Review: "Texas Gothic" & "Spirit & Dust"

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore
4 out of 5 stars

My middle sister told me about this book awhile back so when I saw it at Half Price one day, I decided to go ahead and get it. I read it last week because I wanted to have it done before I met the author at NTTBF and I'm glad I did, because I really enjoyed it! So much that I went and checked out the sequel (below) at the library and finished it Saturday morning right before the festival. :)

Texas Gothic is an interesting blend of magic and old Texas history. And within that magic, there is something we don't see very often: witches mixed with science mixed with ghosts. Amy Goodnight is a witch from a long line of witches, but she doesn't like to admit it. She wants to be normal (who doesn't) and that's hard to do when her sister Phin is creating ray guns to monitor a ghost's "footprint".

I was the designated grown up in a family that operated in different reality than the rest of the world.

Amy & Phin are spending the summer house-sitting for their Aunt Hyacinth and unfortunately they have a lot more trouble than just keeping the goats from escaping. There seems to be a ghost on the loose and he's terrorizing people on the ranch next door. Said ranch just happens to be owned by a young handsome cowboy who immediately clashes with Amy and doesn't believe in ghosts, magic, or any of that other nonsense. Amy is dragged into the mess against her will when the ghost seems to become attached to her and she starts Nancy Drew-ing around.

"Those books were highly unrealistic. Do you have any idea how much brain damage a person would have if she were hit on the head and drugged with chloroform that often?"

Cowboy Ben's main irritation stems from the anthropologists digging up his land after a skeleton is found. (And it's questionable whether this is Amy's ghost or not.) Local ghost stories merge with scientific facts until it's hard to tell who the villain is, dead or alive. It was so interesting to read a story based in Texas that included the history of its land and local legends but wasn't completely stereotypical. Yes, there were cowboys and cattle but it didn't bash you over the head with "yeehaws" and "y'alls".


Spirit & Dust
3 out of 5 stars

This companion novel focuses on Daisy Goodnight, cousin to Amy & Phin, and voice of dead people everywhere. Daisy is sassy, sarcastic, and a lot of fun. She's also barely 17 and assists the FBI in missing persons cases. When she's pulled out of her chemistry class to help on a case in Minnesota, she doesn't expect it to be any more unusual than her other cases. But it is, from the first moment she talks to the dead guy in a dirty alley.

There's a lot more going on in this story than the first and I think that somewhat detracts from it. We've got the ghosts sure, but then there are super powerful witches, people with other kinds of powers, dead people living in objects, dead people rising from the beyond, dead people going to the beyond, dead people everywhere lol. And that's not even counting the mobsters or the freaky things that happen at the museums. (I know, you're thinking "what museums??" but you should really be focused on the mobsters.)

I liked the story overall, but didn't love it like the first. It was maybe a little too smart for me at certain points, when Daisy & mobster Carson were researching Egyptian mythology and the like. I enjoyed the museum parts (I know, again with the museums. Just read it and see!) in that it felt like the movies Night at the Museum. I'm a sucker for lame children's movies like that and this had that same kind of "impossible, but maybe it could happen" feel.

Review: "Friends With Boys"

Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks
3.5 out of 5 stars

This graphic novel had been on my to-buy list for a long time and when I saw it at the convention Saturday for $5, I figured that was a sign for me to buy it! Unfortunately, I missed the sign that said it would be $2.50 10 minutes later. :( But I was still happy I bought it. This is a quick little read, I actually started it on the train home and got halfway thru it. I marked it down half a star only because I really feel like it needs a sequel, but it doesn't look like there are plans for one right now. I'd love to check out some of her other work though.

Maggie is the youngest in her family, with 3 brothers, and is about to start high school. This is a big deal for her, not just because it's high school, but because she has been homeschooled by her mom all her life up until now. The family has a tradition of going to public school starting in 9th, which I think is not a great time personally. Way too many changes and rules and chaos going on. Maggie is both excited and terrified. Apparently, their mother ran off a few months (weeks? days? not sure) before and their father is the new chief of police. Things are tense, to say the least.

I really liked all the characters, even though some weren't as fleshed out as I would have hoped. Maggie is that perfect blend of awkward and quirky, even when she is being haunted. Yes, there are ghosts too...this book has everything! Her twin brothers and oldest brother all had their own stories that I wanted to read more about. For example, Daniel is a senior and apparently had a rough time when he first started, with the popular group of boys on the volleyball team. Because of that, he is suspicious of Maggie's new friends, outcast siblings Lucy and Alistair. There are hints of a crush on and by several people, but the book is just not long enough for anything to develop. That is honestly my biggest criticism, so that's pretty good right? I want more!

The artwork and style was decent and worked well with the story. Hicks is very good at emotional faces (although Maggie looked a bit too much like her brothers (boyish) in some spots) and she really knows how to use her positive and negative spaces well. (That was fancy art wording hah!) Overall, I would definitely recommend this book!

Review: "Lords of the Underworld" & "Black Dagger Brotherhood" #9's

These two books/series fit together nicely, so I thought I'd review the latest ones I've read together. Both were #9, which is even nicer. I like symmetry. :) I'll do a quick overview for each series and then review the actual book, just in case you haven't read or heard of them. And if that's the case, I would definitely recommend them to fans of YA paranormal who are maybe looking for a more "adult" story. Because, while these are both considered paranormal fantasy, they are very much adult books with "adult" relations. Woo. Lol...

Lords of the Underworld by Gena Showalter
The Darkest Seduction #9
4 out of 5 stars (3.75/5 for the series overall)

The "Lords of the Underworld" are a group of immortal men (and a few women) who were, at one time, warriors for the Greek gods. They did a bad, bad thing and let loose the demons from Pandora's Box. As punishment, they were each stuck with a demon for eternity. What kind of demon, you ask? Well, violence, disease, death, pain, doubt, lies, and disaster are a few. Fun times, right? It took the lords several centuries to get themselves and their demons under control, during which there was lots of destruction and mayhem on Earth. Of course, there are Hunters constantly looking for them, trying to get their demons back into Pandora's Box. But if they are killed without the box there, their demon is set free on the world again. That's no good. So the Lords and Hunters are constantly fighting, naturally. Throw in some Greek and Titan Gods and some other magical creatures occassionally and that's pretty much the main conflicts of the stories.

A small group of the Lords have settled in Budapest, in a huge, old castle on top of a cliff. They've got top-notch security and are relatively happy living in seclusion...until all these girls start showing up and they start pairing off, one by one. Each book centers on one of the Lords and his "happily ever after". How romantical. And that's pretty much all you need to know if you haven't read these yet. So, spoilers abound after this! ;)

This story focuses on Paris, that sexy, hair-tossing, pheremone-releasing warrior possessed with Promiscuity. Yowza. Paris' demon is nicknamed Sex because he needs it to survive and he doesn't care who helps him. He also has the unfortunate liability of only being able to "bed" a person once and only once. Luckily for him, he's not riddled with Promiscuity and Disease...or Procreation lol. Until he met Sienna, a Hunter, a few books back. She's the only one he's been aroused for more than once and is now convinced she is his better half. Only problem is, she's kinda dead. Or was. He's been looking for his girl for a few books now and has taken his search to the Heavens, where it's rumored that Cronus, King of the Titans, has her stashed.

Paris meets up with Viola, another Immortal, to try and get some answers about Sienna. Viola is cursed with Narcissism and quite annoying at first. She "screeches" (tweets) on her pink, glittery phone all the time...the concept is bad but this quote made me giggle like a teenager lol. "Lord of Sex is filthy and looking to score. I'm not interested, but should I help him rack up points with someone else?" But she kind of grows on you after a while, especially when she starts annoying all the Lords left back at the castle. Lots of things happen at the castle, including Galen (one of the "bad" guys) stealing Ashlyn, the super-preggo wife of Maddox. Viola kind of helps Legion, the little demon girl, and grows a little in the process. I'm sure Viola will find her "one true love" by the time the series is over. Kane maybe? That's the only problem with this series...she keeps introducing more and more characters. Is the series ever going to end??

Anyway, Paris finds Sienna pretty quickly, with the help of William (who might be some sort of God and has truly awesome hair) and Zacharel (an angel determined to keep Paris & Sienna apart). There's lots of steamy scenes between the two and also some mega fighting. Oh and did I mention the steamy scenes? ;) I think what made this book so great (besides the steaminess lol) was that it wrapped up most of the ongoing plotlines by the end. I was actually pretty surprised by the ending and while doing this review, I've reread most of the book lol so I'm really looking forward to the next one now. But alas, it won't be out until next year. Bah.

Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward
Lover Unleashed #9
3 out of 5 stars (4.25/5 for the series overall)

This series is about vampires, so it's kind of been done to death (get it? death? heh), but these are some seriously bad-ass vampires lol. And hawt. We start out with 6 "brothers" who have fought together for centuries and are reluctantly led by Wrath, the last purebred vamp left, who also just happens to be mostly blind. Not that you would know it, because dude knows all kinds of stuff and still fights with his brothers. They all have weird names like Phury, Zhadist, Rehvenge, Vishous, etc...and lots of new made up words like "doggen" (servant), "Shellan" (female mate), and such. It takes some getting used to, but it's not too bad. They are very modernized vamps though: huge high-tech mansion with massive amounts of security and lots of fancy cars with rap/rock music blasting.

The Brotherhood's enemies are Lessers...gross, pale guys who smell like baby powder. Uck. I hate the smell of baby powder and yes, I know I'm like the only person in the world probably who does. ;) These Lesser guys gave me the serious heebies. The brothers fight on the streets a lot, saving the city from evildoers, killing the Lessers, and then they go clubbing in their "shit-kickers and leathers". Woo. Some of the brothers have already been mated at the beginning of the series, but for the most part, each one gets his own book and HEA. Since this is a "Brotherhood", this series is obviously mostly about the boys, but this latest book is technically about a female warrior. And I can't say much more, so on to the spoilers!

I say technically, because the better half of the book is taken up with finishing off Vishous' previous story and is actually what bumped it up a star for me. Payne, Vishous' twin sister, is the leading lady in this book, but...eh. Her and Manny's story just didn't do much for me. I, like pretty much everybody else, was mostly just interested in whether Vishous & Butch would go "there" and when we were going to get to see some Quinn & Blay action. Not really a spoiler: They kinda did and not for another 4 months bah.

Payne has been kind of flash-frozen for a really long time by her mother, the Scribe Virgin. (A kind of Goddess, religious-type, all-knowing person for the vamps.) She is obviously a little peeved at Mom and decides to take her aggressions out in her training fights with Wrath. But then she gets seriously hurt, Wrath freaks, and brings her back to the mansion so Ghost Doc Jane (Vishious' lady) can help her. Jane can't do everything though, so she decides to go to her former, human, boss Manny. Only problem is, Manny thinks Jane has been dead for a year and is still grieving over his friend. When Jane shows up, it takes Manny a minute to freak out, but once he gets over his shock, he's on board. And of course, as soon as he sees Payne, he's like "mine mine mine". Whatev. Don't these guys ever go on a few dates first, see where things lead, let the relationship mature?

So, Manny does his best to fix Payne but she's pretty much paralyzed from the waist down and is so depressed she considers killing herself. Manny has had his memory erased after the surgery but it's having bad side effects for him and he starts going downhill too. The only thing saving him is his racing horse and the dreams he keeps having about the mysterious black-haired chick. Jane convinces Vishous that Manny is needed for Payne's recovery, so he's brought to the mansion and the two start falling in love. Yuck. ;) Having been locked up for hundreds of years, Payne doesn't know much about anything, especially s-e-x. Manny uh...teaches her a few things and they find out that thru uh...pure happiness...she kind of glows and starts healing her legs. So there's lots of teaching and lots of pure happiness and lots of healing going on here.

Of course, Vishous is pissed and says "no way. I'm the man of the family. You can't date a human. Blah blah blah." Manny pretty much agrees and tells Payne they can't be together. She goes out into the city, fights some Lessers, and gets kidnapped by these rogue vamps called the "Band of Bastards". Yeah, really. They're apparently going to be big in future books and technically, they're bad guys, but I don't think that'll last for too long. This felt like a middle book for me...sort of combining two parts of the story, building up to new storylines, but not really going anywhere. Hopefully the next one will be better.

Review: "Trylle" Series + An Original Poem!

I was going to do a full review of the Trylle series by Amanda Hocking, but sadly, the thing I liked the most about these books were the beautiful covers. :(  So I'm going to do something a little different today. :) But first, a quick summary of the books.

The story was alright, definitely interesting idea. The main girl, Wendy, finds out she is a troll, or Trylle. She goes barefoot a lot and has unruly hair, but that's where the similarities to the cute little dolls end (did you know trolls have been around since the 1960s? Wow!). Wendy is beautiful, smart, sarcastic, and has magical powers that she didn't know existed. It's a pretty typical story: girl is "normal" and then becomes "something special", learns all about her special history, meets her "true love", fights a lot, meets another "true love", fights with him, tries to figure out which "true love" is real, meets a third guy who may or may not be a "true love", battles an evil villain and wins using magical powers, thus saving her new-found specialness, and ends up with one of the "true loves". That typical story plus a lot of really bad (non)editing made this kind of "meh" for me. I think it's worth checking out from the library to see if you like it or maybe a cheap download.

So! How about a totally awesome, completely original poem written by me in high school? Hah! This is going to become a semi-regular thing because I have a lot of really bad poetry and I want to share its badness with you! Feel free to laugh, I know you all have a notebook hidden somewhere with emo song lyrics in it. ;) This one is obviously not emo though, so that makes it even better. And it has a drawing with it! And yes, I did rhyme belly with silly.

Ode to a Troll

They have big hair,
And a jewel in their belly,
But they don't give a scare,
cause they're so darn silly!

1-18-98

Review: "Soul Screamers" Series Vol 1: Books 0.5-2

Soul Screamers: Vol 1 by Rachel Vincent
4 out of 5 stars

This is actually two books in one plus a novella at the beginning, but I picked it up in an omnibus, so that's what I'm going to review here. I always have a hard time listing the omnibus' on my Goodreads...do you put them under the one omnibus (OMG, how many times can I say "omnibus" in this review??!) or do you list them separately because it really is 2 books? I listed this one separately, so I could get credit lol. That's such a dorky thing to do and admit, isn't it? Oh well. :)

I really, really enjoyed this book. It was an impulse pick-up one day at the bookstore and I am so glad I did. I can't wait to get Vol 2, it is coming out this week I think? The only reason I would say to get the omnibus over the individual books is because each one comes with an extra novella that really adds a lot to the story. Plus the omnibus is a whopping 550+ pages and still less than $10! Such a deal! ("Omnibus" has now lost all meaning to me as a word.)

All right, let's talk about the actual story now shall we? Kaylee is a typical teenager in Texas (I love hometown books :)) who lives with her aunt & uncle and her cousin Sophie. Her mom died when she was young and her father took off to Ireland for business, so she hardly knows him. In the prequel novella, Kaylee and her BFF Emma are at the mall shopping, when Kaylee has a panic attack. Only it's not a normal panic attack: Kaylee gets an overwhelming sense of doom and darkness directed at a specific person and if she doesn't get far, far away from the source of that doom she will let loose with a blood curdling scream. And this is exactly what happens at the mall. She can't stop the scream from erupting and causes a huge scene in the JCPenney's. Security is called, Emma tries to help but there is nothing she can do and soon her Aunt Val is called and Kaylee is taken away to a hospital. The prequel focuses on that hospital visit and how utterly crazy it makes Kaylee feel.

In My Soul to Take, the actual first book, we fast-forward a year to junior year for Kaylee. She hasn't had any more "attacks" and things are looking more normal. Kaylee and Emma go to a bar one night (sneaked in by Emma's older sister) and run into Nash, who is only the hottest guy in the senior class. Nash seems to actually be interested in flat-chested Kaylee instead of big-boobs Emma. And then it gets bad...Kaylee starts having another attack and is convinced a girl there is going to die. Soon. Emma tries to help Kaylee by pulling her out of the bar, but Nash follows and takes over. He manages to calm her down and Kaylee tells him what happened, even though she knows it will just make him think she's crazy. But it doesn't. He seems to know what's going on with her and wants to help.

Obviously, you can tell right away that Nash & Kaylee are going to get together. There's lots of smoldering looks and almost kisses, but it kind of works. Nash is made out to be a kind of bad boy at first, with a bit of a reputation, but you can tell he genuinely cares for Kaylee. And Emma is a great BFF...she's always looking out for Kaylee and doesn't just disappear after a while like some BFF's (Hush, Hush I'm looking at you). She's a part of the story. I'm kind of gushing, aren't I? Whatev, like ZOMG you guys you totally have to read this it's like sooooo GOOOD!! ;)

Okay, so what's the paranormal hook, you ask? Well, it's not vampires, werewolves, witches, or anything I've ever read. I'm going to put this after the spoiler owl, because it's a good 150 pages before you find out...unless you already have, being way smarter than me lol.

Kaylee is a bean sidhe, or a banshee. A Gaelic heralder of death. Plagued with premonitions of death. Nash is a male banshee, meaning he has the ability to send a soul back to its body and also help calm female banshees when they are in mega-scream mode. I loved the different twist, but the "bean sidhe" drove me crazy throughout the book. I just couldn't make myself pronounce it "banshee" in my head. Kaylee's dad (and her mom, who died when she was a baby) and uncle are all banshees, but have kept it from her, hoping to protect her.

Once Kaylee finds out the truth (or most of it), she's relieved to finally realize she's not actually crazy. But there are girls dying all around her and she wants to find out why and how. The rest of the first book is spent on her adventure, trying to find out the truth behind these girls' deaths and meeting new people from the Netherworld. Including a sarcastic, funny, hot guy named Tod. Ah Tod...right up there with Nash in the looks department, but a little more on the dead side. ;) Tod and Nash have a complicated history that causes some trouble for Kaylee and I'm sure will be a love triangle in upcoming books.

My Soul to Save, book 2, picks up about a month and a half after all the drama of the first. Kaylee & Nash are still together and at a concert with Tod when the singer suddenly collapses on stage. Kaylee isn't worried at first, because she doesn't have the urge to scream for the girl's soul. But when it becomes clear that the girl is indeed dead, Kaylee and the boys realize that something odd is going on. This book dives headlong into the Netherworld, with Demon's Breath, hellions, soul selling, and more. While the supernatural is definitely interesting, it's Kaylee & Nash that really bring the story together. There are some steamy scenes between the two that always conveniently get interrupted at an inconvenient time. I am very excited to pick up the next omnibus (count=8 lol) and see if they ever get past second base hah!

Review: "Vampire Academy: The Graphic Novel"

Vampire Academy: The Graphic Novel by Richelle Mead
2 out of 5 stars

This is going to be a quick review I think, to wrap up "Vampire Academy" week lol. Hmm...it's hard to rate this. I read a lot of graphic novels, so that's not the problem. This is absolutely meant to be a companion read for the series (so spoilers in this here review! Lol). In that case, I think it was good. The story itself is a little choppy if you haven't read the books, but they still give a nice picture of the characters and their lives. It's a very quick read, which is nice sometimes.

The artwork is not the greatest I've seen. The girls, in particular Lissa, just seemed really off to me. Lissa is very plain and unglamorous, where in the books, she's almost got that incandescent beauty of Twilight vamps. Not at all what I pictured. Dimitri, on the other hand, yowza. :) If I'd had that picture in my head while reading the books, I would have been all over Team Dimitri lol. Umm...literally. And honestly, I will be buying the second one soon, because I just saw pics of Adrian and woo hoo.

So we've got these great shots of Dimitri and then all of a sudden...there's the super creepy Strigoi. Like, what?? Why is she all hunched over?? And she's got long, monkey arms! Scary. OMG...I just, this second, realized what she reminds me of!! You know in Buffy, "Hush" episode? The Gentlemen's minions? Yep, that's Strigoi according to this. *Shudders*

Review: "Bloodlines"

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
3 out of 5 stars

This is the first in a spin-off series of Vampire Academy and I just finished it last week, so I thought I'd go ahead and do a whole VA week lol. This series will focus on Alchemist, Sydney Sage, and I thought I would enjoy her story more but it just fell flat to me. I liked Sydney quite a bit in VA, she was bright and spunky, but it didn't come across in Bloodlines. I'm sure I'll probably still get the second book though, so hopefully she gets fleshed out more as the series progresses. Also a note: I wouldn't recommend reading this series as a stand-alone or before the VA because there are plenty of spoilers and characters from the first series that you will need to know about. I will be assuming you have read VA, so there will be spoilers in this review for it!

The Alchemists are a group of humans set up to protect other humans against vampires: mostly Strigoi but Moroi also. They are incredibly biased against all vamps, to the point of racism. It left me with a strong icky taste in my mouth, if you know what I mean. They were so completely and utterly blinded to anything good in any of the vamps, even the elite Moroi that they are forced to protect at times. The racism was just shoved down your throat. Ugh. Alchemists stand out by having a golden lily tattoo on their cheek, which is infused with, you guessed it, some of that Moroi magic they are all terrified of. Couldn't they have picked a little less conspicuous place for a tattoo though??

Sydney is pulled out of bed in the middle of the night by her dad for an Alchemist emergency. Seems that Jill, Lissa's younger sister, has been threatened by some Moroi because they can't directly attack Queen Lissa. The Alchemists agree to hide Jill away for a while, but they need someone youngish to stay with her and keep her out of trouble. Enter Sydney. Or actually, Sydney's younger sister, but Sydney doesn't want her involved in Alchemist business yet, so she insists on taking the job. Especially when she realizes the head guy on the "job" is a skeezy suck-up named Keith, whom she has a (not good) history with.

So Sydney heads out to sunny California (yep, vampires in Cali) and gets a pretty big shock when she finds out who Jill's chaperone's/escorts/Guardians are: Eddie and Adrian. Woot Adrian! He's pretty much the only thing that gave this book the 3 stars. Even though he was pretty dang mopey for most of the book lol. Stupid Rose, picking the wrong guy. Anyway! Jill, Eddie, and Sydney are enrolled in the local prep school, which excites Sydney, because she's a big old nerd. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) They have to pose as siblings, along with Adrian, which is pretty amusing, seeing as none of them look anything alike.

Jill is fifteen years old, but man is she boring and predictable. She's also apparently a guy magnet, because every guy not "related" to her is totally in love with her, and even the ones "related" are totally smitten. I don't get it. Is she using Compulsion? Does she have love magic along with water? I don't know, but it's weird and totally out of character for half the guys. I'm so glad the story didn't focus on her much, because I don't think I could have finished it. :(

There are a lot of unexplained things going on in this book: too many if you ask me. Are there actually Vampire Hunters? What's up with the teacher? How does she know stuff?? Who's trying to kill Jill? Why is everyone falling for her? Why is Sydney's dad such a controlling monster? (Because, really, I have no doubt that her eating habits, OCD tendencies, urge to follow the rules no matter what, and racism are thanks to him.) And finally...why, why, why, why on the last page!??!?!! That's all I'm going to say. :)

Review: "Vampire Academy" Series Books 1-6

Vampire Academy Series Books 1-6 by Richelle Mead
3.5 out of 5 stars averaged

I've been meaning to review these for ages now and just somehow keep putting it off. I started this series last September and finished it up in March. (I took about a two month break in between.) I just finished Bloodlines, the first in the spin-off series and really enjoyed it. I also just got (yesterday in fact) the first graphic novel, so I'm kind of excited about that and it'll hopefully help me get this dang review written! Lol.

The first book in the series, Vampire Academy, gets started setting up a world that is half Gossip Girl and half Twilight (but the good half): rich vampire teenagers at a boarding school. Sounds fun right? There's a few twists though. There are two types of vamps: the Moroi ("good guys", tall, thin, pale, beautiful, usually royalty, have magic powers pertaining to the four elements of earth, air, fire, water) and the Strigoi ("bad guys", hard features, like to kill for their blood, hate the sun). Then we have the Dhampirs, half Moroi and half human, who are basically groomed to be Guardians for the elite Moroi. Dhampirs don't need blood like the other two, but do have some super-human strength and fighting skills. Also, the Dhampir girls look super hot to the Moroi guys because they're more curvelicious and apparently, kinda slutty. (Going by our main character, Rose.)

Rose is a Dhampir and Guardian in training at the Academy; her BFF is Lissa (Vasilisa), a Moroi Princess and the last of her family line, the Dragomir's. Rose and Lissa have run away from school for an unknown reason at the beginning of Book 1, but they are soon caught by the Guardians and taken back. Among the Guardians is Dimitri, whom Rose immediately lusts after. Dimitri Belikov is Russian, in his twenties, and according to Rose, too good-looking for his own good. Honestly, I was never crazy about Dimitri. I know, shame on me. There's also a neat twist with Rose and Lissa, but I'm not going to ruin it for those who haven't read it yet. If you're into all the vampire/teen/angsty romance books, I would give these a chance. And now, onto the next book, so spoilers abound! :)

Frostbite takes us even deeper into the world and starts exploring the political side of things, while also introducing some new characters. New, awesome characters named Adrian Ivashkov. New, awesome, sexy Adrian Ivashkov. Now, him I get. It's winter break at St Vladimir's (that's the school name...yeah, that's not obvious to humans at all), but because of recent Strigoi attacks, the school officials decide to lock-down the students and take a school-wide trip to a posh ski resort. (Kind of like when the entire Stoneybrook Middle School goes to a ski lodge hah!) Rose is pretty excited, until she finds out her mom is going to be there as a Guardian. They don't quite get along and haven't spent time together in a long time, so things are tense, to say the least. Throw in some love triangles (squares? hexagons? I don't know) and you got yourself a pretty great story.

There isn't a lot of action (aside from the romantic entanglement) until the last half of the book, but boy does it pick up then. A few of Rose's classmates (Mason, who has a huge crush on her) have decided to go off in search of the Strigoi and she, of course, decides to go after them. Instead of maybe telling some adults or something. Lissa's boyfriend, Christian, goes with her. I really like Christian. He's kind of a black sheep in the community, because of his parents, but he doesn't let it get to him. He also very strongly believes in the Moroi learning to protect themselves more, which is frowned upon to say the least. The ending of this book is a real nail-biter: spoiler, highlight to read: When Mason is killed, I screamed in my head along with Rose. I was so, so sad. :( He gave his life up to save Rose and the others, and she doesn't even deserve it, in my opinion. /end spoiler

Shadow Kiss, for me, was one of the better books. Lots of action and suspense and one heck of a cliffhanger! This one delves more into the Spirit aspect of Rose and Lissa's relationship and we also get more of Queen Tatiana, who (whom?) I do not like at all lol. Rose is dealing with the aftermath of the end of book 2 and is understandably more subdued and serious now. But some weird things are going on in her head and she doesn't know what or why.

She also has to deal with the school's Guardian tests, 6 weeks of shadowing a Moroi and defending them against staged attacks. Rose has assumed all along that she would be guarding Lissa, what with their spirit bond and such, so she's pretty shocked and pissed when she is assigned to someone else. I really enjoyed seeing Rose's relationship with this person grow and become a friendship. And now, I have to put up the Spoiler Owl, because going forward, there is some crazy stuff and I got slightly spoiled reading the series from Goodreads, so I don't want that to happen here in case you still haven't read the entire series! :)

Okay, let's talk about Dimitri, shall we? I just don't get it. The Rose and Dimitri thing. The only thing they seem to have in common or like about each other is they are strong fighters and both pretty hot. How is that a relationship? And yes, they finally "do it" in this one and it's very "meh" for me. I much prefer Christian and Lissa lol. So when the Strigoi attack the school towards the end and that one dude (sorry, fuzzy on the details) realizes Dimitri means something to Rose and that's the perfect way to get back at her...well, I sort of saw it coming. It's very much Buffy and Angel...star-crossed lovers, try to stay away from each other, finally have that moment of pure happiness, and dude loses his soul. I mean, come on.

Blood Promise quickly picks up where book 3 ended, with Rose leaving St Vladimir, Lissa, and her career as a Guardian behind to go to Russia and "take care of" Dimitri. And the Buffy/Angel comparison continues. Is she going to have to kill him or can she save him somehow? Will he still love her if she saves him? Will she still love him? Oh, the suspense!!

While I still really enjoyed this one, I felt Lissa's story suffered greatly. The constant flashbacks/"trips" inside her head from Rose's point of view started getting old real quick. It was a poor plot device that was way over used. We also get a bunch of flashbacks to conversations between Dimitri and Rose that I'm not quite sure when they happened.

There were plenty of good parts though. I really enjoyed the time Rose spent at Dimitri's home, getting to know his family. I didn't think it was necessary, but I enjoyed it. We also get some new characters in Abe, a mysterious gentleman who is trying to get Rose back to St Vlad's, and Sydney, a young Alchemist which is basically a group sent to protect humans from the vamps. I really liked both of them and was excited to see more in the future books. (And spinoffs)

And then there's Strigoi Dimitri. Ugh ugh ugh...I'm sorry, I just did not like it. Spoilers, highlight: I didn't like it when Rose got captured by Dimitri, I hated it when she went against her beliefs and became a "blood whore" (her words, not mine), and basically became an addict for weeks just so she could stay close to Dimitri. /end spoiler. Seeing Dimitri evil was not fun. When Angel turned into Angelus, at least I still liked him somewhat. I just couldn't make myself see any good in Dimitri. I am still very much Team Adrian and it sucked to see Rose treat him like a piggy bank and string him along. And then we get another huge cliffhanger. Double ugh.

Spirit Bound takes a deep, boring, down-turn again unfortunately. For the most part. There were some good parts, don't get me wrong. But by Book 5, I was starting to wonder if this series was ever going to end lol. Rose is back at school and back with Lissa, Christian, and Adrian thankfully. Graduation is coming up and Rose is actually allowed to complete the final Guardian exercises, although she's not quite sure what she will be doing after that. And that's about all I can say without big, huge spoilers. So let's put the baby Caution Owl up now and chat, shall we? ;)

Dimitri stalking Rose is just more creepy Angel/Buffy nonsense. And I think we all know that Rose will do anything to get him back to "normal", now that she knows there is a way. But seriously? Getting Victor Dashkov, the dude that nearly killed Lissa, out of prison and taking him on a wild road-trip to his mentally unstable brother? Worst.Idea.Ever. And yeah, okay, cool...Lissa was able to turn Dimitri back. But I'm glad he didn't want to be with Rose after that. She didn't deserve him OR Adrian. Thinking about sleeping with Dimitri is still CHEATING. I don't care if she "pushed the guilt aside". That doesn't make it okay. Ugh. Oh and hey, how about another huge cliffhanger? What's the deal with that anyway? Double ugh. Whew...went on a bit of a rant there, didn't I? :) 

The last book, Last Sacrifice, sees Rose sitting in jail, waiting for her trial for supposedly killing Queen Tatiana. Big, bad daddy Abe promises to get her out, one way or another. The Court is in chaos after the Queen's death and somehow Lissa gets nominated along with a bunch of other people from royal families. She's freaked but agrees to take the tests anyways. I'm sure you can all see where this is going.

Rose is busted out of jail and hidden away with Dimitri and Sydney, the Alchemist, and tries to figure out who Lissa's long-lost half-sibling could be so that Lissa could actually have a chance at being Queen. Because, you know, an 18 year old is totes capable of that. Along the way she tries to find evil Victor again (because, of course, he ran away last time), hide her true feelings for Dimitri, pretend she isn't breaking Adrian's heart, and find a former teacher Ms Karp, who turned Strigoi on purpose to get rid of the Spirits, and maybe save her too. The ending is predictable, but if you've gone this far, you may as well finish them out. That's pretty much how I felt lol. And I know this review has taken a sharp negative turn, but I really did enjoy them at the time!

Literary Mixtape: "Peeps" & "The Last Days"

This is another new feature for me: instead of reviewing the books, I'm just going to provide a mixtape for them. Obviously, this will only work for books with a strong musical presence but I think it should be fun.

My first Literary Mixtape is for Scott Westerfeld's Peeps & The Last Days books, which I read back in February. These were good 3 star books, very strong on the gross-out factor, and had a unique take on the vampire story. Actually, the vampire part was so different and odd, I considered them zombies for the majority of the story. (Hence the zombie songs.) I hope you enjoy this mixtape!

Listen to my full mixtape

(please be warned: some videos may not be appropriate 

for under 18 yrs old or safe for work viewing)

Elvis Presley-Are You Lonesome Tonight

Radiohead-Talk Show Host

Rob Zombie-Living Dead Girl

Aerosmith-Livin' On The Edge

Ke$ha-Cannibal

(a homemade video, but very cool!)

Regina Spektor-Consequences of Sound

Parov Stelar-Booty Swing

3 in 1 Review: Fallen Angels

The Fallen Omnibus: Vol 1 by Thomas E Sniegoski
2 out of 5 stars

I will admit it right up front, I picked this book up because of the hot guy on the cover. And I completely regretted judging this book by it's cover. I have come to realize that I do not like fallen angels or books written about them.

This is actually 2 books in 1 and while I semi-enjoyed the first book "The Fallen", the second half "Leviathan" just about killed it for me. So much that I have absolutely no interest in reading the 2nd volume, even with the super hot cover lol.

Aaron is an 18 year old boy who has been traded off to different foster homes all his life. He has finally found a family that fits well with him when he starts hearing voices and understanding all these different languages, including that of his dog, Gabriel. Gabriel was probably my favorite character. :) Aaron discovers that he is a Nephilim, half angel-half human, and is suddenly being hunted by the Powers, who are fallen angels and pretty dang vengeful. I like Aaron as a hero; he's a good, average boy who suddenly finds himself thrown into this crazy situation and really wants nothing to do with it.

I didn't really enjoy the fallen angels part of the story, not because I'm anti-religious (which I'm not), but because it was so...much...and so deep that it was hard to understand and take it all in. Also, the 2nd book, Leviathan, has this creepy, gross Jabba the Hut type creature which I was so not into lol. I can see how some would enjoy this book though, especially if you are interested in fallen angels and such, so take this review with a grain of salt!

Hush, Hush #1 by Becca Fitzpatrick
2 out of 5 stars

Compared to the book above, I should have given this one half a star. It is seriously so, so, so bad. So. Bad. And yet. I read the second one too. Eesh....I apologize that you even have to look at these reviews!

This is another fallen angel/Nephilim book, but it is centered around a Twilight-esque relationship between Nephilim Nora Grey and Fallen Angel Patch Whatever-his-last-name-is. There's plenty of really good reviews on Goodreads about this, so I'm not going to go into a lot of detail.

The relationship between Nora and Patch is so wrong on so many levels it just gives me asco. You know that shuddery, creepy feeling you get when you walk by somebody on the street and they're just leaning on the wall watching you? That's how I feel about Patch. And Nora did too, at first, then she's all "Oh, he would never hurt me, he's my true love, blah blah blah, I've been watching New Moon, etc etc etc..."

Aside from the Twilight aspect, the writing and editing is just awful. The timing is all wonky for most of the book and characters disappear a lot with no explanation and suddenly show back up the next day like nothing happened.

Crescendo (Hush, Hush) #2 by Becca Fitzpatrick
1 out of 5 stars

The sequel to Hush, Hush...I know, you're thinking "Jenn. Why the heck did you read the sequel after that awful review above??" I don't know. I just had to. And in my defense, I did at least check this one out at the library instead of buying it! Lol...

If it's possible, this one is even worse than the first. More Patch and Nora drama, but of the "He doesn't show and say he loves me every single second of the day, so I'm going to break up with him and be miserable for 200 pages" variety. Blegh.

I know some of you are going to try to read this anyway, despite my warnings. And that's okay! I'll be here waiting with your favorite ice cream and a fluffy book about 13 year old baby-sitters solving crimes and child-behavior issues in 140 pages or less to make you happy again. :)

Review: "Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #1-2"

Playing with Fire & Twice as Hot by Gena Showalter
3.5 out of 5 stars

I love the Lords of the Underworld series by Gena Showalter, so when I saw the first "Tales of an Extraordinary Girl" at Half Price one day, I decided to try it out. I was glad I did and later bought the 2nd one new, which I didn't like quite as much but still a good quick read.

In Playing with Fire, we meet Belle, who is a 24 year old sarcastic barrista. She can't hold onto a job because of her short temper and sharp tongue and yet she needs one desperately to take care of her dad, who lives in a nursing home and flirts with every woman he meets. One day, after almost getting fired again, she drinks a latte that has apparently been spiked by this mad scientist being chased by secret agent guys. She wakes up several days later with super powers and a hunka-hunka man watching over her called Rome. Action, mayhem and lots of naughty hijinks ensue when Rome & Belle go on the run. Belle's BFF, Sherridan, is a great supporting character as are Lexis and Cody. But the one who made me keep reading was Tanner, AKA Crazy Bones, the 19 year old horndog lol. He was so funny and so sweet, you just had to love him.

Twice as Hot picks up a few months later I believe. I don't want to ruin too much of either, but all your favorite characters are back along with a few new ones. The ending of this one definitely leaves it open for more, but from what I've read, she is not planning on continuing the series at this time. :( Still worth the read though!