A Beautiful Dark Series Book #2: A Fractured Light by Jocelyn Davies

The one thing that you take away from this 337-paged book – even at the end of the first book – is that everything has changed. Seriously, you would have thought that would have been apparent in the last book, when Skye found out that she was the offspring of two warring faction angels, but no. This time everything has changed.

Skye has finally figured out that the Order – the supposed good guys – aren’t as good as they claim to be. Not since Devin, a member of the Order, was ordered to kill her. She somehow miraculously survived and now has to figure out how to deal with everything she knows now.

As much as I liked this book – seriously it was better than the first one – A Fractured Light still drove me crazy. It wasn’t until about halfway through the book that I started to wonder what exactly was the point? There weren’t any big plot heavy moments. No big battles between the Order and the Rebels, although the Guardians transferring into Skye’s school was sort of interesting. Asher and Skye’s relationship was cute, as was Cassie and Dan’s. I was really pissed off with Ian when he laid into Skye about liking Devin and Asher and not him. Where did he get off? She doesn’t like you like that, Ian, and that’s her decision. Yeah, she treated you like crap, but to expecting her to like you after all these years? Gah. It just wasn’t cool.

Except for finding out that Aunt Joe has known the whole time about Skye and her parents, and the last twenty pages where the finale gets set up big time, this book didn’t really advance the plot too much. I was sort of disappointed with that.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Better than the first book, but was mostly filler.

Bookshelf worthy? Support your local library!

Morganville Vampires Series Book #15: Daylighters by Rachel Caine

I’ve said it before on this blog and I’ll say it again. I don’t like final books in series. The whole wrap everything up, weepy characters, and sometimes – if the author is evil – death of beloved characters usually happens in final books and it drives me crazy because most of the time I have high expectations for how things should end. But for the last couple of final books I’ve started to change my mind, and Daylighters was no exception.

This book begins where Fall of Night left off, Michael and the other vamps are being hauled away, Eve, Claire and Shane are being hauled away too, but they’re giving more of a fight. Things have changed in Morganville and not for the better…sort of. All the vampires have been corralled together at the old mall – Morganville had a mall? Who knew? – and they have shock collars around their necks to keep them in line. The head of the Daylighter Foundation – Fallon – has plans for the vampires, not that he reveals what they are for a few hundred pages. Turns out that his ultimate goal wasn’t to free Morganville residents from the reign of vampires, but to exact revenge on vampires for what they did to him many years ago. Or more specifically, Myrinn. Fallon used to be a priest who tried to cure Myrinn of his mental sickness, and for his trouble got bitten and turned. Somehow he got turned back to a human thanks to a mysterious cure. The only problem is that the cure doesn’t work about 73% of the time.

A lot of stuff happens in this book – Claire gets arrested for murder, Eve goes in for shock therapy, Shane becomes a blood thirsty werewolf, Michael becomes human again, Oliver is actually a nice guy, etc. – so much so that you sort of forget that this was the final book in the series, until you reach the end and Caine’s playlist page. Like I said, the last couple of final books in series have really made me rethink my whole ‘endings suck’ philosophy. My only complaint about this book was the tie-up with Shane and Claire’s relationship. Marriage? Really? I mean, yeah, they’ve been through a lot and they survived it all, so marriage shouldn’t be a big deal, but whoa. That was kind of fast.

Final Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Lovely ending. Not a lot of carnage, surprisingly.

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic or support your local library!

The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz

I just finished this book and I honestly don’t know what to say about it. There were some parts of this book that were disgusting, but in a good way. There were some parts of this book that probably were not age appropriate for a YA label, but damn. Basically, if you like the court politics and history of Philippa Gregory’s novels, and the magic of The Seven Realms series this is definitely the book for you.

The Ring and the Crown is set in the early twentieth century in a reimagined Europe and Americas. Queen Eleanor of England and France has a daughter named Marie-Victoria who has been crippled by illness, but has been promised to Prince Leopold of Prussia in exchange for the war between the two countries to stop. The problem is Marie doesn’t love Leopold and after you get introduced to the character you kind of understand why. Leopold is kind of...nah, scratch that…is definitely an ass hat. His mistreatment of women is disgusting, even though Isabelle – a descendent of the French royal line before Eleanor took over – kind of deserves it (until near the end when you realize why she acts like she does). Marie loves Gill, a member of the Queen’s Guard who is assigned to protect her, and plans to run away with him with a little help from her friend Aelwyn – a member of the magic race, who’s father is the queen’s Merlin.

And just when you think you’ve got the cast of characters figured out, there are few more added into the mix. Leopold’s brother – Wolf, who is just amazing – and then a young woman from New York, Ronan who comes to England for the season looking for a husband to save her family from poverty.

So, the parts of this book that was disgusting had to deal with Isabelle’s family. Her cousin Hugh who takes care of her and her other cousin Louis when her family dies from the wasting plague is a total creep. When you first meet him he’s touching Isabelle and it isn’t revealed until near the end that he’s been visiting her nightly for years. Gross. And what do you mean Isabelle loves her cousin Louis? Uh…

My only complaint was that I wish there was more Aelwyn, other then that, talk about twists and turns galore!

Final Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Melissa de la Cruz has done it again and I can’t wait to see what the next book holds. Can it be released now, please? I need more Wolf in my life!

Bookshelf worthy? Just on the cover art and inner book design alone, definitely.     

The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes by Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dreyer, and Anne Stuart

If you liked Maybe This Time and Wild Ride by Jennifer Crusie, then you’re going to love this book. I liked it, even though there were a few parts where I was just like, are you kidding me?

So, this book centers on the three Fortune sisters – Dee, Lizzie, and Mare – who are witches. But that’s not all they are. It turns out that their parents were also magically gifted and cashed in on their gifts by hosting a television show. When their parents died, Dee took her sisters and went into hiding. She has the assumption that her aunt Xan killed her parents for their powers and is coming after Dee and her sisters for theirs. She’s right, and Xan will stop at nothing to get them. The problem is, she already knows where the sisters are, and she has been watching them for a while. She knows that they are close to giving up their powers anyway, they just need a push in the right direction. Hence, she casts a True Love spell that brings the sisters’ true loves to town. The catch is that these True Loves can’t stand magic and the only way the sisters can be with them is if they give up their powers. Easy, right?

Wrong. The problem with true love is that the guys fall for the sisters even though they know about the magic. So Xan has to improvise…

So, compared to the previous two novels I mentioned above, I liked this one better. It was easy to fall into the plot – it wasn’t as outrageous as demons haunting an amusement park – and the characters were likeable, except for Jude who actually turned out to not be a real person. Given the final battle scene between the sisters and their aunt was sort of ridiculous, but other than that this was a rather enjoyable read.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Rather enjoyable and those sex scenes were pretty intense.

Bookshelf worthy? Support your local library!

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

As I have previously stated with my reviews for Sarah Dessen books, I absolutely adore them – except for Dreamland and That Summer – but I feel like I need to amend that statement. Now, before you think ‘wait, does that mean she didn’t like this book, too?’ No. I loved this book, it’s just that The Truth About Forever and Just Listen have some minor plot lines that I am not too big of a fan of.

Macy is trying to be perfect. She has the perfect boyfriend, the mother who has high expectations of her daughter, and a summer job where if she’s not perfect they will eat her alive. But she isn’t perfect, no matter how hard she tries to be. Her cracks start showing the summer that Jason decides to go away to Brain Camp and gives her the responsibility to cover for him at his library information desk job. His other two co-workers hate her and don’t understand how Jason can be with a girl like her. After complaining in an e-mail to him (and signing it with I love you), he sends her one back that suggests that they take a break for the summer and see how things stand when he comes back. Not sure how to handle this, she goes for a drive and comes across the WISH catering truck that had been at her house earlier in the summer. She takes another job with them and starts an interesting summer…

Okay, so obviously I really hated Jason, he was just so controlling and I really don’t think he cared too much for Macy at all, he just believed that he did. Like when he does come back from Brain Camp and tries to get back together with her, he’s like ‘let’s make a list of what we want out of this relationship.’ A guy like that doesn’t need a relationship with a human being, he needs one with a robot. The character of Wes was just…there are actually no words to describe this amazing character. Especially the way that Macy and his friendship grew into something more. Perfection. Still, another YA book where the parent was annoying, although with this one I could somewhat see where she was coming from. She was a grieving parent, who had a business to run, and a daughter who she thought was trying to be perfect is sort of breaking out of her shell and she doesn’t know how to handle all of it at once. But still, I liked Deborah better after her meltdown than I did throughout the rest of the book.

So what’s the plot line that I’m having issues with? Macy’s dad’s death. Not the best book to read during Father’s Day weekend, and because I’m really close to my dad any book that has the dad dead kind of makes me cry.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Another perfect summer read by Dessen, just wish that the dad hadn’t been dead.

Bookshelf worthy? I finally read my copy after two years of having it on my shelf!

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Confession – I knew that there was a sequel to If I Stay before I actually read it, so in a way I already knew that she was going to live. However, what I didn’t expect was Where She Went actually was.

Three years is a long time, I know because I like using the number three (days, months, years) in my writing, but for Adam it’s an eternity. The man who narrates this novel is not the guy who you saw during If I Stay. Things have changed. His band has become huge. He’s fighting with the band. He’s smoking. He’s got anxiety issues. And what a lot of readers will probably find the most important change of all, he’s dating a woman named Bryn who is a famous actress.

Yeah, that’s right. Bryn. Not Mia, but Bryn. After getting through the twenty pages that make up the first chapter, I had to wonder: what the hell happened to Adam? Answer? Well, you have to read the rest of the book to figure it out.

Adam is stuck in New York, a layover day to take care of some last minute business (plus he hates to fly now, because of his anxiety) and he needs a break from everything. So he wanders the city and as usual, Fate intervenes, sending him past a concert hall where Mia is playing. He goes in and listens to her concert and afterwards she calls him back to meet with her; starting the longest night of his life.

I loved this book, possibly even more than the first one, which is probably really odd. The original is always supposed to get the most love, right? But this one…this one was amazing. I loved the fact that after the events in If I Stay there wasn’t a happy ending…at least not right away. I loved that Adam and Mia went through so much, it made it somehow sweeter when they did finally get together at the end of this book. Did it happen a little too quickly? Possibly, but after the lengthy conversation that they had that night and morning… Well, I’m not sure what else there was to say.

Final Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Another quick read. Another amazing book about pain and loss and how what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, even if you don’t realize it right away.

Bookshelf worthy? Support your local library.

The Mortal Instruments Series Book #6: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

Shockingly, it didn’t take me forever to start reading this book. Usually, when I purchase new releases, it takes me forever to get to them (or like in Scarlet and Cress’s case, I still have yet to read them). But this time around, Clare was next on my reading list once I finished the stack of books I had from the library. So, I’m warning you now, this review does contain spoilers – even though I tried to be vague with my updates on Goodreads – and I’ve split this review into parts based on the book. So you have been warned. Venture further at your own risk.

Part 1: Bring Forth a Fire

So this book begins with quite a prologue. Instead of going back to the usual setting for these books of the New York Institute, COHF starts at the Los Angeles Institute where we focus on Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn – Helen’s brother – and what appears to be a normal training day turns deadly. Sebastian and his army of Endarkened Shadowhunters attack the Institute, and the kids are sent running for safety as all the adults are either killed or Turned. Emma, while trying to rescue the young Blackthorns from the nursery stumbles upon the scene and tries to stop Sebastian from killing Julian’s brother Mark. She throws a knife that sticks into Sebastian’s heart, but he doesn’t die. Emma and the other children escape to Idris and I wish I could say that that is as intense as it gets during the first part…but this is Cassandra Clare we’re talking about and it is the final book in an epic series.

So, a quick summary of the first 365 pages: Jace is still dealing with the heavenly fire inside of his veins. Alec is still recovering from Magnus breaking up with him – although there is that one scene that sends a lot of mixed signals – Simon is dealing with Maureen’s crazy obsession with him, Isabelle finally blows up at her father for cheating on her mother, and everyone ends up back in Idris because of these attacks on the Institutes. While there, Sebastian tries to attack the London Institute, but they are warned, and he attacks the Praetor. Jordan dies in Maia’s arms. Sebastian turns out to be in league with the Seelie Queen, which includes their representative on the Council. A dinner is planned for the other Downworlders, and you know something bad is going to happen at it and it does. Magnus, Luke, Raphael, and Jocelyn are kidnapped and the only way they will be returned is if the Clave hands over Jace and Clary to Sebastian. The Council decides to hold a vote, but while they are discussing the two’s fate, they figure out where Sebastian is hiding.

Favorite part: When Brother Zachariah is returned to his human form. I was literally screaming. Now the events at the end of Clockwork Princess make sense!

Part 2: That World Inverted

Clary, Simon, Jace, Alec, and Isabelle go to the demon realm of Edom – Lilith’s domain – and as usual, they are very subtle upon their entrance and as they try to make their way to Sebastian’s hideout. Jace is attacked by a demon and lets out the heavenly fire. Clary finally figures out what the rune that she’s been seeing does. Isabelle almost dies. Alec and Simon bond.

Meanwhile, the Clave is preparing for battle. Emma figures out that there was something strange about the way her parents were murdered. Magnus, Raphael, and Luke are trying to figure out where they are, although Magnus does have a clue because his father – who turns out to be a demon prince – is trying to get him to call on him. Sebastian comes and offers Raphael the chance to join his side, the only thing he has to do is kill Magnus. Because the warlock saved his life before, Raphael returns the favor and spares him, at the cost of his own undead life.

The ending killed me, multiple times. Whether it was Clary and Jace’s plan to finally get rid of Sebastian, the revelation that Jonathon actually existed, or the deal that was made to get the group out of Edom I was just an absolute mess. I won’t even get into the epilogue because I’ll just start crying over my keyboard.

Favorite Quote: 

"Should I change my Facebook status from 'it's complicated' to 'in a relationship'?" 

"You have a book that's also a face?" 

Died at this.

So I’ll admit that this book, originally, scared the crap out of me. As I state, a lot, I am not a fan of endings, and from what I was hearing about the finale from Cassandra Clare, I was scared out of my mind that my favorite characters were going to die. But I should have known better, especially considering what she did in Clockwork Princess, I should have known that these characters were in good hands. This book was perfect, it finished the story while also not only tying in the previous series, but setting up for The Dark Artifices and The Last Hours as well. I can’t wait to read more.

Final Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. There’s a reason Clare is one of my favorite authors and the way that she ends series is definitely one of them.

Bookshelf worthy? Obviously.