Spellbound - Review

Spellbound (Spellbound #1)
by Cara Lynn Shultz
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published: June 28, 2011
Rating: 4/5

Goodreads | Author Blog | Twitter

Life hasn't been easy on sixteen-year-old Emma Connor, so a new start in New York may be just the change she needs. But the posh Upper East Side prep school she has to attend? Not so much. Friendly faces are few and far between, except for one that she's irresistibly drawn to—Brendan Salinger, the guy with the rock-star good looks and the richest kid in school, who might just be her very own white knight.

But even when Brendan inexplicably turns cold, Emma can't stop staring. Ever since she laid eyes on him, strange things have been happening. Streetlamps go out wherever she walks, and Emma's been having the oddest dreams: visions of herself in past lives—visions that warn her to stay away from Brendan. Or else.

Spellbound is an awesome paranormal-type book. Actually, I would call the genre modern fairy tale, because it really did have a fairy tale-is feel. I've never read anything like it, which is great. I love discovering new genres and crossovers!

Emma moves from her crazy stepfather to her rich aunt in New York, where she gets to attend an expensive private school. And she doesn't really feel that she fits in with all the other snobby students. But then she meets a boy called Brendan, who she instantly feels drawn too. When I was reading the beginning I thought "oh no, not one of these books again" And with that I mean the paranormal romance books in which a girl falls in love with a vampire/angel/warewolf/whatever and their love is impossible.

But I was wrong. Spellbound isn't one of those books. This book was so much more.Spellbound is twisted, extraordinary and not at all what I expected. It was a very interesting read.

And the ending? The last few chapters were so intense. I was holding my breath and didn't do anything than read. I needed to know how everything would end!

Spellbound is a great debut that paranormal romance and fairy tale fans will love. I'm a  bit confused about this being a series though. According to Goodreads, the next book will be released next year. But I think this book would've suited perfectly as a standalone and can't really figure out how a sequel would be written. I'm very interested in seeing what Shultz does with that!

Frostbite - Review

Frostbite (Vampire Academy #2)
by Richelle Mead

Goodreads 

| 

Author Website 

| 

Book Website 

| 

Twitter



Rose loves Dimitri, Dimitri might love Tasha, and Mason would die to be with Rose…

It's winter break at St. Vladimir's, but Rose is feeling anything but festive. A massive Strigoi attack has put the school on high alert, and now the Academy's crawling with Guardians—including Rose's hard-hitting mother, Janine Hathaway. And if hand-to-hand combat with her mom wasn't bad enough, Rose's tutor Dimitri has his eye on someone else, her friend Mason's got a huge crush on her, and Rose keeps getting stuck in Lissa's head while she's making out with her boyfriend, Christian! The Strigoi are closing in, and the Academy's not taking any risks… This year, St. Vlad's annual holiday ski trip is mandatory.

But the glittering winter landscape and the posh Idaho resort only create the illusion of safety. When three friends run away in an offensive move against the deadly Strigoi, Rose must join forces with Christian to rescue them. But heroism rarely comes without a price…

I think this review is one of the hardest reviews I've ever written. I'm not completely sure how I feel about the Vampire Academy books, I should like them. I want to like them. But I'm not that drawn to them.

I read the first Vampire Academy book about half a year ago. I'd read lots of great things about the series and was really eager to start reading it. I liked it, but wasn't as in love with it as everyone else were. I'd heard many people say that the series got better for every book and hoped that I would like Frostbite more than the first book. Even though I didn't have as high expectations as for the first book, it let me down.

I really should like these books. The stories are fast pased and really action filled. The characters are well developed and threedimentional. They're likeable and and suit the story. The writing is good. The vampire world is really well planned and has lots of details. There's lots of romance and complications between the characters.

The books should be really good, but I just don't enjoy reading them. I should, but don't feel any attachment to the charactes. In all the big action filled scenes, my heart doesn't race. I don't want to read every moment possible, but every time I pick up the book I feel more like "okay, I have to read a few pages. I haven't read anything in a few days" not "I want to read!!!!".

So I'm not going to rate this book. It is a really good book. But I didn't enjoy it. I know, it doesn't make any sense.

Beautiful Creatures - review

Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1)

by Cami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Rating: 5/5

Goodreads 

|

 Website 

|

 Cami Garcia's blog 

|

 Margaret Stohl's blog 

|

 Book trailer

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Yeah, this was a paranormal type book about a boy and a girl who has seen each other in their dreams, meet each other, instantly fall in love and learn that their relationship is impossible. A book that I usually wouldn't like that much. But I loved Beautiful Creatues! It has so much more than "typical paranormal romances" that made this novel one of a kind. That made it magical. 

The small town Gatlin was a perfect setting for the story, a place that Stohl and Garcia described perfectly. All the residents of the town were crazy about the Civil War, and the plot had a lot of important connections to some incidents that happened during the Civil War. The setting and all the references to the war were perfect for the story and added on to the eerie and mysterious feeling this novel had.

The writing was beautiful and I loved all the poems and song text that were woven into the story. The characters were three dimensional and a lot of them had deep secrets that were revealed throughout the book. And god, all the magic! Wow!

This novel is so dark, eerie and sad. But still so beautiful, magical and amazing! I has hooked from the first page and loved every single one after that.

The Awakening & The Struggle - Review

The Awakening and The Struggle (The Vampire Diaries 1&2)
by L.J. Smith
Rating: 1,5/5

Goodreads | Official booksite | Authors official website


Elena: the golden girl, the leader, the one who can have any boy she wants.

Stefan: brooding and mysterious, he seems to be the only one who can resist Elena, even as he struggles to protect her from the horrors that haunt his past.

Damon: sexy, dangerous, and driven by an urge for revenge against Stefan, the brother who betrayed him. Determined to have Elena, he'd kill to possess her.

Collected here in one volume for the first time, volumes one and two of The Vampire Diaries, the tale of two vampire brothers and the beautiful girl torn between them.

I've tried to read these book one time before, but I stopped about 150 pages in. I was following the TV series at the time and got really annoyed about the differences between the books and tv series. But I've stopped watching The Vampire Diaries, so I decided to pick up the books again. And this time try to not compare the books to the tv series.

The plot is not the most original. A new boy, Stephan, comes to Elena's school. He's gorgeous, cool and mysterious. He doesn't really talk with people, but of course all the girls want him. Elena, who's kind of the queen bee, tries to "make friends" with him (Read: Tries to get together with him so that all the other girls will be jealous of her). In the beginning he rejects her but after some time she gets what he wants. But then Stephan's super sexy brother (who wants to get together with Elena) comes and makes crazy shit happen in the town and in Elena's life! BAM BAM BAM *Insert dramatic music here*

To be honest, I didn't like the romance in these books. It felt unrealistic. I understand that Elena wanted Stephan's attention in the beginning. But after he's been acting like a jerk and they've only known each other for really short time, she's in love with him and sure that they'll marry each other? Now you're probably thinking: "But hey, that's exactly like Twilight?! How can you like Twilight so much, if you don't like this?". But no, it isn't exactly like Twilight. In Twilight, Edward opens up after a while and becomes really cute, funny and lovely. Stephan doesn't. In fact, Stephan was kind of boring the whole time. And Elena was a bitch.

Aside from the bad "romance" I don't know what about these books annoyed me so much. The writing was okay, the rest of the characters were okay, the ending was cliffhangerish (In both books). But this book just wasn't for me. But obviously everyone else loves it. So I'm not going to tell you to not read it. You might love it.

Jonas - Review

Jonas (Beautiful Dead #1)

by Eden Maguire                                                                                                

My rating: 1/5 

www.beautifuldead.com

Something strange is happening in Ellerton High. Pheonix is the fourth teenager to die within a year. His street fight stabbing follows the death of Jonas, Summer and Arizona in equally strange and sudden circumstances.

Rumors of ghosts and strange happenings rip through the small community as it comes to terms with shoch and loss. Darina, Pheonix's grief-stricken girlfriend, in on the verge. She can't escape her intense heartache, or the impossible apparitions of those who are meant to be dead. And all the while the sound of beating wings echo inside her head! And then one day Pheonix appears to Darina.

Ecstatic to be reunited, he tells her about the Beautiful Dead. Souls limbo, they have been chosen to return to the world to set right a wrong linked to their death and bring about justice. Beautiful, superhuman and powerful, they are marked by a "death mark" - a small tattoo of angel's wings. Pheonix tells her that the sound of invisible wings beating are the millions of souls in limbo, desperate to return to earth. Darina's mission is clear: she must help Jonas, Summer, Arizona, and impossibly, her beloved Pheonix, right the wrong likned to their deaths to set them free from limbo so that they can finally rest in peace. Will love conquer death? And if it does, can Darina set free?

It was the plot (and the cover, to be honest) that made me pick up this book. I was hoping for an epic story of love, angels and horror. But unfortunately, I didn't get that. I really love the idea for this series, and it could have been really good! But it wasn't.

All the characters were boring. Flat. It feels like the author was like "Okay, so I've got this good idea. But damn it, I can't write a book without characters!" The were all kind of predictable and without any personalities. If I had to describe them, everyone would get the same description! They were all the same.

The writing was not of my taste either. It was too choppy and short. Like; she did that, and then that and then that. Not much variation or "playing with words".

I don't like giving books bad ratings, because I know that somewhere there is an author who has worked her but off to write it. But you can't love every book and this one just didn't suit my taste. Maybe someone else will like it, but I don't. Sorry.

Angel - Review

Angel (Angel Trilogy #1
by L.A. Weatherly
Rating: 5/5


Willow knows she's different from other girls. And not just because she loves tinkering around with cars. Willow has a gift. She can look into people's futures, know their dreams, their hopes and their regrets, just by touching them. She has no idea where she gets this power from ..


But Alex does. Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows Willow's secret and is on a mission to stop her. The dark forces within Willow make her dangerous - and irresistible. In spite of himself, Alex finds he is falling in love with his sworn enemy.

Even though last year was the year of the angels, this was my first angel novel. I just haven't had the interest to read a book about a magical creature and a human who's love is impossible and blah blah blah. So when my mom returned from her trip to London and gave me Angel, I wasn't very excited. It has now been in my to be read pile quite a while, so I thought why not give it a go? I started reading and I read and read. I loved it!

Since I've never read a story about angels before, I barely have anything to compare Angel with. But angels have started moving to our planet and taking it over. They feed on humans' energy auras and leave the human with an Angel Burn. The human is weak and ill, but believing that he has experienced the most incredible moment in his life. People around the world are starting to grow major illnesses, caused by the angels, and worshiping the horrible creatures.

In the middle of all of this we find Willow. She loves cars and lives with her sick mother at her aunt's place. By one touch she can see your memories, dreams and future. But she has no idea why. The assassin Alex has been ordered to kill her, but obviously, they fall in love. And more than that I won't tell you. Because one of the thing I like about Angel is that you don't get to know everything in the beginning. You get a clue at the time and have to wait and see.

Even though this was a pretty huge book, I read it fast and didn't grow tired of it. I was flipping pages and always was eager to read more. I enjoyed Angel much more that I had expected. I thought it would be okay, but it was amazing! A deep love story with a lot of emotions and action. It is a good introduction to a, hopefully, amazing trilogy. Everybody should read this and I can't believe that I have to wait until june to read the sequel, Angel Fire!