Ireland

Enjoyable

Exceptional (Volume 1) - Jess Petosa, Alexis Richter, Andrea Lynn

I really liked it. It was a quick read and enjoyable.

SPOILER ALERT!

It's the End of the World as We Know it.

Through Glass  - Rebecca Ethington

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I finished a couple of days about and am still mulling about how I really feel about it. 


When I finished it, I thought "I really liked it" but then I started to think about the story more and started to feel a bit disappointed.  The first 70%-ish of the book nothing happens. Ok, the Tar come and take over (it's still not really clear if it's just their state or if it's a worldwide thing, there is mention later on in a book how x country came and dropped a bomb to try and 'help' them). The rest of the time it's just her with her thoughts meeting at the window to talk to her bf. 

 

They have no food (other than what the Tar people leave them), no light, no tools, no electricity, no water, yet she and her bf somehow manage to teach themselves sign language to be able to communicate.

 

It's not until the near end of the book, after she escapes her home and starts the search for other people that you learn more about how long she's really been trapped in her house and what is really going on. I feel that a lot of the start of the book could have been condensed greatly and gotten into the real part of the story much sooner and made for a better plot.  

 

That said, my curiosity is peeked on what happens to her bf (who apparently was not 100% memorable because I can not for the life of me remember his name and I just read this book 2 days ago) and am hopeful things will pick up in book #2.

X-men meets Blah.

Impostor - Susanne Winnacker

The blurb for this book had me excited. It sounded like it could be a really good storyline. Sadly, it failed in that respect.

 

Tess is a variant, she had a special ability that allows her to take on the features and look like any human she touches.  She lives and trains with the DEA a special division with the FBI where other variants with other abilities also train.  Sounds promising right?

 

Instead of a story filled with excitement, intrigue and mystery, the first (almost) half of the book is all about her bemoaning the fact that Alec, a fellow variant does not want to kiss her or be with her. She spends most of the time wondering why he has not kissed her, how she can get him to be attracted to her and how much she dislikes his gf Kate, who of course is a not so nice person (they always seem to be right?).

 

It's not until midway through that she finally goes on her first "mission" where she takes on the identity of a girl that was murdered in a small town. Things start to get enjoyable, but then fall back on the tired story line of her questioning why she and Alec are not together.

 

As for Alec, he seems shallow and wishy washy. The author does not even try to make us believe he and Kate care for each other.  She instead spends the time show how attracted he is to Tessa but wait for it...just can't be with her because it's not right". At least I think that's why, the author, other than giving Alec a girlfriend, really does not give us any detail as to why they do not follow their feelings for each other and 'hook up'.  

 

The only shinning light in this otherwise flat story is Devon, the brother of the girl who was murdered.  I really liked him a lot and by the end of the book saw the foreshadowing of a love triangle in a future book between him, Tess and Alec. I'll have to wait and read other reviews though, as I have no desire or inclination to read more in this series.

Everneath - Brodi Ashton It started out a bit slow but gained momentum and by the end I really started to enjoy it. Looking forward to the next installment.
Break Away - Tatiana Vila First, let's just ignore all the grammar and typos errors in this book. I was a bit annoyed by them, but when I checked out Ms. Vila's blog, I discovered that English is not her first language, so taking that in to consideration, her translating from her native language to English was pretty good.When I first started this book, I thought I was going to give it 4 stars. The characters are well developed and story started out pretty good, but somewhere along the way, I started to ask myself "When is something going to happen? When is it going to start to get exciting?"The premise of the book is how suddenly in this small talk, kids/adults go to sleep and fall in to comas. No one can figure out what's wrong. Other than the small little fact that they won't wake up, they are perfectly fine. While it sounds interesting, I just felt it never quite 'got off the ground' and took off in a direction that got me really excited and interested.She did a good job near the end with world building and the tension/relationship between Dafne and Ian (her sister's boyfriend) but this book just fell short for me. There is a 2nd one in the series, and the ending has peaked my interest a bit to want to see where she goes with this, so I will likely pick up book 2 when it is released.
Surrender - Lee Nichols did not really enjoy the final book.
Click to Subscribe - L.M. Augustine First I will say that I'm not usually one for chick lit. I have to be in the right mood and even then I have trouble reading it and really do not enjoy it. But, I just read [b:The Avery Shaw Experiment|17660979|The Avery Shaw Experiment|Kelly Oram|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1363678578s/17660979.jpg|24651100], which I somewhat enjoyed and found humourous so I decided to give this one a shot.You know all those stories you read about a boy and a girl who have been best friends since they could walk? Then one of them suddenly discovers that they love the other? Well this is one of those books, except it's told from the Male POV. Way way too wordy. He rambles on and on and I found myself skimming a lot. I serious almost did not finish it, but decided to tough it out, bad decision.The characters are poorly developed, we never learn what caused West's dad to suddenly start drinking and become an asshole to him and his mom and on the same note it was rather un-resolved at the end between West and his dad's relationship. I just did not mesh.As for him and Cat, well the girl is the most patient I've ever seen. And her telling him she'd wait for him? ugh. yeah I do not know what else to say, definitely not a fan of this book.
The Avery Shaw Experiment - Kelly Oram Not a bad book. Avery is 'dumped' by her best friend since birth. She's heart broken and decides to use it as her science fair experiment "The 7? Stages of Grief". The characters were funny and the plot was thin, but I somehow managed to smile and enjoy the story.
Fracture - Megan Miranda Delaney and her friend Decker are walking across the Lake when she falls, the ice cracks, she falls in. She's dead for eleven minutes before they get her heart beating again. She spends 6 days in a coma before waking up and to the surprise of everyone, suffers no ill effects - no brain damage, no short/long term memory loss, motor skills & mobility are both fine. She's perfectly fine....except......she starts to sense when someone is about to die. The rest of the book takes the reader through an interesting persepective on death, euthanasia, and Delaney's struggles to reconcile her 'new' self with her old self.I felt the characters were well developed and liked the gradual attraction way the author slowly had Delaney and Decker accept/be open about their feelings. I'm interested in seeing where Miranda takes things with book two in the series. I hope it continues to explore the current character's relationships and Delaney's struggles with her ability since the accident. I read the blurb for it and it almost sounds like it will be a new cast of characters.
Tempus (Tempus, #1) - Tyra Lynn First I will say that this book had the potential to be amazing, however, due to several things, it just fell flat. I'm a bit surprised actually at all the rave reviews.First of all, grammar and spelling typos abounded. Including a few times where words were repeated ie. "they they went to the park". Secondly the over-use of Lynn using italics to emphasize words drove me nuts. It was not just here and there, it was pretty much every.single.time.someone.spoke. At lease once every other sentence there was stress on a word. I'm not dumb, I can read and understand when someone is using emphasis on a word when speaking. It really made me lose focus on the story, which in turn caused me to start to skim a bit.This book (yes I'm aware, more than aware actually that it is self published) could have really done with a good thorough editing. There was way too much word building when it came to Steve and Jessie's relationship or sorry the not a relationship as Jessie says numerous times that he is not her boyfriend.You are 36% in to the book before Gabriel makes an appearance and he comes off really stiff and almost awkward. And the more you read and what you later learn about him, it just does not sit well with me.In all honesty, the book did not really pick up and start to fall in to place until around 76%. Again, great concept, wonderful idea but the story itself needed a good pruning. There are other ways to draw the reader into a story and understand the chemistry between the characters without having to give so much background and be so wordy. Things also seemed a bit choppy to me as well and the characters were poorly developed. Yes I just said it was too wordy, but all the 'extra' background the reader gets does not help at all with the story itself or giving you much of a connection with the characters.Again, good concept, poorly executed.
Deception - Lee Nichols An interesting take on ghosts and how ppl see them. In this series they are called "Ghost Keepers" They can compel, dispel, summon and communicate with them. BUT not all GK's can do all 4, most can do only one and each GK varies in strength. Oh and to make things interesting, GK's can not be together, the weaker of the two will lose their powers. So my overall feeling on this book was that it was ok. I was not scared, nor was I really on the edge of my seat. Emma is a GK, a powerful one, whose parents had her powers 'suppressed' when at that age of 7, she was attacked by an evil "ghost". Fast forward to age 17, her parents/brother go missing, her brother's friend Bennett shows up to (with parents for the CPS stating he's her guardian in the event her parents go missing) and she moves to Boston where all the 'fun' begins.She slowly learns what she is, her powers increase and she stumbles her way through learning about her powers and keeping her GK role a secret from her friends, except the ones that are also ghost keepers. While I did not love the story, it did peek my interest enough that I will read the next book in the series.
Haze - Paula Weston Everything I loved about Shadows was in this book and more. Gaby is a still strong, her chemistry with Rafa is still building and the characters are further developing in a pleasing well thought out way. Very well written. I would dare to say this and Shadows are 2 of my favourite books of 2013. Love love love them both. I'm sadden that I have wait until 2014 for the next installment (and hopefully it comes out in North America the same time as AU, these are not available in NA yet, a friend loaned them to me). However if that means book 3 and 4 are as well written and as good as the first 2, it will be well worth the wait.
Shadows - Paula Weston I've read a lot of books about angels, the Fallen and Nephlim, so when I read one, I'm pretty much ready for the author to follow the same "rules" as the other authors before her have. In the case of Shadows, Weston has put a bit of a twist on things and I have to say I quite like it.First of all I love that Gabe/Gaby is strong, independent and while develops feelings for Rafa, they do not take center stage in the story, it focuses on the Fallen and their half angel offspring. She does not melt into Rafa and look at him to save her (ok there is some melting in to him, but not the oh rescue me brave knight kind of melting), even though she has no clue who she is or how to fight, she relies on herself to figure it out and do it.Rafa is stubborn, cocky(not overly so), strong and does not smother Gabe by telling her to stay put and that he'll "handle" it. In fact, he does the opposite, telling her she is a kick ass fighter and to get on with it.This first book of the series drew me in rather quickly and I had to force myself to turn the light out at 2am and go to sleep. I'm positive if it was not a week day I would have stayed up to finish it. I'm super curious as to where the story is going to lead and also want to learn more about Jude, who changed Gabe's/His memories, what they found out, IS Jude still alive? (I think he is)
Unearthly - Cynthia Hand meh it was ok...
The Prophet - Amanda Stevens I did not really love this book as much as I did the first two. Like her first two books, Stevens does keep you on the edge of your seat in some scenes, but I did not find this book as scary as book 2. In this one, she's back in Charleston and is helping a Ghost. Where as in book 2 we got a look at her family history, in this one, it reveals more about Devlin, his wife, child and the events surrounding her death.It was ok, but did not pull me in like the first 2 books in the series.
The Kingdom - Amanda Stevens I'm starting to wonder how Amelia can possibly support herself, she really seems to be spending more time being haunted and finding herself in the middle of murders vs being able to complete any graveyard restorations. Thank goodness for the popularity of her blog and the minor income it provides. ;)In all seriousness, I think I enjoyed this one more than the first. There was a lot more intrigue and a lot more spook/creepiness. Ms. Stevens still kept things subtle, letting your mind wander, but she went a step further in creating a much scarier story line then in book 1. I also really enjoyed learning about Amelia's past (birth mother, her family, the scandal etc). Like another reviewer, I did really feel the absence of Devlin. I really liked the small glimpse of his character we received in book one and enjoyed the chemistry between him and Amelia.He did make a few 'appearances' in this book in the way of Amelia's thoughts roaming/thinking about him. For some reason his email "Where are you?" and his text "I need you" sent shivers up my spine. I can't wait for his re-appearance in book 3.In this book her love interest was Thane Asher, and while he seemed nice enough I just never felt any real connection to him.

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