Review: Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer

3 out of 5

This thrilling sequel to the much-talked-about Nightshade begins just where it ended. Calla Tor wakes up in the lair of the Searchers, her sworn enemy, and she's certain her days are numbered.

But then the Searchers make her an offer,one that gives her the chance to destroy her former masters and save the pack and the man she left behind. Is Ren worth the price of her freedom? And will Shay stand by her side no matter what? Now in control of her own destiny, Calla must decide which battles are worth fighting and how many trials true love can endure and still survive.

My Review:

I must admit, at the end of Nightshade I really didn't like Ren. I knew Calla wanted to be with Shay so it all seemed like alls fair in love and war. I'm not sure whether I liked Wolfsbane as much. For one thing there was an awful lot of info-dump. Every other page felt like someone was churning out some more history of this and that and why and when. I know most of this will be because Bloodrose is the last in the series so I stuck with it nonetheless!

At the end of Nightshade Calla made the choice to rescue Shay leaving Ren to create a diversion, giving them time to escape. However since then things have changed. The Searchers found Calla and Shay and have now promised to rescue the rest of the pack.

In Wolfsbane both these lead characters annoyed me immensely. Shay, who I wanted to like, came over as caveman Alpha whenever Calla was concerned. Whenever a discussion was being had, Shay would jump in unnecessarily to protect her. Lets remember that Calla is a seasoned wolf, a warrior and an Alpha herself. I understand that Shay is new to the idea of a wolf pack, he's known as a lone wolf, but I just wanted him to cool it a little and stop trying to defend her the whole time.

So to Calla. First she likes Shay, then she's wants Ren, then she's back to Shay, then she's thinking about Ren...the whole mental picture got exhausting. Calla is an extremely brilliant character, I loved her in Nightshade, I understand that love triangles are all the rage, and that she's a wolf underneath her own skin, but did the author have to give the impression that she was constantly on heat! For both boys! Ren features very little in this book, something I was glad for, but this isn't going to bode well for the next installment, Bloodrose.

The Searchers were an interesting concept and gave something different to the story.. They're the good guys who know their weapons and history, more than the Guardians do. I liked that they wanted to help the Guardians and was cheering as they retrieved them from the holding cells. Monroe was a true hero and a great character. The other Searchers? I liked Adne but the rest blended into the pages. The constant bickering and chit-chat got boring and annoying too. I skipped a few pages just to get to the action.

Overall, I still liked the story and must admit that this is one of the best wolf series I've read in a while. I hope Bloodrose meets my expectations now that I know the full history. All in all, its the middle book and met my middle book standards of great but not as good as the first.

Book1, Nightshade Review

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Waiting on Wednesday (#4) by Bookworm Blogger - Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

THIS WEEK:

  
Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

Out 8th May

The blurb from Goodreads:
Mia Price is a lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her. Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction.

But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.

Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.

My View: I love a good disaster book but this one sounds a little different. A lightning addict for one with warring sides, a love interest and a crumbling wasteland - what more could you ask!!

This one I can't wait for!

Expected publication:  May 8th 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR

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Dusty Reads #3 - Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Dusty Reads is a weekly meme hosted by Giselle at Xpresso Reads where we spotlight a book sitting in our TBR pile.

~

This week:

This has been in my Dusty Reads pile forever! Mainly because of the subject of wolves. I went through a phase of reading so many werewolf books I just didn't want to pick another one up!

But I finally read it and finished it today, and I'm so pleased I did. I loved the simplified unit of wolf packs in this story. It isn't all about packs reading each others minds or snarling and growling between pack members. There is a sense of unity as the two main packs merge to become the new unique pack. The Banes and the Nightshades become the Haldis pack.

I felt a little bit sorry for Ren at times, other times I think he deserved it. Calla was a great female lead although again at times I just wanted to scream at her about the way Ren treated her. He was all over the women at the first few chapters in this book, and Calla let it go. But then he got the hump when Calla paid any attention to Shay. 

Shay was an intriging character who showed a lot of courage right up until the end. I'm still amazed that in about a ten minute timeframe he turned into a wolf for the first time and was completely unphased by it. Even changed back and forth into human fom with no trouble at all. I thought the process was supposed to hurt considering bones get longer and shorter etc.

All in all the story is amazing and well thought out. I can't wait to read Wolfsbane and Bloodrose now! 

~

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Review: The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle

The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Synopsis:
Anyone who's had something truly crappy happen to them will tell you: It's all about Before and After. What I'm talking about here is the "ka-pow," shake-you-to-your-core-and-turn-your-bones-to-plastic kind of crappy.

Sixteen-year-old Laurel's world changes instantly when her parents and brother are killed in a terrible car accident. Behind the wheel is the father of her bad-boy neighbor, David Kaufman, whose mother is also killed. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Laurel navigates a new reality in which she and her best friend grow apart, boys may or may not be approaching her out of pity, overpowering memories lurk everywhere, and Mr. Kaufman is comatose but still very much alive. Through it all there is David, who swoops in and out of Laurel's life and to whom she finds herself attracted against her better judgment. She will forever be connected to him by their mutual loss--a connection that will change them both in unexpected ways.

Review:

I'm not a big fan of YA contemporary books. Mostly I think of sixteen/seventeen year old girls yarning about prom and what shoes to wear with hot guys causing awkward situations that get filled into 250 pages of wasted reading time.

But this one blew me away. Most probably because of the dark subject of death and how a teenager deals with it. Laurel Meisner and David Kaufmann were childhood friends then one day they stopped talking, they grew away from each other and had different friends, as teens do. But their parents remain friends and join together for seder. Laurel feels completely awkward and makes an excuse to leave the meal early, and David does the same. Him and Laurel barely spoke apart from awkward acknowledgments of each other. David wanted to annoy his father by leaving early knowing it would cause a scene. The rest of the families decide to drive and have ice cream when the terrible tragedy happens.

Suddenly Laurel is no longer the daughter and sister in a loving family. Suddenly she's alone in the world. But so is David. His mother died also and his father remains in a coma. The police eventually surmise that his father was over the limit drinkwise to drive, and that fact has a huge part to play in the rest of the story.

Laurels grandmother moves in and takes over as legal guardian and steers her through the next hours, days, weeks, and months. But Nana also lost her son, daughter-in-law and grandson in the accident so, like two magnets bouncing around each other, they make it through the times ahead.

David on the other hand internally implodes. Such raw emotion can only come from a guy who now has no back up family to take care of him and a father who is outright blamed for killing 4 other people. Its no wonder he reacts they way he does.

This isn't an adventure story with lots of action and racing heartbeats. This is almost like a diary written by Laurel of how she copes with her life. After. That includes her loss, her grief, her pain, her ability to push painful moments behind a wall until she's ready to cope with them, and also about how she finds her way out of the maze one day at a time. And that includes, after a heart-wrenching prom party incident with David (upsetting words were said on both side), the realisation that she needs help finally to learn how to cope with all of her emotions that have managed to bottle themselves inside with no exit or easy way out.

Laurel figures out soon that everyone is treating her differently. The looks she receives, the pity conversations she has friends, the almost-too-good-to-be-true prom invite, the popular girls being nice. Even her best friend avoids certain discussions which leads to complications with their own relationship. Soon not enough is being said even though its intended, and the cracks start to show.

But the one person she CAN talk to, and she knows will be honest with her is David. She's afraid, terrified even, and even though she knows about his father she still understands what he's going through and offers the olive branch.

Parts of this story actually had me crying. Other parts made me understand more what it must be like to feel such raw emotion and grief. And I absolutely understood why Laurel made certain decisions like going to prom, meeting David, and visiting his father in hospital.

I've been reading a steady stream of paranormal romances lately and I decided to read this for a bit of normality/real world story telling. But it was absolutely so much more than that. A must read. Grab a tissue while you do.

~

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Review: Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis:

Life as the Preliator is harder than Ellie ever imagined.

Balancing real life with the responsibility of being Heaven’s warrior is a challenge for Ellie. Her relationship with Will has become all business, though they both long for each other. And now that the secret of who she really is has come out, so have Hell’s strongest reapers. Grown bold and more vicious, the demonic threaten her in the light of day and stalk her in the night.

She’s been warned.

Cadan, a demonic reaper, comes to her with information about Bastian’s new plan to destroy Ellie’s soul and use an ancient relic to wake all the souls of the damned and unleash them upon humanity. As she fights to stay ahead of Bastian’s schemes , the revelations about those closest to her awaken a dark power within Ellie that threatens to destroy everything—including herself.

She’ll be betrayed.

Treachery comes even from those whom she loves, and Ellie is broken by the deaths of those who stood beside her in this Heavenly war. Still, she must find a way to save the world, herself, and her love for Will. If she fails, there will be hell to pay.

Review:
The second in the Angelfire series, Wings of the Wicked is a non-stop action-packed adventure following on from Angelfire.

Ellie has worked through her mothers grounding (at the end of Book 1) and is now back into killing reapers with Will. The relationship is strained. They both love each other but Will is still haunted by Michael's warning that they must not be together. Ellie being Archangel Gabriel but in a human body, of course. This time they're joined by Marcus and Ava and join forces on the side of good to rid the earth of evil.

Cadan (Bastians minion) pops by with unusual sincerity and a penchant to do some kind of good, although Ellie is still unsure whether he is truly evil or not. She heeds his warnings. She's still attracted to him but mindful of his past.

Nathaniel proves to be a true guardian angel for Will, and with a small amount of help from Lauren, begins to help Ellie and Will heal their pain.

But nothing works out as planned.

Will discovers more about his family history and it isn't all good. Marcus starts a relationship with Ellie's BF Kate, Cadan has a difficult heart to heart with Ellie, and evil creeps up on Ellie frequently when she least expects it.

Now her enemy is two Vir, human-like reapers that want to take her alive. They have the Enshi and its time for the Awakening of whatever lies in the sarcophagus. All in all, nothing can give Ellie a break in this book. Deeper she goes into her memories of other lives as Gabriel and heartache is sure to follow her around.

Will is both her curse and her salvation in this book. He's never stopped loving Ellie but she discovers some truths about his past that are particularly painful. As for Cadan, I liked him in the other book but this one I thought he was brilliant. He stepped up when it was needed and proved his point.

And Ellie? She tries to retain her normal human self by immersing in school and friend activities, to remain normal as much as possible but it isn't always easy.

I loved how all the characters have grown in this book. The thin threads that combine their lives remain (somewhat loosely) tied. No matter what happens they are always, in most ways, there for one another.
This book is a lot less about reapers this time, and much more about the Angels--Fallen or otherwise. The intricate back history is more relevant now that ever before and if Ellie fails in her quests, the earth will become everyday Hell. No pressure!

But none of it is important when tragedy strikes. The ending is such a cliffhanger that you want to scream Nooooo!

The sequel to Angelfire should not be missed!

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Waiting on Wednesday (#3) by Bookworm Blogger

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout

This is this weeks edition! If you've read Daimon and Half-Blood you're probably itching (like me) to get your hands on the next installment.

Here's the blurb!

There is need. And then there is Fate...Being destined to become some kind of supernatural electrical outlet isn't exactly awesome--especially when Alexandria's "other half" is everywhere she goes. Seth's in her training room, outside her classes, and keeps showing up in her bedroom--so not cool. Their connection does have some benefits, like staving off her nightmares of the tragic showdown with her mother, but it has no effect on what Alex feels for the forbidden, pure-blooded Aiden. Or what he will do--and sacrifice--for her.

When daimons infiltrate the Covenants and attack students, the gods send furies--lesser gods determined to eradicate any threat to the Covenants and to the gods, and that includes the Apollyon... and Alex. And if that and hordes of aether-sucking monsters didn't blow bad enough, a mysterious threat seems willing to do anything to neutralize Seth, even if that means forcing Alex into servitude... or killing her.
When the gods are involved, some decisions can never, ever be undone.

It's going to be a tough call for Alex between the gorgeous Seth and equally studley Aiden. 

Expected publication: April 3rd 2012 by Spencer Hill Press 

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Review: Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis:
On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Renée Winters was still an ordinary girl. She spent her summers at the beach, had the perfect best friend, and had just started dating the cutest guy at school. No one she'd ever known had died. But all that changes when she finds her parents dead in the Redwood Forest, in what appears to be a strange double murder.

After the funeral Renée’s wealthy grandfather sends her to Gottfried Academy, a remote and mysterious boarding school in Maine, where she finds herself studying subjects like Philosophy, Latin, and the “Crude Sciences.”

It’s there that she meets Dante Berlin, a handsome and elusive boy to whom she feels inexplicably drawn. As they grow closer, unexplainable things begin to happen, but Renée can’t stop herself from falling in love. It’s only when she discovers a dark tragedy in Gottfried’s past that she begins to wonder if the Academy is everything it seems.

Little does she know, Dante is the one hiding a dangerous secret, one that has him fearing for her life.

Dead Beautiful is both a compelling romance and thought-provoking read, bringing shocking new meaning to life, death, love, and the nature of the soul.

Review:
Forbidden love, what a dangerous thing! I've literally just finished this which left me in a world of 'Nooooooooooo'. I can't believe the ending was so sad, I thought at least they'd be able to be together.

Rewind! So, this is a story about Renee, who lives a nice average life in California. She goes to school, hangs our with her friend Annie, and has two loving parents. But tragedy strikes and on the way home from a day by the sea she finds her parents car on the roadside. After a search she then finds her parents. Both dead, with gauze and coins around them.

Renee is taken in by her grandfather but not before she almost implodes with the shock and pain of her loss. The writing absolutely captures her want to remain in the minute or the hour and not move forward. She wants her parents back and everything to be normal again. But from that point on, nothing is ever normal again.

Her grandfather came over as a really creepy guy. Someone who, at sixteen, would make me certainly scared of. He tries to set rules and knock out the carefree-ness of her but to little effect. And then the final blow. He sends her to Gottfried Academy, in Maine, and tells her to wave her old life goodbye.

When Dante Berlin comes into the picture she feels an enlightening, a meeting of minds and a joining of hearts. Although no-one in the school really knows him, he is revered by all. The enigma. The one with no friends but the one everyone looks for. Eleanor, Renees new room-mate fills in the blanks, but it is Renees strong will and character that worms its way into Dante's heart.

Dante and Renee begin meeting and soon there are more questions than answers going on in her head. Why are his hands always cold? Why does she feel sometimes like he's reading her mind? Why will he not kiss her?

With a mixture of philosophy, history, the dead language of latin, and odd subjects like crude science and horticulture Renee begins to put the pieces together of how students have been dying from heart attacks. Exactly the same way her parents died. And the truth isn't at all what she expected.

This isn't a ghost story, or a story about Zombies. It's the space inbetween that makes Dead Beautiful such an amazing part of the Paranormal genre.

The next installment, Life Eternal, came out on 24th January and I'm going to bag me a copy right now!

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