Review: Rogue by Julie Kagawa

Posted on April 11, 2015 by Bethlylou

Ember is the kind of character that is likeably annoying. On the one hand she’s brave, loyal and fierce. Her wide-eyed curiosity is charming. On the other hand, she’s stubborn and doesn’t know how to listen to directions which usually leads to something bad happening. Whether it directly leads to it or is just enough to distract her friends that make them make stupid mistakes, It always leads to trouble. Despite her faults I’m still rooting for her. After the cut contains spoilers for Rogue and the first book Talon. So if you haven’t read Talon and planning on it, best not to read further.

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Review: How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper

Posted on April 11, 2015 by Kate

Mo is a Southern woman born to hippie parents and raised in Mississippi. She’s always lived close to home and her parents have always been a huge (and kind of overbearing) part of her life. Following on the heels of a breakup she decides to back up her life and move across the country to Grundy, Alaska. There’s a romantic element to that: striking out on one’s own, becoming self-reliant, living in the wilderness. Who hasn’t considered packing themselves up and going on an adventure? Mo rents a cabin in the woods and gets herself squared away. She finds a job cooking at the local tavern after the cook and co-owner injures himself. She makes friends with the co-owners wife. And, she runs afoul of the wife’s cousin Cooper Graham who hates outsiders. He’s sure that once the first snow sets in that she’ll pack up her stuff and move back to the lower 48.

While she’s settling into becoming a townie, she has some run-ins with the local wildlife. One night she awakens to a huge wolf with piercing eyes taking down an elk. She sees the wolf again within the town limits. And, there are a few hikers who go missing after what appears to be a wolf attack. Then one night she’s confronted with an unusual sight: Cooper Graham, naked, on her porch, caught in a bear a trap. I’d say spoilers, but if you saw the cover of the book and if you’ve ever read a romance novel you know who/what Cooper Graham is. He’s the werewolf love interest. He has to come clean about who and what he is while he’s healing from the bear trap on Moe’s rug. But, now there’s this mystery: Is he responsible for the missing hikers? Could he be a killer in wolf form? Also, will he ever stop being surly so that they can get this romance off the ground?

This was book was fun and it was also very funny. I immediately liked Mo and the other townies. I also liked surly and standoffish Cooper. The mystery unraveled a little slowly but it was a satisfying ending. This is the first book of a series set in Grundy, Alaska and I’m thinking about picking up the next one.

Review: The Replaced by Kimberley Derting

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Bethlylou

I read this a month ago so I have sort of forgot what I wanted to say about it. (Note to self: Make notes while reading) So this is going to be a sketchy.

The Replaced is the sequel of the The Taken. It’s about Kyra, who is abducted by aliens for five years but to her she has only been gone for hours. In those five years, she hasn’t aged a day but everyone else has. Her boyfriend is now in college and dating her best friend, her parents are divorced and her Mom is remarried and has a child. The most interesting development is that the younger brother of her ex-boyfriend, Tyler is now her age and is of course hot. As Kyra tries to piece together what happened to her, she falls in love with Tyler, finds other abductees and discovers a conspiracy with the government and the aliens that abducted her. I could go on but I feel that would spoil The Taken so I leave it here.

The book is good and just okay. The characters a likeable enough but not completely memorable. I liked it enough that I’ll read the next book. The ending I found intriguing as I think we will finally get some answers as to what the aliens want with us. I think that has been missing from the plot so far: the reason why teenagers are being abducted and then returned after their DNA is changed so that they age more slowly. Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is it’s a good book. I’ll try to do better the next review.

Quick Review: Pip Bartlett’s Guide for Magical Creatures by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stievfater

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Bethlylou

Since this book will not be published until April 28, I’ll keep this review short. First this book is adorable. Pip Bartlett is a smart, curious and kind girl, who just loves animals, especially magically ones. As far as she knows, she is the only person who can talk to them and they can talk to her. Of course, being the only one means that no one else believes you. After an unfortunate incident with a couple of unicorns, Pip gets sent to live with her Aunt Emma, who is a magical creatures vet for the summer. Pip is thrilled! When an infestation of Fuzzles threatens the town, it’s up to Pip, her new friend Tomas, Aunt Emma and Cousin Callie to save everyone.

Pip is great! She’s fun and funny. Honest in a way that only a kid can be. The book and Pip really come to life with Maggie’s illustrations. They give the reader not only a insight into what the creatures look like and how they behave but also gives us insight into Pip herself, as she interjects her own opinions and observations. Tomas is a good friend to have as a sidekick. The one drawback is the villain of the story is mean and rude but for really no reason than she hates all magical creatures. The good thing about being a series is that we have time to figure out why.

So if you have kids or don’t, check it out when it comes out later this month.

Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Bethlylou

I am going to start by saying Celaena Sardothien is one badass chick. Seriously. She is a trained assassin. The best in all of Erilea. She is clever, smart and kill you with her bare hands if you annoy her. Yeah, she’s pretty cool. After the death of parents she was found by the the King of Assassins and was trained as an assassin herself. She soon proved to be the best and most feared assassin until she was betrayed and sent to a Salt Mines of Endovier. It’s more of a death camp then salt mines as most people don’t live long but Celaena is not like most people. After a year there she is introduced to the Crown Prince and the Captain of the Guard who offer an escape of sorts. Be the Crown Prince candidate in a competition to the King’s Champion aka become the official King’s assassin. If she wins, she only have to serve the King for four years and then she will be freed. If she loses, she comes back to Endovier where she will most likely die. Celaena does not lack for confidence and sees this as a winning proposition and agrees. Soon she is taken to Rithfold, the capital of Adarlan, the country that has conquered most of Erilea, including Celaena’s home country of Terrasen. She swept up in the contest as she soon finds that it’s not going to be as easy as she thought. First, a year in the salt mines has sapped a lot of her strength and second, she has a formidable foe in Cain. The King of Adarlan has outlawed magic from the land but Calaena finds that magic and mysterious powers are not completely gone. Not only is she battling the other champions but also a mysterious threat as well.

The book is a sort of mix of Hunger Games and Game of Thrones that definitely works. Celaena is strong, smart. clever and despite her brashness she is not fearless. She knows that her situation is tenuous and that any mistake will send her right back to Endorvier or worse death. She’s real. She’s not a shrinking violet like many heroines. She obvisously knows how to save herself but she’s not too proud to accept help when she needs it and yes even the more feared assassin needs help every now and then. Of course this is a YA novel so yes there are going to be suitors. First there is the Crown Prince, Dorian, who chaffs at the control of his father. Picking Celaena as his choice for the competition was sort of a rebellion on his part but he soon finds that Celaena is more then he thought and of course starts to fall in love with her. There is a whole subplot as to why Dorian hasn’t married yet. In a kind of role reversal, it’s Dorian who is the romantic who wants to marry for love and not out of obligation and Celaena is the more practical one. Her other suitor, is the young Captain of the Guard, Chaol. Serious and hard working, he is Dorian’s best friend who is always looking out for him. He has a quiet strength about him that honestly makes him a better fit for Celaena, in my humble opinion (TEAM CHAOL) but I’ll have to wait to read the other books to see how it plays out.

All and all, I thought this was a great book. Great characters and a good story. Celaena is a great edition to badass women in literature and I can’t wait to read how her story continues.

Review: Blood and Absinthe by Chloe Hart

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Kate

These three novellas all packaged into one are your standard paranormal romance fluff that is the sort of mindless fun that you’d expect from anything that can be described as “standard paranormal romance fluff”. They weren’t really well written and I wasn’t in love with any of the characters but I didn’t hate any of them either. The novellas asked nothing of me and that was exactly what I was looking for.

Plus, I got them from a book bub blast for 99 cents.

The first of the three novellas follows Liz, a faery warrior whose job it is to keep dark paranormal things out of the world. She is forced to work with her nemesis Jack (who is a vampire) to fight a particularly awful demon. It turns out that they both are crushing on each other. The next sentence is a little spoilery in account of this story was kind of formulaic. It also turns out that Jack can lend Liz his super vamp strength so that she can kill the demon if they spend one night of passion together.

The second story follows Celia, Liz’s friend, who is a mage faery and a vampire named Grant. Celia makes a discovery about the faery absinthe that all of the fae use occasionally to up their strength and connect them to their magic. She goes to Grant for protection when she realizes someone is trying to kill her. Intrigue, mayhem and romance ensue. Fun times.

The final story follows Jessica, a faery princess and Vampire assassin Hawk as they try to save magic and keep the human world from being overrun with demons and other evil faeries. There was a lot of hotness early on in this one but I’ll admit that I didn’t finish it because I was kind of bored with the whole world by this point.

I do have one bone to pick with these stories (and in romance novels in general). Sometimes, the sexy bits of these books are problematic in that they show sexual encounters that should not be considered consensual (even though we, as readers with access to the thoughts and feelings of the characters know that that the encounters are consensual). This happened at least once in these novellas: a character was under the influence of a spell or some kind of drug or was having a waking dream and got all hot and heavy with another character. In the worst of these instances, when the non-magicked/drugged/dreaming character realized that they were having sexy times with an incapacitated person they chose to pretend like the incident never happened. This led the other character to wake up and realize that it had happened and to be confused about how to go forward. When I read the novella, I found it enjoyable. But, after I had finished reading it, I felt very uncomfortable with how this had played out. I was uncomfortable because this was a terrible modeling of how people should treat each other in relationships. If you accidentally have magical faery sex with someone who thinks they’re asleep and dreaming your reaction to realizing they thought they were dreaming shouldn’t be, “Well, I’ll just pretend like this didn’t happen.” At the very least, you should make sure that they are physically and emotionally okay. (Or, you know, turn yourself in for sexual assault.) This has been an issue that has been discussed a lot recently with the release of 50 Shades of Grey. It is an important topic to critique and discuss because literature and art allow us to explore our world in a safe space. If the representations that we encounter are problematic, we need to talk about why they are problematic and how they could have been made better. I’m not saying that Chloe Hart should have written any of her scenes differently. They were hot and they served the story and the reader even if they didn’t serve the characters. But, these novellas don’t exist in a vacuum, so it is worth discussing things that make us uncomfortable.

These novellas were fine and they were quick reads but I won’t be reading anything else in the series. Meh.

Quick Review: The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Bethlylou

So this is a cute book. Perfect for kids who have just finished Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket and are looking for something new. It has many of the same kid fantasy novels. Three siblings who are move from orphange to orphange until they land in Cambridge Falls. There they travel back and forth in time thanks to a mysterious book. Soon they meet an evil Countess, a badly dress Wizard, a Giant and Dwarves. Kate is the older sister, who carries more responsibility then one at 14 should. Michael is a dwarf obsessed nerd of a brother and Emma is a tough as nails baby sister, who doesn’t take anyone’s crap. They of course find out that they are more then what they seem because that’s how these types of books go and end up going on wild adventure that will either save the world or end it because isn’t that how all adventures work? It’s fun and cute and at times quite humorous but also pretty predictable. I good start to a series that I think will be pretty entertaining but the next book will have to wait as I have a few books on my nook and iPad that demand attention.

Series You Should Check Out: Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Bethlylou

Next Week Kate and I will be going to New Orleans for the first time ever! To say we are excited would be an understatement. To celebrate our upcoming trip we are going to share some of our favorite books that place in The Big Easy. I’ll go first with the series, Chronicles of Nick. It currently has five books Infinity, Invincible, Infamous, Inferno and Illustion, with the sixth book, Instinct coming out on March 31.

The Chronicles of Nick is actually a spin-off series from Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series. I haven’t read them yet but there are many characters cross over between the two series. Nick Gautier (that’s Go-Shay, it’s the Cajun pronunciation and don’t forget it)is a streetwise kid from New Orleans. He’s the only child of Cherise Gautier, who had Nick when she was 14, the age Nick is now. Nick thinks he knows what’s what. He’s starting high school as a scholarship kid at a fancy private school. He is constantly bullied for his lack of finances and his forced wearing of ugly Hawaiian shirts but Nick makes do. Then everything changes when one day, he’s hanging out with his friends and well they try to kill him. He is saved by a mysterious warrior, Kyrian and is dragged into the world of the Dark-Hunters. Nick’s world will never be the same.

Nick is one of my favorite male YA characters. He’s so sarcastic that who could give Percy Jackson a run for his money. He always has a comeback and really it’s hard to get him to shut up. It’s really surprising that he doesn’t get slapped more often. With the meeting of Kyrian, who is a Dark-Hunter, a warrior fights a race that fights the dark forces. He soon finds the world is filled with demons, werewolves, vampires and worse and by worse, Nick himself. You see, Nick is the son of the Malachai. The most powerful demon that can singularly take down the world. There is only supposed to be one Malachai at once but his father has done all he can to stay away, even get arrested and jailed. Throughout the series, Nick is fighting his destiny to become the Malachai and destroy the world. The dark forces that created his kind will do anything to turn him and his friends will do anything to keep him, him.

In first five books, Nick has had to battle of Zombies of his classmates, vampires,and demons. He’s been kidnapped and taking to the demon realm. He’s also been taking to an alternate universe where he isn’t constantly trying to run for his life. With the help of his friends Caleb, Koda, Ash, Bubba and Mark he has battled the worst and kept his sarcastic sense of humor in tact. Now that he has accepted who he is he has to fight even harder to fight his own destiny. It hasn’t been easy since many of his friends have once been his enemy. For instance, Koda his girlfriend was originally sent to kill him and honestly may still if he turns towards the destruction of the world. Caleb is a demon that was tasked to protecting, Nick and sorta hated him for it. So yeah, it’s been rough. Despite all the darkness, Kenyon keeps things rather light and fun. I laugh so hard when I read them and I can’t wait for the next one.

New Orleans is the perfect backdrop for the series. NOLA, is known for it’s ghosts and haunting, voodoo queens that it’s no stretch of the imagination that there might be a bar run by werewolves or witches run classes in the french quarters. Or that it’s a doorway to other realms and there is a goblin market. I’m pretty excited to see where Nick hangs out. Have beignets at Cafe du Monde and walk around St. Louis Cemetery. I’m really excited to go to New Orleans and looking forward to what Nick and company do next.

Review: Rogue Wave by Jennifer Donnelly

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Bethlylou

Jennifer Donnelly is a good author. I love her adult series, The Tea Rose (well actually 2/3 of it. The third book, The Wild Rose, I could do without) Most of books are historical fiction and you can tell she put in the time and effort to get the details of the time period right. Even for her YA titles, Northern Lights and Revolution. She knows how to tell a story that is full of romance and suspense that keeps you drawn in. I guess that is what I was expecting with her Waterfire Saga.

The first thing you may have noticed as I did that Rogue Wave as did Deep Blue, the first book in the series, has a mermaid on the cover. Clearly, this was not going to be her usual historical fiction novel. I don’t think it ever says when exactly this novel takes place but I feel it’s implied it’s in modern day. The Mer people are descendents from the lost city of Atlantis. Some of who adapted to the water after the city drowned into the sea and formed six different kingdoms in our oceans and seas. Our heroine, Serafina, is the princess of the Miromara, a Mer kingdom that spans the Mediterranean, Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Seas. On the day of she was supposed to be crown the heir of Miromara, they are attacked and she is forced to flee with her best friend, Neela. A princess from the Kingdom Matalia, located in the Indian Ocean. After many trials and tribulation, they find their way to the River Olt, where the famed Lele witches live. They meet up with four other princesses from the other Mer kingdoms and are told they are the descendents of the originals and only they can find the six talismans that will stop the big bad monster and save their world. Got it? I forgot to mention that Serafina was supposed to have been betrothed to Mahdi, the heir to Matali Empire and Neela’s cousin but that didn’t happen because all hell broke loose or and Mahdi may have been cheating on her. It wouldn’t be a true YA novel if it didn’t have some teen angst, right?

Rogue Wave starts as the six Mermaid Princess separate and go and find their talismans. Serafina, goes back to Miromara because she is sure there is something about Merrow, the mermaid she is descendent from and is also the one who hid all the talismans but of course that’s a dangerous since her home is in ruin and now ruled by Traho and his deathriders, who attacked them. Neela is heading back to Matali to try to warn her parents and hope they will take action. They both are constantly being chased by death riders and others who are also looking for the talisman but they are both smart and determined and find ways to get out of trouble.

The first book I thought was only kinda, meh. I didn’t have a problem with the story or the characters but It didn’t seem to have a lot of energy. I like Jennifer Donnelly as an author, so I guess I have certain expectations when it comes to her work and this I feel is not her best. I mean, props for her for trying something new but I feel it’s a little bit by the numbers. It’s like she had a checklist of everything that should be in a YA fantasy novel and checked things off one by one. Also the writing style is a bit off. I think they are going for a little younger end of the YA spectrum so the 13-15 crowd because it’s very tame. There is nothing anyone would be upset or offended about it. It’s a little surprising because as I said before, she has written YA novels before without dumbing them down. That may not be the best way to describe but she does spend a lot of time recapping what has already happened or spelling things out so the reader won’t miss it. it’s unnecessary and also slows down the pace of the book. Oh and don’t get me started on the cutesy sea lingo. Instead of calling each other girls, they say merls and they use currensea not currency. There are so many of them that a glossary is included at the end.

Rogue Wave is a better effort then Deep Blue but it’s still not up to her standards. It took her two books but by the end of this one I see that this a real purpose for her characters. It’s more then just collect six talismans and save the world. It’s also a great book of female friendships. Serafina and Neela’s friendship is great. They are strong and there for each other. We have barely had a chance to get to know the other four, Ling, Becca, Ava and Astrid but their was a beginning of a real bond between the them. Well the five of six. Astrid is the daughter of the leader who was first thought to behind the attacks and was seen as a outsider. I think that now that we have a real sense of what their mission is and who they are really up against, it’s only going to get better. So Miss Donnelly, you get another chance. It’s not a great series but one I’m willing to see how it goes.

Review: The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Bethlylou

Magisterium: The Iron Trial is basically Holly Black and Cassandra Clare’s Harry Potter. It might be unfair to say so but let’s face facts. It’s about a boy, Callum or Call as he likes to be called. Who gets into a mysteries school, the Magisterium, for young Mages. He becomes friends with Aaron and Tamara that will help him on this journey. Oh and there is a mask wearing villian that is out to destory death. Sort of sound familiar? Similiarities in literature is nothing new and may not be surprising considering that Cassandra Clare wrote Harry Potter fanfiction before she started writing about Shadowhunters but for everything that is the same they are enough differences to make it worth reading. There is going to be a lot of spoilers after the cut. Continue reading →

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