Book Review: Unmarked

He is here . . . and he could be anyone.

Kennedy Waters lives in a world where vengeance spirits kill, ghosts keep secrets, and a demon walks among us–a demon she accidentally set free. 
Now Kennedy and the other Legion members–Alara, Priest, Lukas, and Jared–have to hunt him down. As they learn more about the history of the Legion and the Illuminati, Kennedy realizes that the greatest mystery of all does not belong to any secret order, but to her own family. With the clock ticking and the life of someone she loves hanging in the balance, Kennedy has to ask the question she fears most: what is it about her past that has left her Unmarked?  Quoted from Goodreads

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Happy Halloween!  I actually read this book at the beginning of October, but it was such a perfect, spooky book, I decided to save it for today. Warning, there are some spoilers for the first book, which you should also read if you haven't already.  What are you waiting for? This series has everything you could want in a book coming out this time of year. Ghosts. Demons.  Possession. Murder. Kidnapping. And Mystery. 

Andras, the demon freed at the end of the last book, is killing girls.  He's also possessing different people's bodies, so the Legion members never know what he looks like or where he is.  He's a delightfully creepy bad guy.  One of my favorite scenes is where he literally moves towards Kennedy, switching bodies every few steps.  Everything in the first book builds up to Andras, and he more than lives up to the hype. What can I say, I love my villains.

This book is fast paced, with plenty of action and twists. This round, we also get to learn more about Kennedy's background: her mother's secret past, the father who left her, and the aunt she never knew.  It's through Kennedy's connection to her family that we learn more about this world and the generation that came before.  We also get to see the Illuminati close up.

As for our heroes, a lot of different stuff goes down, but I love how they all pull together.  I particularly enjoyed learning a little bit more about Alara and Priest, though the real character growth goes to Kennedy and Jared.  As for Jared, he's a great love interest, and I adore where the author leaves the book, especially in regards to him.

So, should you read this book?  Yes.  Especially if you're in the mood for a spooky, paranormal series.  With enough twist and painful reveals to keep it interesting, this really is the perfect halloween book.  I'm giving it a haunting 4 stars, and eagerly await the third and final installment.

Meme Monday

Meme Monday

Book Review: Exquisite Captive

Forced to obey her master.
Compelled to help her enemy.
Determined to free herself. 

Nalia is a jinni of tremendous ancient power, the only survivor of a coup that killed nearly everyone she loved. Stuffed into a bottle and sold by a slave trader, she’s now in hiding on the dark caravan, the lucrative jinni slave trade between Arjinna and Earth, where jinn are forced to grant wishes and obey their human masters’ every command. She’d give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her to Malek, her handsome, cruel master, and his lavish Hollywood lifestyle.

Enter Raif, the enigmatic leader of Arjinna’s revolution and Nalia’s sworn enemy. He promises to free Nalia from her master so that she can return to her ravaged homeland and free her imprisoned brother—all for an unbearably high price. Nalia’s not sure she can trust him, but Raif’s her only hope of escape. With her enemies on the hunt, Earth has become more perilous than ever for Nalia. There’s just one catch: for Raif’s unbinding magic to work, Nalia must gain possession of her bottle…and convince the dangerously persuasive Malek that she truly loves him. Battling a dark past and harboring a terrible secret, Nalia soon realizes her freedom may come at a price too terrible to pay: but how far is she willing to go for it?
Inspired by Arabian Nights, EXQUISITE CAPTIVE brings to life a deliciously seductive world where a wish can be a curse and shadows are sometimes safer than the light.  Quoted from Goodreads

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This book suffered from high expectations.  I mean, have you read the above blurb!  It seems amazing.  Plus the cover is beautiful, and after a slew of mediocre books about jinni, I really thought this might be just what I've been looking for.  Unfortunately for me, it seems that jinni are going to face the same fate as mermaids and never get that one series that will really do the creatures justice.

It's not that this wasn't a fun, interesting book, because it was. It just failed to live up to my expectations.  The romance was far too insta-love for my taste, and the "love triangle" if you can call it that, was twisted rather than intriguing. I liked Raif as a character, and I totally approve of him as love interest, but he and Nalia fell for each other way too quickly, with too little relationship development before they were madly in love.  Plus, he was a jerk (possibly well deserved because of his upbringing, but a jerk all the same) to her in the beginning, and she got over that way to quickly.  As for Malek, I'm not exactly sure where the author is trying to go with that.  He's the bad-half of a love triangle.  If he's just one of the ways to show haw broken Nalia is, then he did his job, but if he's supposed to be a real side of the love triangle, I'll pass.

To counter this, the world building here is rather amazing.  I love all the back-story the author has built into it and the world where Nalia comes from, the different casts of jinni, racial prejudice, and social history.  The story has tons of potential, especially for books two and three.  The pace actually started a bit slow for me, but it built suspense nicely, and by the end, I was hooked. 

So should you read it?  Honestly, I'd probably wait until the second or third book comes out and then see how things are looking.  Like I said,  I absolutely love the world building and think that the story is going to get better and better.  I'd just, maybe, wait and see what happens.  I'm seeing a lot of potential here, and who knows, this may end up being one of my favorite trilogies. This first book was just weaker than I wanted it to be.  Still, I'm going to give it a promising 3.5 stars.  Maybe if my expectations had been lower, my rating would be higher.  Still, I'll absolutely be reading the second book. I'm excited to see where this series is headed.

Book Review: Unraveled

Autonomous. Independent. Dangerous. They tried to control her. Now she’ll destroy them.Things have changed behind the walls of the Coventry and new threats lurk in its twisted corridors. When Adelice returns to Arras, she quickly learns that something rotten has taken hold of the world and Cormac Patton needs her to help him reestablish order. However, peace comes at a terrible price. As the Guild manipulates the citizens of Arras, Adelice discovers that she’s not alone, and she must let go of her past to fight for mankind’s future. She will have to choose between an unimaginable alliance and a deadly war that could destroy everyone she loves.  Quoted from Goodreads

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So many mixed emotions about this ending, I hardly know where to start.  Plus, I have to be vague because I don't want to give things away.  Still, some things really need to be discussed.

Let's start with the end.  I have so many, many feelings about it. Part of me think it's actually perfect.  It's the sort of thing you need to read carefully (I cannot emphasize this enough), but there's a sort of movie-esque quality to the whole thing that I loved.  That being said, part of me hated it. I wanted more---as in some sort of explanation as to why certain people did what they did without telling another key person, this other key person's reaction, what happened next, and that sort of thing.  It also glossed over someone's death, which was sad because they didn't get the send-off they deserved. Basically I wanted more, more, more.   

I was also a little disappointed I didn't get to see the final show-down with a few key characters.  I get that it's from Adelice's POV and we couldn't really change that, but there were some people I really wanted to see taken down.  In fact, more than any other book, I felt restricted by sticking to the one POV. It's not that Adelice isn't in the center of the conflict, because she is, but there's a lot more stuff going on that she doesn't know about or get to see that would have added to the story.  Still, excellent book with tons of excitement.

This book was a little heavy on Cormac (granted he's our big bad, but I would have been happy with a little less his evil and a little more what the rebellion is doing to counteract the horrible thing's he's doing).  It was also a little light on Erik, Jost, and Dante. Minor spoiler here, but we don't even get to see them until the second half of the book.  The first half was still interesting, don't get me wrong, but I was missing some of my favorite characters and I kept waiting for them to show up. Now, to counter all this, we do get to see a bunch of people from the first book again, which really brings the story around full circle.

I really don't know what else to say without giving away spoilers.  The characters were great, and everything you've come to expect and love in the series is here. All in all, this is an excellent conclusion to a wonderful trilogy.  It's such a unique world, with such an interesting concept, you really should check it out. It's definitely got its sad moments (which all good books like this should have, especially ending a series) but there's hope, which is absolutely essential.  I'm giving it a strong 4 stars.  If you're looking for a unique dystopia read, you really should check this out.

Trailer Tuesday

I'm so excited for this book!  I've thoroughly enjoyed this series, and I can't wait to see how it ends.  Just two more weeks, but until then, check out the trailer below.

And here's a quick summary:

Ruby can't look back. Fractured by an unbearable loss, she and the kids who survived the government's attack on Los Angeles travel north to regroup. With them is a prisoner: Clancy Gray, son of the president, and one of the few people Ruby has encountered with abilities like hers. Only Ruby has any power over him, and just one slip could lead to Clancy wreaking havoc on their minds. 

They are armed only with a volatile secret: proof of a government conspiracy to cover up the real cause of IAAN, the disease that has killed most of America's children and left Ruby and others like her with powers the government will kill to keep contained. But internal strife may destroy their only chance to free the "rehabilitation camps" housing thousands of other Psi kids.
Meanwhile, reunited with Liam, the boy she would-and did-sacrifice everything for to keep alive, Ruby must face the painful repercussions of having tampered with his memories of her. She turns to Cole, his older brother, to provide the intense training she knows she will need to take down Gray and the government. But Cole has demons of his own, and one fatal mistake may be the spark that sets the world on fire.  Quoted from Goodreads

Meme Monday

Book Review: The Blood of Olympus

Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.

The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it "might" be able to stop a war between the two camps.

The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.   Quoted from Goodreads

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Loved it.

I was going to leave it at that.  I mean, if you've made it through the previous nine books, you have to be a fan of the series, but I'll be honest, I never would have thought I'd enjoy it as much as I have when I started reading the first book.  

This was the perfect ending to the series.  It's reminiscent of the first book, The Lost Hero, in that we get POV from Jason, Piper, and Leo (with Rayna and Nico thrown in, which made for a more complete story and a nice change).  It was an excellent way to end the series, but at the same time, that was probably my only complaint with the book.  I wanted to at least get a chapter or two from Percy's POV, maybe get a little bit of Annabeth thrown in there.  We still find out what happens to the characters, and see plenty of action with them, but we never get their POV specifically.  Granted, the arcs that Rick Riordan did choose to follow made sense and covered all the important parts of the story and what was happening.  It's just the selfish part of me that wanted a chapter or two from Percy.

As for action, this book, like all the others never lets up.  It's like Rick Riordan is trying to torture his readers.  Every chapter ends on a cliffhanger, and when he switches POVs, it's in the most inconvenient place ever.  There is always screaming or mortal peril involved.  Still, it keeps you turning pages, making the book next to impossible to put down.

As for the end?  I loved it.  It was perfect.  Really, besides my whole Percy rant, it was better than I could have expected.  I'm not going to go into details about who lives or dies and what happens after, but really, it was everything I wanted, and I'm perfectly satisfied with the way everything ended up.

If you're a fan of the series, pick up this book now.  It's got everything you might want in the story and wraps up the series nicely. I know I've been really vague about everything, but I don't want to give anything away. I'm giving The Blood of Olympus 4.5 amazing stars.  It's been a fun roller coaster ride and I'm sad to see it end.  Still, there's always his Norse mythology series that comes out next year . . .

Meme Monday

Anticipating October

Just look at this amazing list! Really, the list for October 7th alone trumps all of June. What can I say. I officially have to nominate October as possibly the best (and for sure at least quantity, and possibly even quality) month for book releases this year. Just check out the list below.

            7^th:  The Blood of Olympus – Rick Riordan

                   Unmarked – Kami Garcia

                   Black Ice – Becca Fitzpatrick

                   Unraveled – Gennifer Albin 

                    Stray – Elissa Sussman

                    Exquisite Captive – Heather Demetrios

                    Whatever Life Throws At You – JulieCross

                     Not in the Script – Amy Finnegan

                     Lailah – Nikki Kelly

                     The Young Elites – Maria Lu

                     The Body Electric – Beth Revis

                      Charming – Krystal Wade

                     Queen of Someday – Sherry D. Ficklin

                     Sweet Unrest – Lisa Maxwell

                     This Night so Dark (novella) – AmieKaufman

            14^th: Snow Like Ashes – Sara Raasch

                     Stitching Snow – R.C. Lewis

                     Chasing Power – Sarah Beth Durst

                     The Cure for Dreaming – Cat Winters

                      Trust Me, I’m Lying – Mary ElizabethSummer

                      My True Love Gave to Me:12 HolidayStories – 

                              Stephanie Perkins, Ally Carter,  +

            21^st:  The Sorcerer Heir – Cinda Williams Chima

                      Beware the Wild – Natalie C. Parker

                      Loop – Karen Akins

                      The Rogue Knight – Brandon Mull

            28^th: Talon – Julia Kagawa

         In the Afterlight – Alexandra Bracken

                     The Opal Crown – Jenny Lundquist 

                     Atlantia – Ally Condie

                      Blue Lily, Lily Blue – MaggieStiefvater

                      Compulsion – Martina Boone