Happy Halloween & Blessed Samhain!

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Have a Happy Halloween and a Blessed Samhain to those who celebrate it! My day will be full of Halloween music, trick or treating, a night full of scary movies, and some Samhain celebrations. 

(Happy Halloween image credit to http://www.4vf.net/4-truly-scary-facts-no-one-ever-told-you-about-halloween/ and Blessed Samhain credit to Lucid Source.)

Teaser Tuesdays {1}- Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton

"Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following • Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!"

"Something cold slithered up my spine. I was sitting in my car with the ghost of a guilty conscience." 

-p.85, Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton

Busy Week

This week may be a little weird for posting for me. I have my midterm this week, so I've been pretty busy trying to catch up on all the reading and what nots for it. Hopefully I can at least post a few times this week!

Feature & Follow (2)

Q: What writing device or trick most irritates you when reading a book? For example, if an author employs an omnipotent narrator that is sometimes considered bad form.

There are a few that really really irk me. When I'm reading a paranormal romance I'm not a fan of the whole instant falling in love thing, that bothers me beyond belief. Another issue I have is when an author switches from a first person narrative to third person in the middle of the darn book. I know it doesn't happen that often, but when it does it is very irritating. 

I have a lot more little things that bother me but this could go on forever.

Waiting On Wednesday (2)- 'Til The World Ends

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme brought to you by Breaking The Spine where we all get to share what books we can't wait to get our hands on!

This week's selection is; 

'Til The World Ends by 

Julie Kagawa, Ann Aguirre, and Karen Duvall

Release Date: January 29th, 2013

Publisher: Harlequin Luna

"Dawn of Eden by Julie Kagawa

Before The Immortal Rules, there was the Red Lung, a relentless virus determined to take out all in its path. For Kylie, the miracle of her survival is also her burden—as a doctor at one of the clinics for the infected, she is forced to witness endless suffering. What’s worse, strange things are happening to the remains of the dead, and by the time she befriends Ben Archer, she’s beginning to wonder if a global pandemic is the least of her problems...

Thistle & Thorne by Ann Aguirre

After a catastrophic spill turns the country into a vast chemical wasteland, those who could afford it retreated to fortresses, self-contained communities run by powerful corporations. But for Mari Thistle, life on the outside—in the Red Zone—is a constant struggle. To protect her family, Mari teams up with the mysterious Thorne Goodman. Together, they’ll face an evil plot in both the underworld of the Red Zone and the society inside the fortresses that could destroy those on the outside... for good.

Sun Storm by Karen Duvall

Sarah Daggot has been chasing storms since she was a child. But after the biggest solar flares in history nearly destroy the planet, she becomes a Kinetic, endowed by her exposure to extreme radiation with the power to sense coming storms—in the cosmos and beyond. And she’s not the only one. Sarah believes the Kinetics are destined to join forces and halt the final onslaught of the sun. She’ll vow to keep trying to convince the one missing link in their chain of defense, the enigmatic Ian Matthews, up until the world ends."- from Goodreads.com

I just finished reading The Immortal Ends by Julie Kagawa and I loved it! You can check out my review here. I can't wait for the prelude to it, and the other authors of this book are amazing too!

Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Book Synopsis:

"In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity."Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of "them." The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked--and given the ultimate choice. Die...or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend--a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what--and who--is worth dying for."- from Goodreads.com

Rating:

5 Inky Black Hearts out of 5!!

I Loved It!

What I Thought:

This was way better than I ever expected it to be! Most YA vampire books just don't really speak to me, they're all like Twilight in my opinion. Not that there's anything really wrong with Twilight, I just really get annoyed with shiny vampires after a while. This book took me back to the days of reading about vampires that kick ass and are not nice. I appreciate that. 

The setting of this book is in a dystopian world ruled by vampires. A horrible disease broke out 60 years in the past, called The Red Lung, and killed off quite a bit of Earth's population. In an attempt to cure the disease scientists accidentally created a creature called the Rabid. It's kind of like a zombie, but not really, though it is a dead reanimated human that wants to tear your face off. I have to admit the past few night after reading these books I've been a bit paranoid about seeing these things in real life outside at night. 

Yeah the book got to me that much. This doesn't happen often. There was a definite creepy factor here which is awesome.

Character Summaries:

Allie: Hardcore, strong, beautiful, defiant, passionate, caring. I loved this character. Any katana wielding girl vampire wins in my mind.

Stick: I wouldn't even mention him, but I have to, because I've never HATED a character so much in my life. I literally wanted to reach into the pages and reamed his scrawny little neck for being such a parasitic little idiot.

Kanin: I love Kanin, he's got that vampire nonchalant quality to him. But deep down you can tell he cares about people, and that he has some kind of passion. 

Zeke: It took me a bit to like this guy. He's a bit naive in his beliefs, but damn his he handsome. 

Ruth: Want. To. Stab. Her. That is all. Though props for what she does to save her brother. 

Jeb: Reminds me of the other cult leaders of the world, but in the end I liked him. 

Caleb: Such an adorable little boy. I just want to scoop him up and squeeze him. 

Now on to the actual story itself. Allie is a Fringer, she lives with other Fringers who are Unregistered. This means that they don't really 'exist' in their society, they refuse to fall under vampire rule. They still live in the city, but they are not very welcomed and have to scavenge for their supplies. Allie has a very strong personality and she's a strong willed girl when it comes down to it. She can defend herself, takes care of herself, and has survived this long without the help of others. 

On the day that she decides to lead her group out into the Ruins to find the food storage she previously ran into, her whole world is just ripped apart. Turning into a vampire, the very things she loathes  was not in the plans. It's very interesting to see how she struggles with being a vampire, yet trying to maintain some sort of humanity. The inner struggle she has with her Hunger is probably one of the most interesting parts of this book.

I have to mention Kanin here, even though he isn't present during a lot of the book. I love the whole fatherly vampire character. You can just tell that deep down in there somewhere Kanin really does care about Allie. I also had a slight little fictional character crush going on with him. I really hope the next book has a lot more Kanin in it!

When Allie has to take off on her own she runs into a group of humans looking for this place called Eden. At first I was a little irritated with the religious references, but I quickly got over that. There are far too many interesting points made about the beliefs these humans have, and what Eden really is. It's very interesting to me from a religious studies type of standpoint. 

I really loved the group dynamic of the humans that Allie travels with. The development of the characters is so well done it just adds to the surreal feeling I got while reading this book. Julie's writing style is perfect in my opinion  it wasn't too overly descriptive but just right. The story was face paced to me, though others have complained about the length and how hard it was for them to get into it. I never had this problem, the story sucked me in. Maybe that's because I'm used to reading really long books, I'm not sure.

I give this book 5 inky black hearts! I loved it, and I can not keep my mind out of the world that Julie created! I keep seeing Rabids coming at me in my dreams. Ugh. 

Seriously though, you want a good vampire book? Go out and read this!

Where To Buy It:

Amazon.com ~ Barnes & Noble ~ The Book Depository

Cover Alert: Affliction by Laurell K. Hamilton

Cover Alert!

Affliction by Laurell K. Hamilton

The cover for Affliction was just revealed on Laurell's facebook page! The link to it on her website stopped working almost immediately, I think everyone crashed the server trying to look at it!

Book Synopsis:

"Micah is called back home by his estranged family, because his father, a county sheriff, has been attacked and is terribly injured. Anita and Nathaniel are going with him for moral support and to meet his family under very trying circumstances." -from Goodreads.com

Hot Off The Presses: Week of 10/22

Hot Off The Presses

Hot Off The Presses is a weekly feature that I'll be doing where I showcase some of the books releases of the week! 

(I should have an awesome graphic for this feature made up by next week!)

 

 

 

Finale (Hush, Hush #4) by Becca Fitzpatrick

Beautiful Redemption (Caster Chronicles #4) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Destiny Rising (The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters #3) by L.J. Smith

The Lost Prince (The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten #1) by Julie Kagawa

The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #2) by Michelle Hodkin

Review: One Hundred and One Nights by Benjamin Buchholz

One Hundred and One Nights by Benjamin Buchholz

Book Synopsis:

"After 13 years in America, Abu Saheeh has returned to his native Iraq, a nation transformed by the American military presence. Alone in a new city, he has exactly what he wants: freedom from his past. Then he meets Layla, a whimsical fourteen-year-old girl who enchants him with her love of American pop culture. Enchanted by Layla's stories and her company, Abu Saheeh settles into the city's rhythm and begins rebuilding his life. But two sudden developments--his alliance with a powerful merchant and his employment of a hot-headed young assistant--reawaken painful memories, and not even Layla may be able to save Abu Saheeh from careening out of control and endangering all around them. 

A breathtaking tale of friendship, love, and betrayal, One Hundred and One Nights is an unforgettable novel about the struggle for salvation and the power of family." -from Goodreads.com

Rating:

Great Read!

What I Thought:

I want to first start off by saying a few things about this book. First of all, it is not what I expected- at all. Second, there are so many little parts that give away secrets to the main plot that I don't want to go into a ton of detail. The story itself seemed like it was going to be one of those long, drawn out, never-gets-to-the-point kind of stories. I was happily mistaken by this idea!

One Hundred and One Nights starts off slow, but the pace really does pick up quite quickly. Abu Saheeh returns to a small town in Iraq after over a decade of living in America. There are obvious parts of his American life that he just can not leave behind, even though he tries his best to become a simple mobile phone salesman in Safwan, Iraq. Everything from his American life suddenly comes back though when he meets a girl, Layla. 

Layla is a street rat, but she has taken an interest in our mobile phone salesman and visits him nightly. She talks of American things; songs of aliens, dancing like Brittany Spears, and other ideas that would be considered vulgar in her culture. Abu Saheeh takes a very dear liking to this girl and she not only becomes important to him emotionally, but mentally as well. 

Through out the book Abu Saheeh's life as an American is shown through flashbacks at the ends of the chapters. It is very interesting to see how his present day life is related to these flashbacks. About halfway through the book you start to understand a bit more about what exactly is going on plot wise. Some of the twists and turns in the plot were very unexpected, but very welcome! 

I loved this book even though I thought it was going to be slow moving. Once the pace picked up I just couldn't stop reading it. The characters were so well developed I actually was having dreams with them! 

Buchholz did a great job showing us war in Iraq from a different perspective than what we see on the news. He really tapped into the viewpoints of the Iraqi people and showed a side to their life that is never really discussed.

Where to Buy:

Barnes & Noble

I'm Doing NaNo!

I just signed up for National Novel Writing Month, I was going to do it last year and never did. I have wanted to write a novel for forever and a day now, and have so many stories that need to be told!

It will be interesting to see how well I do though. I have school that is my main focus, and I have my son to take care of. I'm also debating on finding a part time job at night. So we'll just have to see how it goes!

Will you be taking part in NaNo this year?

Friday Feature & Follow (1)

Feature & Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read. This is a great way to meet other books bloggers!

Q: When you step out of your USUAL genre what do you like to read? Best books in that genre?

I have a wide range on what my 'normal' genre is, I read a lot of different genres. Most though are always somehow related to paranormal usually, so we'll just go with that. If I step outside of paranormal or dystopian themed books then it's usually into the fantasy genre. I really enjoy books like the Sevenwaters Trilogy and anything by George R.R. Martin if I step into that territory. 

From The Review Pile: The Immortal Rules (1)

From the Review Pile is a weekly meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday. The aim of this meme is to highlight a book that you've received for review but just haven't gotten around to yet. 

I have a huge list of books that need to be read and reviewed! I guess that's what happens when you take a break from blogging for six months. 

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

""In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity."Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of "them." The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked--and given the ultimate choice. Die...or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend--a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what--and who--is worth dying for." -from Goodreads.com

Waiting On Wednesday #1- Reached

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme brought to you by Breaking The Spine where we all get to share what books we can't wait to get our hands on!

This week's selection is;

Reached by Ally Condie

Author: Ally Condie

Release Date: November 13, 2012

Publisher: Dutton Children's Books

"After leaving Society and desperately searching for the Rising--and each other--Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again: Cassia has been assigned to work for the Rising from within Society, while Ky has been stationed outside its borders. But nothing is as predicted, and all too soon the veil lifts and things shift once again. 

In this gripping conclusion to the #1 "New York Times" bestselling Matched Trilogy, Cassia will reconcile the difficulties of challenging a life too confining, seeking a freedom she never dreamed possible, and honoring a love she cannot live without" -from Goodreads.com

I loved the first book in this series and am waiting for a copy of the second from the library! I can't wait to get all three of these in one place, the covers are really appealing. 

Review: A Demon Made Me Do It by Penelope King

At first I really didn't think I was going to enjoy this book. It seemed like it was slow going and I just couldn't connect with the characters. After a good portion was read (probably 25%) I finally started to enjoy the story. There were just some issues with the characters that I couldn't get past; the names were just not typical teenager names and that bothered me.

I pushed past the names though, and I am so very glad that I did! Once the story got going I really enjoyed this book.

Liora is your typical teenager; she goes to high school, sits through dull classes, and has issues making friends. That all seems good and normal, except that is only her during the day. At night Liora turns into Lucky, a justice demon out for vengence.

When Liora was a little girl who two best friends were brutally murdered by the Amazea demons. Her soul was shattered into two; her human half rules the daytime and her demon half rules the night. At night Lucky hunts for the demons that split her soul and murdered her friends, although what she doesn't realize is that she isn't the only one...


There's a love triangle in this book, and I love me some love triangles! Lucky's best friend is named Bones, and he's an incubus/hellhound mix. The other man in the picture is the new kid in town, Kieron. The love triangle gets very interesting, but I can't go into too much detail because it will ruin it for you!


Overall I really did enjoy this book. I wouldn't say that it was something that I'm jumping up and down in my seat over though. I hope that in the next book, Fire with Fire, I can see a reason to get all giddy over the story.

Review: Blood Warrior by H.D. Gordon

I absolutely loved this book! This is probably one of my favorite reads in over a year. I may be going out on a limb here when I compare these two, but I honestly think this series is going to be better than Twilight. I loved the characters, the plot, the world they live in, and just about everything else about this book!

Alexa is your typical outcast 17 year old. She lives with her mother and sister, whom she cares about more than anything else in the world. Every day the two sisters are told to run to school by their mother, and they obey without really questioning. On top of all of the running, Alexa also has to train with her mother every day. This often results in her ending up with black eyes and other injuries.

There is a reason for all of this violence, training, and running though. Alexa has to defend herself and her family against the Lamia. Leaving her mother to save her sister has turned Alexa's world upside down, even more so because her sister has been hiding some very big secrets from her. She is the last of a race of Warriors and there are actual vampires and werewolves in the world.

Alexa and her sister are sent to find a place marked by latitude and longitude out in the middle of a forest. This place just happens to be a gigantic hidden city, full of a race of elite warrior vampires and werewolves. The people here regard Alexa as their savior, and now she feels like she has the biggest shoes ever to fill. There is something off about the new place they have come to live in, but she just doesn't see the reason for them to need to be saved. Until one day when she goes out for a run deep into the woods...

Along with the main story, there is a love triangle too! Alexa went to school with Jackson before all of the action happens, so they have been friends for a while. Jackson always has witty comments about how beautiful Alexa looks, and you can tell he has a thing for her. When they arrive in Two Rivers, Alexa meets Kayden who just happens to be an elite warrior vampire. She has an irresistible draw to him and finds him extremely attractive, but she struggles with feelings for Jackson as well.

I really did enjoy this book, and highly suggest it to anyone who loves YA paranormal stories. The book flowed nicely and the chapters were short enough to keep me going. H.D. Gordon's writing style is so personable it sucks you in and makes the characters seem real. I was having dreams about this book for the two nights that I had read late!

Review: Dreaming Awake by Gwen Hayes

Dreaming Awake is the sequel to Falling Under. In this installment Theia is brought back from Under by her friends; Amelia, and Donny. The psychic named Varnie helps with bringing her back, and he has a much more significant role in this book. Now that Theia is back in Serendipity Falls, things seem out of place and just don't feel right for her. She is really struggling with adjusting back to a 'normal life', and her father's lack of caring isn't helping her much.

Hayden was the one thing that kept her going, and now we see that their relationship could be deadly. There are a ton of twists and turns in this book, and it's a little hard to write a good review without giving away spoilers- so I'm being extra careful.

When the kids are Theia's school start acting sick she starts to think that something is going on. The darkness seems to be following her everywhere and it just seems to be getting worse. Little does she know, she will have to face a lot worse than darkness in her near future.

I loved this book, so much more than the first one. The characters go through a sort of 'coming of age' I guess you could say. They become more developed and each have their own strong personalities. The relationship and tension between Theia an Haden reaches new levels and it just makes you want to scream into the pages of this book.

The writing style is beautifully done, and very well developed. It was fluid and easy to read, but at the same time the vocabulary was there. I read this book in about a day once I really got going in it. I'm not sure if that is because it was just easy to read, or if I just got absorbed into the story. Either way, it was well worth my time!

I can't wait for the next book in this series, there are so many unanswered questions! I wasn't expecting it to end the way it did, and now I really want to know what happens next.

Review: A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton

Kelly Keaton knows how to keep a story going! This book picked up right where Darkness Becomes Her left off.

*If you haven't read the first book, Darkness Becomes Her, then this will contain spoilers!*

Ari is a teenage girl who grew up in the foster system. After a search for her mother at a hospital lead to her venturing into New 2 (formerly New Orleans before hurricanes hit), we find out teenage heroine attending the prestigious Presby school. Her school day is anything but normal; it's filled with a training session that causes her to break, and studying in a library that shouldn't exist.

After Athena stole two of the most important people Ari had in her life, she had to find a way to go after them. The Novem eventually conceded and allowed her to search their secret library for as much information as she could find on Athena and her temples. There is a ton of information there, and eventually she finds bits and pieces that may help on her search. No one knows about this library, unless they are a part of the Novem or apparently their children. And rightly so, because this library is hidden in plain sight and has a very interesting title that has been passed down through the centuries...

I'm not going to delve into much more here, I really don't want to ruin it for anyone. This book is so fast paced, I'm not sure that I want to share too much for fear of spoilers! I seriously could not put this book down, I read about 120 pages in two hours last night! Kelly Keaton does such a great job at helping us imagine the world that Ari is living in, and visualizing just what her emotions are doing to it.

I am happy to say that this is one YA novel that does not have a love triangle! There is a love interest between Ari and Sebastian, but that is it. To me this made it much more enjoyable because there wasn't all the drama involved with a triangle. Future gorgons don't need all that drama in their lives anyways, right?

There are some great battle scenes as well, and some of them are a bit gruesome. The high energy that came off of these scenes just kept me going to find out what would happen next! Kelly Keaton is a mastermind at mixing in fantasy with mythology, and still making it believable and believable!

I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves Greek mythology and a bittersweet love story!

Review: Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

When the hurricanes came through and hit New Orleans it left nothing; just a desolate national disaster with thousands and thousands of misplaced people. In Kelly Keaton's, Darkness Becomes Her, New Orleans becomes known as New 2 after the hurricanes and is rumored to be the hub of paranormal activity in the United States.

New 2 is it's own city, and not even really considered part of the United States. Since the hurricanes hit a group called the Novem bought New Orleans and started to rebuild it themselves. People outside of the Rim usually only visit New 2 for Mardi Gras and ghost hunting adventures. Much unlike Ari who is on the hunt for information on her parents, which has brought her to this broken down city.

Ari has always been the outcasted type of girl. She grew up in the foster care system and never really had a family to call her own. Her hair and eyes have pretty much branded her as a weirdo in normal society. Silver hair and teal colored eyes are just not something you see every day.

I really do like Ari though, she has a very complex past and a tougher than nails personality. Her personality develops pretty well through out the book, but I think it will get even better in the next one. Besides her, all of the other characters were very imaginative and individual. I felt like I could actually see the characters and their manuerisms, which I really enjoy when I'm reading.

The world of New 2 is very intense, and as it should be after a barrage of hurricanes hit it. Kelly Keaton does a really great job at being descriptive with the world she has made. There are tons of broken down, rotting, and decaying homes and abandonned buildings that I think were described very well. The realness of this world is not really hard to imagine, we did all see how this could be after hurricane Katrina hit.

In regards to Kelly Keaton's writing style and flow of the book, I absolutlet loved it! The story just kept flowing and I did not want to put this book down, in fact I stayed up pretty late for two nights there! (I means like...1 almost 2 in the morning late, and if you're a mom of a small one you know that is really late!) I just loved the way she spoke through the characters, I could just imagine myself right in their world with them. I think I could probably get lost in this series if I'm not careful!

The mythology side of this book was very interesting to me as well. Anything that involves Greek gods and paranormal monster is for sure my cup of tea. I am very happy with the direction that this book went and am very excited to start on the ARC of book two, A Beautiful Evil!

Review: Finding Alice by Andrea Digiglio

Alice has grown up in the system living in foster home after foster home. Each family was different and each caused her to learn about the harsh realities of the world. Abuse runs rampant in her past, and when she finally finds a home where she feels loved her foster parent's end up pregnant with their own child. She sees the love for this unborn child and knows she can never stand up to it and decides to take off.

Fast forward a bit and we find our heroine living on her own and settling down in a town she is now considering home. This town is of all places; Hell, Michigan. She has a house all her own, even though it might be a bit creepy, it's still her's. And, Alice even has a great job at a bar that she loves.

Classes have started and she begins going to them like a good student does. Everything seems fine and normal until the first day of her religion class where this mysterious boy walks in. Her whole life changes from here on out, and reality itself is shaken.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and can't wait until the next one is out! The story kept me intrigued the whole time, and kept me guessing. I love books that are about fallen angels, demons, or anything like that. So, this was right up my alley! There was plenty of fallen angels to be had, and this made me a very happy bookaholic.

Andrea does a great job at developing her characters, especially Alice's character. Alice is a very strong, independent, and well developed character. I could have been a bit happier if Cole and a few of the other lead characters were better developed. I feel like they were a bit shadowed and thrown into the background, but maybe the next books will make up for that.

The plot line was great, and very suspenseful. I could not put the book down once it took off because it was so fast paced! I love that about this book, and I hope that Andrea can keep up this same speed with the next one.

I am also a huge fan of the religious ideas and the take on fallen angels in this book. It's good to see a different perspective on the mythology behind this, and they way that Andrea made her readers connect with the fallen angels is just spectacular.

This is a great read for the fallen angel, nephilim fan out there and I highly recommend it! After all, how many books are based around a city called Hell (that actually exists)?

Review: Farsighted by Emily Chand

Farsighted is a very different take on what being a blind teenager is like. Alex has been blind since birth, so he's never known how it feels to see. Because of this, his other senses are heightened and he sees through smell. He even mentions at one point that he likes the way the color green looks because it smells really good. 

His heightened sense are not of the normal variety though, he sometimes can even see the future with his second sight. This second sight is brought to his attention by his new next door neighbor, Miss Teak. Alex's mother owns a florist shop and Miss Teak now owns the new psychic shop next door. With her help Alex learns to use his new abilities to help save his new- and probably first- friend and huge crush, Simmi.

Farsighted is Emlyn Chand's debut YA novel.

Chand has done a wonderful job at taking on the task of writing from the perspective of a blind teenager. I giver he big props for this one, because if you aren't blind it's extremely difficult to know what a blind person goes through. She tries her best to explain his life, and even leaves out physical descriptions of the characters that Alex encounters.

For example when Alex talks about how beautiful Simmi is, he mentions her smell and her voice. We never hear about what she actually looks like, but we know that she smells like almonds and is from India with an accent.

I really did appreciate Alex as the protagonist in this novel. For some reason though, I just couldn't really get into it. Maybe this type of YA just isn't my thing, I'm not sure what it is. That is really the only reason why I gave Farsighted three black hearts out of five. For anyone who likes all sorts of YA this book is probably more like a four or five star for you!

The only other big issues I had with the novel was that it's speed was pretty slow in the first half. The second half of the book really picked up, and it took off pretty well from there. As I previously mentioned, it is written in first person. I can tell you from experience that writing in first person is not always easy, and this might be why it took a little while for me to really get into the story.

If you like YA with a paranormal twist that's written in a first person perspective I do suggest this book!

Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games gives us a very interesting glimpse into another world that could one day become our own. It is a dystopian Young Adult novel written in first person. Katniss, our heroine and narrator, dreads the Reaping every year. Living in the Seam all her life, she knows what hunger is and how horrible it can be to go without food. She breaks the rules though and hunts outside of the fence with her friend Gale. Both Kantiss and Gale have more than the required entry put into the Reaping every year because they need to get the food that extra entries give them. Their families depend on them to do so.

This is the first Reaping that Katniss' younger sister, Prim, has to take a part in. At the age of twelve you get one entry into the Reaping to be chosen for the Hunger Games. There are twelve districts on Panem that take part in these games, each has two tributes- a male and female. When you turn twelve it is the first year that you have a mandatory entry into the Reaping, but you can also opt for extra entries for grain and oil to last you for the year.

The worst thing in the world happens though at this year's Reaping ceremony. Prim has been chosen randomly out of the thousands of entries. Katniss obviously does not want this at all, so she volunteers herself and pushes Prim out of the way. Our other tribute, Peeta, has been chosen as well. And here we start the journey into the Hunger Games itself...

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't think I was going to enjoy it as much as I did. Dystopian novels are really becoming very popular, and because of that a lot of ideas are not as original. Although, don't get me wrong here, I love a good dystopian novel. Thankfully The Hunger Games was one, it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! I was more than sucked into this book, and did not want to put it down for one second!

The idea of taking two children from twelve different districts and pitting them against each other to the death was disturbing, but oddly fascinating at the same time. Collins does a great job at letting us look into the life of Katniss and we really get to figure out what she's all about. She is a very honorable and strong heroine, which I appreciate. I love strong women in my books, and it just makes this read even better!

There were many characters in this book that I fell in love with. I love Katniss for one, mostly because she's bad-ass. I also really loved Rue, she was so small and faerie like! Out of the boy tributes I really did enjoy Peeta, even though he was clueless with quite a few things.

Collins paints a very vivid environment that the tributes have to survive in. The animals that were made by the government in this book are very imaginative but also realistic. The mockingjay for instance, I could totally see that. Take a bird that sings really well, and mutate it so that it picks up on human words and songs. There you go, you have your very own spy!

Overall this book was very interesting, and I loved it! I can't wait to see the movie, and I also can't wait for my copy of Catching Fire to show up so I can continue the trilogy!

Update

I'll be uploading some of my old reviews today, so be prepared for a ton of posts!

I'm Back!

I am taking a very cautious step back into the world of book blogging. I already have a huge list of reviews to do, and a huge list of books that need reviewed! I am super busy with classes, my son, and my health though. We'll just see how it goes! I've missed the world of book blogging and interacting with all of you!