Life. It happens. Unfortunately it’s been happening to me
and has taken time away from my reviewing and blogging. I have still been
reading though, I could never give that up, LOL! At this point I’m so far behind on my reviews
that I’m sure I could never catch up properly, so here’s what we are going to
do – book reviews, speed style! You know
speed dating? Where you get 5 minutes to talk, a bell goes off and then you
move to the next person in line? When I
hear that bell I’m going to stop talking and move on to another book. Are you ready for this? Here we go…DING!
Off Limits by Sawyer Bennet – I just finished this one last
night, and I enjoyed it. It’s the usual boy meets girl, boy falls for girl,
girl tries to get through to boy and past his issues. The story alternates between the point of
view of the two main characters, Emily and Nix, and this allowed a lot of
insight into both their characters, and allowed for a different sort of
anticipation and relationship build up. The romance was definitely hot in this
one! DING!
Rocked Under by Cora Hawkes – Scott is the bad boy, womanizing lead singer
in a band, Emma is the new girl in town.
Both come with emotional issues and together they struggle with keeping the
friendship line intact. The romance is
decent, the characters alright, but something was missing for me in this book.
I struggled to put my finger on just what it was – maybe pacing? Too many jumps
in time – it was Christmas, it was now February, that continued until March? I’m
not sure, but while this book was okay, it wasn’t awesome for me. DING!
The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen – I
enjoyed this one. I was intrigued by the
characters and really wanted to get into their backstories. Both Callie and
Kayden come with some heavy baggage which impacts their relationship with
themselves and with each other. The
author did a great job of showing how the trust and love grows between them,
and how it changes each of them as a person. The ending though – ugh!! That’s a good ugh, lol, but it’s one of those
endings where you need the next book – Right. Now. DING!
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare – I love the Infernal
Devices series by Cassandra Clare. It’s a YA series, but the writing is superb
and the characters are incredible. Clockwork Princess was no different, and it
was an amazing ending to the series. I’ll
be honest, the first 75% off the book is somewhat dark and dreary – but it was
essential to the development of the story.
Then that last 25%? OMG. Like OMG to the point that I don’t even have
any adjectives to adequately describe its awesomeness. It was perfect. DING!
The Trouble with Spells (Of Witches and Warlocks #1) by Lacey Weatherford – A decent YA
read about a girl who finds out that she is…you guessed it, a witch. Portia thinks she has it all figured out, but
when she finds out the truth about her heritage and abilities and becomes
involved with the bad boy warlock Vance,
she struggles to define herself and her own views of love and loyalty.
Does she take the safe route, or fight for that which she cares about? DING!
Into This River I Drown by TJ Klune – WOW, is what I have to
say about this book. This is not the usual sappy romance read. Yes, it has
romance, but that is not all that the book is about. It is highly emotional and
meaningful with its commentary on love,
loss, grief, and new beginnings. Beautifully
written, I FELT every mile of Benji’s
journey – I laughed, I cried, I had those moments where your heart literally
jumps into your throat. I don’t know how anyone could read this book without
examining their own life and priorities, and gaining new appreciation for what
they have. Five stars amazing. DING!
Lover At Last by J.R. Ward – The Black Dagger Brotherhood is
one of my unabashed guilty pleasures. I
love this series – I love the men, I love the romance, I love the action packed
storylines. Add to that J.R. Wards
incredible writing, and you can’t go wrong.
This book though – it was special. BDB fans the world over were waiting
for Qhuinn and Blay’s story – we’ve watched them change and grow for so long
now, we needed to know how it would play out!
This book doesn’t disappoint in that regard, and although I would have
loved to see more of the title couple I feel they got a just and complete
story. This book did have an excess of
side stories I found, and with the available members of the Brotherhood
dwindling I have to wonder if the sole purpose of so many side stories was to
ensure more books for the series. I
wanted to see much more of the brothers I have come to love – and instead got
barely-there glimpses. DING!
Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire – I read Beautiful
Disaster when it first came out, and while it was an okay book, I didn’t quite
understand the Travis love that I saw going on everywhere. When Walking Disaster came out, I decided to
give it a chance to see if I could “get” the excitement. Maybe hearing about Travis’ and Abby’s
romance from Travis’ point of view would help me understand. Unfortunately, I
found this book to be somewhat disappointing.
There were a few new scenes and a few new insights from Travis, but for
the most part it seemed quite redundant to me. There was a lot of skipping over
some key building scenes, so that the main parts of the story could be
rehashed. If I hadn’t of read Beautiful
Disaster first, I would have been lost and the story and flow of the book would
have been lacking. Well. It was lacking, but I could make it make sense because
I had the backstory, know what I mean? Overall this book didn’t do much for me
at all, but I did like the epilogue at the end. DING!
Twisted Perfection by Abbi Glines – I enjoyed Fallen too
Far, and liked Never too Far, so I decided to give this spin-off book a try and
I was so glad I did. I loved getting to know Woods and his backstory, and Della
was a believable and relatable character. The story flowed well, the romance
was steaming hot, and the writing was good. This just might be my favourite
Abbi Glines book! DING!
Twice Tempted by Jeaniene Frost – The second book of the
Night Prince series, Twice Tempted does not disappoint! Vampires and intrigue (although I figured out
the antagonist immediately in this one), and lots of hot and steamy scenes
between Leila and Vlad. Total and complete guilty pleasure, and the sneak peek
of the new Cat and Bones book was an added bonus! DING!
Existence Trilogy by Abbi Glines (Existence, Predestined,
Ceaseless) I really enjoyed this YA series and devoured it over a day. It had everything I enjoy – a unique idea,
interesting characters, and an excellent dose of “just how is this going to
work out?” I’ll admit, I have a total
book crush on Dank – but who doesn’t like a motorcycle driving, man of mystery,
lead singer in a rock band? I’d expound
on the man of mystery, but that is one of the best twists in this series. I
would definitely recommend these books to any older teen who likes
supernatural/paranormal. DING!
What Really Happened in Peru by Cassandra Clare and Sarah
Rees Brennan – I absolutely love the character of Magnus Bane in Cassandra
Clare’s books. (Did you know he is the only character to appear in every
Infernal Device or Immortal Instruments book?) Honestly, he would likely be in my top 5 book
characters I would like to meet. Through
the books we are told over and over that he cannot return to Peru, and I jumped
at the chance to find out why! I’m sorry to say that I was disappointed. While
the short “clips” were entertaining, I found them lacking. While true to the character of Magnus, they
were missing Cassandra Clare’s flair with words and just seemed thrown
together. BING!
You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning – I thought
the premise of this book sounded interesting – a formerly fat and unpopular
girl, Neve, dealing with all the
emotional issues that stemmed from her bullying, finds the man of her dreams
and decides that she needs to prepare herself to date him. You know how when you make pancakes the first
one often turns out uneven, maybe not cooked properly as the pan heats up? Well
apparently the same applies to relationships and Neve does not want the man of
her dreams to end up being the wonky first boyfriend. Enter Max – hot,
successful, and cocky…and the perfect “pancake boyfriend. “ It’s nothing serious, or is it? While I did
find this book quite long and sometimes in need of some editing to keep the
flow going, I did enjoy it and the complete realness of the character of
Neve. DING!
Taking Chances by Molly McAdams – This book was highly
recommended to me, and I was so disappointed. I hate leaving an unfavourable
review, but this book drove me nuts in the worst way possible. The main character is Harper, and she starts
the story somewhat naive and inexperienced – but everyone loves her. Everyone.
All the time. No matter what she does or how she acts, she is always forgiven
and everyone raves about how special she is and how much they love her. Seriously, the word “love” is just about as
commonplace in this book as the word “the” and more often than not it is
directed at Harper. There are even
characters whose sole purpose seems to be to show just how desirable, wanted
and loved Harper is. Throughout the book
Harper does some pretty questionable things, and she never has to truly deal
with the fall out. Everything works out perfectly for her. It is completely and totally unrealistic. Add
to that a number of clichéd story plots and the whole book just rubbed me the
wrong way. DING!
This Girl by Colleen Hoover – This is how a point of view
book should be done! Book three in the Slammed series, This Girl focuses on
Will’s point of view during the time period of Slammed. Colleen covers the book
well, balancing new insights and past events in a way that we get a new, complete
version. Even the familiar scenes seemed
new and interesting, so kudos to Colleen Hoover! Definitely a solid addition to
the trilogy – loved it! DING!
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