Review: Crave by Melissa Darnell
From Hicklebee’s: Savannah Colbert has never known why she’s so hated by the kids of the Clann. Nor can she deny her instinct to get close to Clann golden boy Tristan Coleman. Especially when she recovers from a strange illness and the attraction becomes nearly irresistible. It’s as if he’s a magnet, pulling her gaze, her thoughts, even her dreams. Her family has warned her to have nothing to do with him, or any members of the Clann. But when Tristan is suddenly everywhere she goes, Savannah fears she’s destined to fail.
For years, Tristan has been forbidden to even speak to Savannah Colbert. Then Savannah disappears from school for a week and comes back…different, and suddenly he can’t stay away. Boys seem intoxicated just from looking at her. His own family becomes stricter than ever. And Tristan has to fight his own urge to protect her, to be near her no matter the consequences….
Crave added a unique twist to the legend of vampire and the witches vs. vampire feud. Savannah has always lived in her small Texas town, and ever since a faux childhood wedding to Tristan -which prompted his parents, and the parents of her two besties to cut off contact – she has been alone.
Savannah has always wondered what she did wrong, to make The Clann tell their children not to play with her anymore. As a teen Savannah has good friends and a great family structure. She is confident and all-in-all a great character.
Savannah and Tristan seem to be gravitating towards each other. This causes some bristling of The Clann and to Savannah’s surprise, her family as well. She and Tristan are constantly told to stay away from each other – its the best thing for everyone, but as the mystery unfolds the ‘why’ of the mandate comes to light and Savannah and Tristan take matters into their own hands.
Crave was sweet, and an interesting read. I finished it quickly and would read a second. Its not mind-blowy in any sense but a great romantic fated lovers tale and perfect for reading in colder weather.
Review: Isle of Night by Veronica Wolff
Book cover synopsis:Is life offering fewer and fewer options? Then join the dead. When Annelise goes off to college, it means good riddance to her abusive father and stepmother, but a bureaucratic screwup leaves her without a high school diploma, flat broke, and facing a future that seems more elusive than ever. Then she meets Ronan-tall, dark, and way too seductive for her own good. He promises Annelise a new life…if she has the courage to chance the unknown. One look at him, and she certainly has the desire. He offers her a lift, and, sure enough, accepting rides from strangers does yield surprises.
Whisked away to a mysterious island in the North Sea, Annelise is pitted against other female recruits in tests of skill, smarts, and strength. To win is to become a member of the Watchers, a unique elite partnership with the vampires that dispatches its teams on the most dangerous missions imaginable. It’s not exactly what Annelise had in mind for a new beginning, but it’s livelier than the alternative. Because on the Isle of Night, to lose a challenge doesn’t mean just dishonor. It means death.
Let the games begin.
To be quite honest I have no idea where to start on this book. From the description I had high hopes for liking it, but it fell flat in so many ways it was hard for me to look past the ways it didn’t live up to the synopsis.
Firstly Annelise who likes to be called Drew is supposed to be a genius. Like a real genius. That paired with the fact she come from an abusive family is why the vampires and their trackers picked her as a recruit, however in any class you see Drew in her knowledge is smart but not genius levels. The mathematics discussed in small detail were Sophmore AP at best. I know that being super-smart can translate into having no street smarts so to say but Drew is one of those heroines that seems to have no care for her safety, and knowing that she ran off to go to college without telling a soul its hard for me to believe that she is some kick ass fighter later on.
Its hard for me to believe that a girl who is super-king-kong-mega smart has no one. Sure, I understand she doesn’t have friends inside of her classrooms but shouldn’t there be a concerned teacher? Especially since she comes to school beaten by an abusive dad? It is extremely hard to believe that she spent all of her life never making not one single connection in her life. Hard to believe and very convenient for the author.
When Annelise gets to the college registers office she learns she didn’t actually graduate due to a swimming accreditation that the school enacted. Instead of asking to speak to her admissions counselor she just walks back out to her car that conveniently doesn’t start. So when a hot guy with a Proust tattoo offers to give her a ride she accepts. Oh, and I forgot, super hot guy can tell just by looking under her hood that its the carburetor.
In the car she asks him to take her to the coast, instead he takes her to an airfield where he uses his voodoo stare to get her on a plane bound for a tiny island in the middle of nowhere. On the plane sits two girls, one will become her nemesis.
In order to avoid spoilers I won’t go into greater detail, but suffice to say that once Drew gets on the island things in the book do not improve. She is continually telling me how smart she is while doing the most mind numbingly things. She tries hard and learns to fight and I give her that, but in reality I just don’t think that Drew is the kind of girl who can trade her book smarts that she keeps telling me she has into ninja star throwing kick assery.
If The Hunger Games, Lost, and Vampire Academy had a baby full of trope it would be this book. I wanted to try hard to look past all of the obvious plays on other series because I wanted to love the premise. For me it just didn’t work.
Have you read it and have the same or a different opinion?
Review: Alex Van Helsing: Voice of the Undead by Jason Henderson
Goodreads: Now that Alex is in the know about the deadly vampires that live—and hunt—around his boarding school, everything is different. Putting his talents to use, Alex is training with the Polidorium to become a vampire hunter, just like his Van Helsing ancestors. Sure, he’s only fourteen, but c’mon: This runs in his blood.
But Alex is wondering if he’ll live long enough to succeed. His archnemesis Elle, a vampire whose youthful appearance and blond hair disguise a rage that’s directed at him, is out to get him before a powerful leader called Ultravox arrives on the scene. Ultravox specializes in assassinations, but who is he targeting? As he dodges Elle’s attacks, Alex is on a mission to uncover Ultravox’s deadly plan before his friends and his school become collateral damage. There’s no time to report back; innocent lives hang in the balance, and it’s on Alex to act now—or else.
There are quite a few things I love about this series:
- Vampires are freaking scary and very evil.
- Alex is a guy’s, guy. He loves tech and badassery.
- Most things are easy for Alex due to his heightened Van Helsing senses, but getting girls is still hard.
- The mentor in the story isn’t your atypical yodaesque character. He has flaws as well.
- Alex has a merry band of friends who are all well thought out and fantastically executed.
Voice of the Undead shows us that Alex does have flaws, he can make stupid decisions and bad mistakes just like any other fourteen year old boy. I love the bits of the story where Sid gets to shine and the ones where Alex realizes his spidey senses can’t save him every time. We are introduced to a few new characters and I enjoyed Alex’s interaction with them as well.
Alex Van Helsing is one kid I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley if I were a vampire, but he is a heck of a lot of fun to read.
Review: Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
From Goodreads: Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It’s gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie’s estranged father–an elusive European warlock–only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it’s her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.
By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.
As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.
Over a year ago I wrote a review for Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, and I scheduled it to come online when the book hit stores. A few days ago I wrote a post about Rachel Hawkins and went to get my link to my review. I remembered it all so well. The review never posted. So over a year I have been telling people “Oh yeah I loved Hex Hall, check out my review.” or emailing Disney Book Group “I reviewed Hex Hall and would love to continue reviewing this series.” LIAR! I never even noticed my review never posted. So sorry Disney Book Group, Rachel Hawkins, and random people who I told to check out my review.
Firstly I want to mention that I love boarding schools. If your book has a boarding school setting you get like a gazillion automatic bonus points of awesome and Hex Hall was a win of boarding school drama. Sophie was such a fantastically likable character that my teenage self who wanted nothing more than to go to an awesome boarding school would have so been besties with her.
There is drama, intrigue, mystery, hot guys and a bunch of fucking faeries. Seriously someone needs to off those bitches. Sophie and her vampire roommate are bullied around a bit by the mean girls crowd and then there are some ghosties making trouble all over the place. It is all a big witchy mess.
What I love most about Hex Hall and Sophie is she is still learning, she isn’t one of those characters that is uber proficient at everything she does and she messes up all the time and when she does mess things up it’s usually wicked bad. We get to learn about Hawkins universe as we laugh out loud at Sophie’s antics and she has some damn good dialogue in this book people. I can’t wait to see what Sophie gets herself into next in Demonglass (which will not take me a year to review.).
If you haven’t already read Hex Hall then I urge you to pick it up!
FTC Disclosure: I borrowed this book from another blogger. Many moons ago.
Review: Nocturne by Syrie James
From Goodreads: When Nicole Whitcomb’s car runs off a Colorado mountain road during a blinding snowstorm, she is saved from death by a handsome, fascinating, and enigmatic stranger.
Snowbound with him for days in his beautiful home high in the Rockies, she finds herself powerfully attracted to him and soon comes to realize that the feeling is mutual. But there are things about him that mystify her, filling her with apprehension—and Nicole can’t shake the feeling that he doesn’t want her there.
Who is Michael Tyler? Why does he live alone in such a secluded spot and guard his private life so carefully? What secret—or secrets—is he hiding?
Nicole has secrets of her own and a past she is running from—but Michael understands her better than anyone she has ever known. Soon, she is falling as deeply in love with him as he is with her.
But as the sexual tension between them builds, the clues mount up. When Nicole learns the terrifying truth—that her host is an ages-old vampire who is torn between his love for her and his desire for her blood—there’s nowhere for her to run but into the blizzard raging outside, and he’s the only one who can save her life.
Filled with unexpected twists and surprises, Nocturne is a page-turning, haunting, and deeply romantic story of forbidden love that will grab your heart and not let go.
I am becoming such a fan of Syrie James. I first read her Dracula, My Love back in the summer and fell in love with her romantic paranormal writing style. Syrie constricted her words to hold true to the original Dracula then, but this new novel Nocturne shows the soft side of paranormal that I really love to see in a book.
Nicole at first is not a very likable character, to me at least. I have absolutely nothing in common with her, and I abhor the snow and being cold. As the book progresses you somehow realize that you aren’t harboring the same feelings for this character as you did in the beginning of the book.
Michael is everything a vampire should and shouldn’t be. He has an amazing depth of character and it was him who kept me coming back for more of this story.
Nocturne is such an incredibly quick read and is a masterful piece of paranormal romance, I shudder to call James’ book out to this genre because I think it is oh so much more but alas I have no better genre to put it in. I cannot say thriller because the plot and the arc are both completely character driven.
You get an early look at Nicole’s racy side on page three of the finished copy:
The wedding had taken place high atop a ski slope at Steamboat Springs, with the bridal party in formal wear and everyone on skis. After the ceremony, most of the people had ridden the chairlift back down, but Nicole–on a dare from one of the grooomsmen–had blithely skied down the mountain. It had involved tucking her long bridesmaids’s dress into her thermal leggings, which Chloe had laughingly insisted was scandalous and beneath the dignity of a twenty-nine-year-old woman. But Nicole hadn’t cared; she couldn’t resist the challenge.
A lot of us who read vampire fiction never really seem to think about the type of human it would take to truly love a beast. Romanticism aside Syrie shows us that you need a bit of a wild hair and a little less care for your mortal life than a regular Joe has.
Michael has lived alone in his mountain-side for well a long time, he was loathe to even save Nicole’s live, of course not knowing hat he would fall madly in love with her and that love would have him second guessing everything he is and wanted to ever be:
He had absolutely no wish to open his house to strangers. It might well be like opening Pandora’s box. His sense of privacy and tranquility would be shattered, possibly forever. He wasn’t equipped to host, much less feed, anyone. And more to the point, he thought bitterly, their safety would be in question every minute. page 13.
Michael does open his home to Nicole, and slowly these two semi-emotionally-broken people opened their hearts to one another. By page ninety-four we had some major passion!
Nicole began to sway under the powerful feelings he stirred in her, her head falling back slightly, her eyes closing. Her heart thundered violently in her chest. Her breath came in little gasps as she felt him plan kisses along the sensitive skin at the side of her throat. Heat suffused her. Perspiration broke out on her brow. She was just about to spin around and fold herself into his embrace when suddenly, to her dismay, sh e heard him curse under his breath.
Obviously Michael has some issues to work out and I don’t want to ruin anything but we get to see him internally work through a lot of issues. One way Michael sorts through his feelings and feels less lonely is taking care of his two awesome horses:
“Aren’t you going to put a saddle on her?” Nicole asked.
“I have saddles,” Michael shrugged, “but I rarely use them. Riding with a saddle is like riding a bus. You’re not actually driving the bus, you’re just sitting on it as a passenger. If you really want to ride a horse, you have to feel the horse with your legs. You have to ride bareback.” page 196
Syrie James is such a fantastic plot weaver I really hope you do get a chance to pick up Nocturne and read it for yourself.
Why Teens Will Love It:
Think Twilight but actually emotionally stable. Micheal having a lot of traits that Edward displays, such as not wanting to hurt the girl he loves and what not, actually pulls it off without the annoying or creepy factor. I think teens will really enjoy reading a romance whose ending is heart breaking instead of ridiculous and the heroine actually has a brain and a tiny shred of care for her life.
Why Adults Will Love It:
Who doesn’t want to be trapped in the snow with a hot vampire writer with a soul? Michael is everything you would want and need him to be and eventually I came to terms and learned to love Nicole too. You will never see vampires the same again.
I gave this book 4.5 stars instead of 5 only because of my personal aversion to snow and being without food. Ridiculous yes but it kept me from delving into the story and connecting with Nicole as deeply as I would have liked to.
I received this book from the publisher, it was a finished copy.
