REVIEW - The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

 The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Series: The Iron Fey

Book No.: 1


Book Type: Own

Rating: 3.5 / 5 (☼ ☼ ☼ 1/2)

Summary: (GoodReads. Where else?)

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.


When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.


First Sentence: Ten years ago, on my sixth birthday, my father disappeared. 

Review:
This book has been on my TBR list for about a year. Maybe a year in a half. As long as it's been out, and I finally got around to ordering it, so I read it as quick as I could. Let's just say that it wasn't as good as I thought it would be.

Don't get me wrong! I loved some of the cast of characters -- Puck, Ash, Grim -- but Meghan was not my favorite heroine. At sometimes she got too whiny for my interest, and I had to put the book down and debate whether or not to continue, but I always gave in and continued.

The Seelie and the Unseelie Courts of the Fey are super, super creepy. When I read about them, I seriously had a hard time believing the mythical creatures I used to adore because of TinkerBell were that horrible. Well. I guess I need to do more research on mythical creatures before I read a book about it. . .

Some of the speech seemed forced, and some of the actions had me guessing who was actually doing the actions. Sometimes what Meghan did caught me off guard.

I found myself actually getting tired of some parts, and I put the book down then as well. Maybe if I hadn't had so much crap go on while I was reading it, maybe I would have enjoyed it better, but I don't know. I just couldn't really get into this book until about the middle of it.

After about mid-way through the book, I was caught by surprise, which is one of the only reasons I didn't give it a lower rating. Another side of Ash came into view, and that actually had me held on to the book. There was just something about his character that I loved. Either way, the ending was a very interesting one, and I bought The Iron Daughter, so I'll have to be reading that one soon.

I feel really bad for not enjoying this book as much as everyone else did. If you know that The Iron Daughter gets even better, then please let me know. That'll make me more in-the-mood to read it.

Cover: A
You  have to admit: this cover is beautiful!

Blog Hop / Follow Friday (01)

 I need to get better at doing this.

Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy-For-Books and is a great way for other book bloggers to meet each other and stuff like that.

Follow my Book Blog Friday is basically the same thing.

They both deal with weekly questions, and hopefully I'll get better at doing things weekly.

**Sigh** Here we go. . .

Book Blogger Hop Question:

What book influenced or changed your life? How did it influence/change you?

Easy. If I Stay by Gayle Forman. It had me thinking about life even after I put the book down. I talk about this book a little too much, but you should agree if you've read it and enjoyed it. The main character is trapped in a world, well, between the two world: earth and Heaven. She has to decide whether she wants to remain in the real world with her boyfriend and friend or go to Heaven or wherever with the rest of her family that died in the accident.

Follow My Book Blog Friday Question:

What book(s) have you discovered lately from someone else's book blog?

That's where I find most of my stuff anyways, but one of the books that I have read due to the publicity on several other book blogs would have to be The Iron King by Julie Kagawa.

REVIEW - Fallen by Lauren Kate (Rant Edition)

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Series: Fallen

Book No.: 1


Book Type: Own

Summary: (GO GOODREADS)

There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.


First Sentence: Around midnight, her eyes at last took shape. 

Review:
Oh my. Another angel book about a fallen angel and a human girl that fall in love and all hell breaks lose because of it. Oh look. I just made a pun. Get it? Hell? Fallen angel? Oh. I'm not that funny.

Anyways, avoiding my humor, (or therefore LACK of it) I cannot say that I liked this book as much as other squealing fangirls and romance freaks. I, for one, can say the very opposite and tell you that I dreaded to finish it. Ugh. . . I was fooled with the beautiful prologue. Darn me. . .

First, let's start off with the "romance". Girl meets boy. Boy ignores her. Girl has some creepy I-know-him-from-somewhere-and-I-just-HAVE-to-have-him moment. Drools over how hot he is. Some other dude comes in and tries to sweep the girl off of her feet. She ignores him and goes for the guy that OBVIOUSLY doesn't like her. He ends up loving her and revealing himself as some mythical creature. INSERT BIG EVENT HERE THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING. Then they're forced to be apart. Insert sequel here. This mostly happens in all of the fallen angel books I have come across. I. Hate. Those. With. A. Passion. Ha? You get it? It's the third book in this series.

Okay, so Daniel obviously doesn't want anything to do with Luce, so how does she respond? Oh I don't know. Stalks him until he reveals that he's some mythical creature. Oh wow. Hush, Hush much?

I personally liked Cameron because he was the most decent character, but, as usual, they have to turn into the bad guy. (I don't think that's a spoiler.)

Then you have these shallow characters that ALL OF A SUDDEN have something to do with the plot at the end, and the teacher isn't who you think she is. I saw all of it coming. All of it was predictable.

All in all, to avoid becoming some ranting blogger than everyone hates, I disliked this book greatly. I will not be looking forward to the next book.

Cover: A
As much as I didn't like the book, I have to admit that the cover is breathtaking.

Waiting on Wednesday (03)

 

Since I'm in the If I Stay mood, then I decided to dedicate my 'Waiting on Wednesday' post on this sequel to that beautiful book.

I can't wait for this to come out, considering I read If I Stay in less than 24 hours. If I could devour that book, then I surely can be as engaged with this as I was with the first one.

The best part about this is that it's told from. . .

ADAM'S POINT OF VIEW!

I personally loved Adam's character. He was one of my favorite characters in If I Stay besides Mia, her parents, and her little brother, Ted.

If you haven't read If I Stay, I STRONGLY suggest it.

And that has been Waiting on Wednesday. What's your post?

Teaser Tuesday (02)

 This addition of Teaser Tuesday is brought to you by: If I Stay by Gayle Forman.

I thought that this would be an interesting addition to the Teaser Tuesday, and when I flipped to a random page, I was right.

You wouldn't expect the radio to work afterword. But it does.

The car is eviscerated. The impact of a four-ton pickup truck going sixty miles an hour plowing straight into the passenger side had the force of an atom bomb. It tore off the doors, sent the front side passenger seat thruogh the driver's-side window. It flipped the chassis, bouncing it across the road and ripped the engine apart as if it were no stronger than a spiderweb. It rossed wheels and hubcaps deep into the forest. It ignited bits of the gas tank, so that now tiny flames lap at the wet road.

And there was so much noise. A symphony of grinding, a chorus of popping, an aria of exploding, and finally, the sad clapping of hard metal cutting into soft trees. Then it went quiet, except for this: Beethoven's Cello Sonata no. 3, still playing. The car radio somehow still is attached to a battery and so Beethoven is broadcasting into the once-again tranquil February morning.

~pg. 15

I love, love, love, LOVE this book, and this was one of the scenes that had me reading as fast as I could to see what all had happened. A great way to describe this scene: with musical terms. If you didn't know, Mia, the main character, is a musician.

SO READ IT!

Thank you! What have you done for your Teaser Tuesday?

Cover Crazy (02)

Wow. I need to get better at doing these things weekly. . .

I have a horrible confession to make: I have not read Nightshade, but I am so looking forward to getting it when it comes in paperback (because you know I'm broke), so by then, Wolfsbane will be released.

Nightshade was released in October of 2010, and it currently has a 4.21 review on GoodReads. That high of a rating must mean something, right?

Wolfsbane is the second book in the Nightshade series which is set to be released on July 12th, 2011, and I will be anxiously waiting for it to be released.

Excuse me, but aren't you suppose to have one cover for COVER crazy?

Well who could pick between these two beautiful covers? I have to say that even though I love the first cover because it's purple, I love the green one for multiple reasons that I can't really explain. It's just so. . . well. . . pretty!

So you decide! Which cover is the best?

Cover wars.

Hm. I should make that a new meme.

REVIEW - The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain 


Series: The Dark Divine Trilogy


Book No.: 1


Book Type: Own


Rating: 4 / 5 (☼ ☼ ☼ ☼)


Summary: (Brought to you by GOODREADS!)
A Prodigal Son

A Dangerous Love

A Deadly Secret

Grace Divine—daughter of the local pastor—always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared and her brother Jude came home covered in his own blood.

Now that Daniel's returned, Grace must choose between her growing attraction to him and her loyalty to her brother.

As Grace gets closer to Daniel, she learns the truth about that mysterious night and how to save the ones she loves, but it might cost her the one thing she cherishes most: her soul.


First Sentence: Blood fills my mouth. 


Review: 
As I've already said, this was a Christmas present bought by my awesome cousin who let me pick any book at BooksAMillion. At all of the book blogs, I have read that this book was a very fresh and new start in YA fiction and that it was a great book to start a great series. I gave it a chance. I stayed up until seven in the morning finishing this book. I have to say that it's well worth it. 


Grace is surprised by the sudden return of Daniel, a childhood friend that "ran away" three years ago. Throughout the first half (or 1/3 of the book. . . ) of the book, she's trying to discover his motives of returning, what the reason is that he's returned to a place where her family made certain to never let him back again. (My wording sucks if you can't tell.) And I'll let you know that the reason will surprise you like it did me. 


At first, I thought that this book was another vampire novel. A story of a guy desperately in love with a girl, and then he reveals that he's a vampire, and she turns into Bella. Oh me, oh my. But no! Hold it! The book twists. The whole book becomes unpredictable, and you don't know what's going to happen next. I've had a hard time trying to come across a book that totally takes me by surprise and takes a total left turn when I thought it was going to take a right. Okay, so my similes/metaphors/whatever aren't very persuading, but I'll tell you, if you're looking for a wonderful, beautifully written story where the plot twists and turns against your will, then you'll find this book to be an amazing one. 


I'm going to add this section >> Characters: <<
(Because you can never get enough of them.) Grace. Ah, Grace. Sometimes, I wanted to punch her in the face for being either stupid or sounding stupid. Other times, like at the end of the book, I wanted to hold her and tell her that her awesome boyfriend that I grew to love will come back. Yes. A roller coaster of emotions influenced me. 


Daniel: I. LOVED. HIM. I didn't launch into a drooling, nasty fit when I read his name, but I have to admit that his character is lovable. When he was sad, I grew sad. ): Other words, he influences the overall mood of the novel whenever he makes an appearance. 


Jude: I. hate. him. Man, the author took him and made a sudden, unpredictable U-turn with his character. I'm not going to spoil the book at all, (because wouldn't that just be mean?) but you'll grow to hate him. Trust me. Same with Pete. 


Cover: A-
Man. This girl looks dead. 

REVIEW - The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum

The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum 


Series: The Hourglass Door Trilogy 


Book No.: 1 


Book Type: Own


Rating: 3.5 / 5


Summary: (from GoodReads)
His past. Her future. Can love bring them together in time?Abby's senior year of high school is textbook perfect: She has a handsome and attentive boyfriend, good friends, good grades, and plans to attend college next year. But when she meets Dante Alexander, a foreign-exchange student from Italy, her life suddenly takes a different turn. He's mysterious, and interesting, and unlike anyone she's ever met before. Abby can't deny the growing attraction she feels for him. Nor can she deny the unusual things that seem to happen when Dante is around. Time behaves differently when they are together - traveling too fast or too slow or sometimes seeming to stop altogether. When the band Zero Hour performs at the local hangout, Abby realizes that there's something dangerous about the lead singer, Zo, and his band mates, Tony and V. Oddly, the three of them are also from Italy and have a strange relationship to Dante. They also hold a bizarre influence over their audience when performing. And Abby's best friend, Valerie, is caught in their snare. Dante tells Abby the truth of his past: he once worked for Leonardo Da Vinci, helping to design and build a time machine. When Dante was falsely implicated as a traitor to his country, he was sent through the machine more than five hundred years into the future as punishment. As the past and the present collide, Abby learns that she holds a special power over the flow of time itself. She and Dante must stop Zo from opening the time machine's door and endangering everyone's future. More than one life is at stake and Abby's choice could change everything. (. . . long. . . )


First Sentence: It is the counting that saves him. 


Review: 
Bought this online. Read it in a day. I have to say that it was worth it.


Although it wasn't the best book in the world, I have to say that this book is a very entertaining piece that provokes who you think some of the characters are. I am a sucker for the Renaissance era history book with characters placed in the future. I also love anything to do with da Vinci, and his "genius" inventions play a huge part in this novel. 


Dante, the person you're trying to figure out, is a new, refreshing character in YA fiction. No. He's not a vampire, werewolf, hunter, etc., and when I found out what he was (even though I pretty much knew from the beginning), I was happy. Make way, Edward, Dante has come. I like Dante way better anyways. . . 


All in all, a very, very enjoyable read. It had me from prologue. I recommend this book.


Cover: C+
Even though it's not the most creative cover, it still has a BUNCH of meaning. Read the book to find out. (: