover as much as the last book, but it's still epically amazing! I loved loved LOVED Touch of Power, so I predict I will die from excitement overload when I finally get my hands on this book!!

What It's About!

Hunted, Killed - Survived?

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avery of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winner control of the Realms, Avery is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avery will do whatever she can to support Tohon's opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon's most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead - human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avery is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again.

♥Wishlist Wednesday♥

♥Wishlist Wednesday♥ is every Wednesday, I will post a book or two that I have on my wishlist. This week it's Immortal City by Scott Speer, which was released April 3rd/2012. I've been seeing this book around on the blogspere and now I really wanna read it! I hope it's as good as it looks.

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What It's About!

Jackson Godspeed is the hottest young Angel in a city filled with them. He's days away from becoming a full Guardian, and people around the world are already competing for the chance to be watched over by him. Everyone's obsessed with the Angels and the lucky people they protect - everyone except for Madison Montgomery.

Divergent Review

Rating: ♥♥♥♥




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In a future Chicago, 16-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

 Review

Divergent falls in the middle between Matched (by Ally Condie) and The Hunger Games, only it ventures out into it's own story. I'm comparing it to these books because in Divergent, they have factions and different rules just like the districts in the hunger games, and all three books have some sort of higher power tying to control everyone else. That's pretty much where the similarities end.

I actually didn't end up really liking it until about the middle of the book, when things really start picking up and Beatrice/Tris starts turning things around and learns to stick up for herself. One of the main things that kept me reading was the relationship between Tris and Four, just something about it made me want more. I didnt mind most of the characters, but I think some of hem could have had a little more depth to them. I was sad when we lost a few characters, not so sad about others and some I wish hadn't made it but did.

There's a lot of heart-thumping, page turning action, especially nearing the end of the novel. I wasn't sure if I was going to end up reading the 2nd book, Insurent, but after reading the last few pages, I HAVE to know what happens next! Glad I don't have to wait long, since it's out next month. And just to be clear, it's maybe only half as good as the hunger games, but still a pretty good read. 

The Gates by Rachael Wade Tour Stop!

The Gates On Tour!

Book 2 of The Resistance Trilogy, a paranormal fantasy romance series. Available 4/25 from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

•    Song: Blinding
•    Artist: Florence and the Machine
•    Tour Date: 4/23/12
•    Venue: Samira’s Throne Room
•    Scene Snapshot: Samira reflects on her past, present, and future as queen of the Amaranthian exile.
•    Anthem:  

Seems that I have been held, in some dreaming state
A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake
No kiss, no gentle word could wake me from this slumber
Until I realise that it was you who held me under
No more dreaming of the dead as if death itself was undone
No more calling like a crow for a boy, for a body in the garden
No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love
No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world

Getting There is Half the Battle...

Armed with more unsettling knowledge about Gavin Devereaux and her circle of friends, Camille Hart is faced with new adversities and lethal propositions when she returns to the Amaranth exile to carry out Gavin’s risky crusade.

Realizing her journey through the bayou was only the beginning of her struggle to stay with Gavin, she finds that leaving her Louisiana home is the least of her worries. New evils await her on the other side, and as she and her friends press on with their mission, they are confronted with the reality that everything doesn't always go according to plan.

As secrets unfold and alliances are formed and broken, only the strongest will survive and the power of love will be tested when a war between witches, humans, and vampires erupts into an all-out power struggle and all is on the verge of being lost.

**Make sure you check back soon for my review of The Gates!**

Be sure to read book one before you read The Gates. Enter the world of Amaranth by picking up a copy at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords. Visit www.RachaelWade.com on Wednesday, April 25^th for The Gates launch party!

Book Reveal!

The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #2) by Michelle Hodkin

Release Date: Oct. 23rd/2012

272 pages
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What It's About!

Two days after Mara walks into a police station in Miami at the close of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, she is committed for psychiatric treatment for what her parents believe is a mental breakdown. But what seems like a hallucination to everyone else is a chilling reality for Mara. Someone from her past has discovered her strange, disturbing secret and that someone wants her to pay. But she's about to discover that the price is more than she can bear.

Dark and thrilling, suspenseful and passionate, The Evolution of Mara Dyer will have readers breathlessly turning pages to find out what will become of Mara Dyer next...

IMM ♥

These are the books I have bought and received in the past few weeks.

For Review:

Keep Holding On ARC (BIG thanks to Penguin Canada for sending me this copy!!)

The Gates by Rachael Wade

Bought:

Divergent

Embrace

The Calling 

Boyfriend bought me Lauren Conrad's new book, The Fame Game :) 

What books have YOU gotten lately?