(OLD) Mini-reviews: Daddy Long Legs and Mine to Possess

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

Series: Daddy-Long Legs #1

Release Date: January 1st, 1912 (First published)

Publisher: Puffin (of my copy)

Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

If anyone ever asked me to recommend a classic, this is what I would recommend. I love what I've read by Jane Austen but this, THIS is truly a timeless story. Almost a century later after it was first published I find myself relating to this young girl. Her story comes to life for me through her letters to Daddy Long Legs.

Sitting here, writing this, I can most definitely say that this book lived up to everything I had hoped it would.

I didn't actually know this book existed until quite recently and as soon as I read the summary, I KNEW this book was something I would love. When I got my hands on a copy 2 months ago, I decided to read it at a rather slow pace. I read around a letter a day and sometimes I'd skip days too until today, when I decided I really did want to finish this and finish it I did.

I have no idea how to put how I feel about this book in words because truly, I am mesmerized by her story. I feel so elated and happy that I all I want to do is sing and dance and imagine how everything will work out afterwards, how their story will carry on.

Judy is just such a wonderful character, she is funny, strong and so full of life and her story is wonderful.

I am obviously going to fail at writing something coherent so I am just going to go back and re-read certain things ;)

If you haven't read this, please, go read it.

Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh

Series: Psy-Changeling #4

Release Date: February 5th 2008

Publisher: Berkley

Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

This image is perfect for Tally (who is totally unworthy of that name. I am sorry but Tally from Uglies was so awesome). She is so goddamn ANNOYING. She constantly whines, is incredibly possessive and cannot seem to make up her goddamn mind. Does she want him to be her friend or her lover? MAKE UP YOUR MIND. Grr. Yes I know she had a traumatized childhood and all that jazz but I don't understand her behavior. I know she is scarred but no. If I remember correctly she got a degree in psych or something along those lines so shouldn't she at least rationally try to understand the root of her mental scars, to at least try to understand it wasn't her fault? Even if the irrational side of her refuses to let go, shouldn't the rational side of her have some sort of understanding? I just don't understand her. At all. She has got to be one of the most annoying female leads I've encountered.

Clay wasn't all that much better. He was obsessive to the extent that scared me. Before you point out his animal instincts and what not, I didn't feel the same way about Lucas, his possessiveness was still within bounds, Clay's possessiveness goes beyond 'acceptable'. I felt like he was objectifying her. Making her seem like some sort of possession instead of human.

The romance between the two made me yearn for a normal romance. I am getting tired of all the angst out there. Why cannot we just have a book where two people are already in a healthy and loving relationship and have to deal with other problems that don't concern romance? *sigh* That's probably asking for too much.

This book, despite some of my major issues with it, was still enjoyable. I was not a huge fan of the characters but the world is so interesting. I cannot help but enjoy it in spite of everything.

(OLD) Review: Ember by Bettie Sharpe

Ember by Bettie Sharpe
Release Date: February 24th 2011
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

Charm is a curse. Love is a fire. This story is no fairytale.

Everyone loves Prince Charming. They have to—he’s cursed. Every man must respect him. Every woman must desire him. One look, and all is lost.

Ember would rather carve out a piece of her soul than be enslaved by passions not her own. She turns to the dark arts to save her heart and becomes the one woman in the kingdom able to resist the Prince’s Charm.

Poor girl. If Ember had spent less time studying magic and more time studying human nature, she might have guessed that a man who gets everything and everyone he wants will come to want the one woman he cannot have.

An original spin on a age old tale

Ember is easily one of the most unique retellings I've ever had the pleasure to read. It had it's faults but the idea behind it was so refreshingly original.

Out of all the Disney princesses out there, Cinderella is my second least favorite (Snow White will always have first place on that list) because she seemed incredibly docile and her.. prince.. was well boring. For crying out loud his name was Prince Charming. And I am just putting this out there, I didn't connect the dots between his name and Prince Charming until recently so it's still a big deal to me. I mean imagine him hanging out with other guys. "HEY MAN, CHARMING, WADDUP". I am getting ahead of myself here. Going back to what I was saying, I love the idea behind it, because what girl wouldn't, but Disney didn't pull of the tale as well as they could have. Sharpe, however, did.

She puts a very original spin on the tale, one I cannot help but love. The tale is dark, it isn't full of rainbows and flowers but instead is full of witchcraft and curses.

It would be appropriate to start off with our Prince Charming. Of course in this case that isn't actually his name. People refer to him as that because he can literally charm the pants off of anyone. Everyone falls in love with him as soon as they see him. He has the power to stop wars just by appearing in front of the enemy. And like every other guy out there (or.. that I've read about) he wants the one woman who won't have him. The one woman who can see through his facade. Before I carry on, you should know, this was a curse (or gift) given to him at birth, everyone knows the tale, they just forget about it when they set eyes on him since they are so enamored by his supposed beauty. Ember, however, sees his charm for what it is, a facade which allows the Prince to always get his way.

Ember falls victim his charm as a young girl of 19 but her dying mother gives her a charm that will lessen the effects of the Prince's dreadful curse. Ember was a damn strong female lead. I have to give her that. But she could also be incredibly dense. It took her a damn long time to realize what was going on between her and Raid. I admired her spirit but I was bothered by how she couldn't pick up on such an obvious fact. I admired how she wasn't willing to just let the curse take over, she wanted to save herself and she'd do anything to achieve that.

The most interesting spin on this book was the step-mother and sisters. They are whores. But the 4 of them got along pretty well. It was the relationship between these 4 women that shined out to me. I'll admit that one of the things I DON'T like about Cinderella's tale was the step family. They treat her horribly in the original tale and I cannot quite understand how her father never saw through that. Luckily, we were spared from that nonsense. It was a relief to see how the 4 of them would do anything for one another. Their relationship was beautiful.

The romance was surprisingly good as well. This isn't a book, it's more like a novella. That usually doesn't leave room for a romance to develop and things just seem.. 'insta'. That wasn't the case here. It went from attraction, which lead to a relationship, which in turn led to love. I am still a little shaky on the why/how/when of 'Raid's' feelings but the romance itself was decent.

The plot. Yeah that needed some working. It was good but there were something things that were a little iffy. The story was too short, it could have easily been fleshed out and delivered on a lot of promises. There were some plot holes as well which could have been filled and it could have been as creepy as it promised to be.

The ending didn't work for me. I wanted something else but it'll do. It wasn't horrible, it was just not what I wanted.

Needless to say this is a great addition to all those wonderful retellings out there. With it's great prose and original spin it is definitely worth reading.

(OLD) Review: The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan

The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan

Series: Brothers Sinister #2

Release Date: July 15th, 2013

Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

Miss Jane Fairfield can’t do anything right. When she’s in company, she always says the wrong thing—and rather too much of it. No matter how costly they are, her gowns fall on the unfortunate side of fashion. Even her immense dowry can’t save her from being an object of derision.

And that’s precisely what she wants. She’ll do anything, even risk humiliation, if it means she can stay unmarried and keep her sister safe.

Mr. Oliver Marshall has to do everything right. He’s the bastard son of a duke, raised in humble circumstances—and he intends to give voice and power to the common people. If he makes one false step, he’ll never get the chance to accomplish anything. He doesn’t need to come to the rescue of the wrong woman. He certainly doesn’t need to fall in love with her. But there’s something about the lovely, courageous Jane that he can’t resist…even though it could mean the ruin of them both.

This may just be the best Historical Romance I've ever read.

I cannot even remember why I picked this up (I have short term memory loss issues), I just thought it would be a good idea and boy was it ever.

This book kind of just gets rid of quite a bit of tropes that are common in the genre. You don't have rakes, you don't have perfect characters, the beauty of these characters is not important, the characters are presented as individuals instead of a unit. It's almost as if Courtney wrote this book with me in mind.

While I enjoy the usual historical romance, they are usually guilty pleasures, not something extraordinarily unique. This one though, this one was special. The only other historical romance I can think of that made this happy was Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas.

I have to start with Oliver. He was PERFECT. Like where can I find one perfect. He is a bastard and has always been shunned his whole life because of this. His parents have always been encouraging and great but that didn't protect him from the experiences he had when he went to college, which caused him to disappear inside his own cocoon, making him forget about how his own rebellion against society. He molded himself into what they expected from him instead of what he believed. In spite of all that you can still see his determination. He will do whatever he can to get what he wants, but he'll let you know if he's about to destroy you to get there (or maybe he just really liked Jane). But my favorite thing about him was that he wasn't a rake. Half the historical romances out there have either rakes or angry young men for male leads but Oliver was neither. Oh he was angry but he wasn't a controlling douche bag. He was a sweetheart. His inner struggle was heartbreaking to watch. It helped that he wore glasses and that his looks were hardly mentioned in the book. The female lead did not spend a billion hours swooning over how hot he was (even if he was pretty damn hot).

Jane was pretty damn awesome too. She is also a bastard but she embraces it more readily than Oliver and society doesn't mind her as much because of the fact that she is rich as hell. She was extremely clever, it was hilarious watching her repel all these people by just being..kind of nice. Jane lives a lie. Well it isn't exactly a lie but an exaggeration of her own personality which no one accepted anyway. She is doing all of this because she cannot get married, well not while her sister is still under the care of their uncle. He may have good intentions but he does all the wrong things in the name of Emily's well being. Some of them scary as hell. So she needs to stay there to protect her baby sister. But going back to Jane, she is this wonderful female lead who isn't ashamed. She may be alone, she may not be particularly happy but she never loses her back bone. She is strong and wonderful. One of the things that I really loved about her was how that even in the end, when she got her own HEA, she didn't let go of her 'out going ness'. She didn't lose the characteristics that made her, well her, even when there was no need to repel guys.

The romance though. It still makes me grin. It's slow to develop and starts off with friendship instead of you know, insta love. There isn't even insta attraction. Jane wants to get Oliver off her back while Oliver pities her. Even he doesn't initially see through her armor. Which is incredibly refreshing because it would be way too convenient if he did. It's really fun watching Oliver, in particular, struggle with his feelings until he comes to the realization ON HIS OWN that his life would suck without Jane. Jane again surprises me when she doesn't give up everything she is to be with this guy. It's not the fact that she didn't give up everything but the fact that she realized what she would be losing if she did that. She would be losing herself. I don't make to make their romance sound morbid, it has tons of fun banter and swoon worthy moments as well.

The secondary characters are awesome and I enjoyed Emily and Battacharya's story as well. It was sweet and lovable, just like them.

I also enjoyed Jane's relationship with her sister. It was so heartwarming. Although let me just say because I really need to get it out of my system, I AM NOT THAT KIND OF SISTER. Man I really do hope that someday someone will write a story where sisters aren't so NICE to each other.

In the end this is a wonderful historical romance and I am pretty sure I'll be re-reading it sometime in the near future. Hell for the first time I actually want to read the sequel although I doubt it will live up to the awesomeness of this book. I DEFINITELY recommend this book to fans of historical romance who are getting tired of the tropes.

ARC Review: Banishing the Dark by Jenn Bennett

Banishing the Dark by Jenn Bennett
Previous review: Binding the Shadows
Series: Arcadia Bell #4
Release Date: May 27th, 2014
Publisher: Pocket
Source: Net Galley
Pre-Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

Complicated does not begin to describe Arcadia Bell's life right now: unnatural magical power, another brush with death, and a murderous mother who's not only overbearing but determined to take permanent possession of Cady's body. Forced to delve deep into the mystery surrounding her own birth, Cady must uncover which evil spell her parents cast during her conception…and how to reverse it. Fast. As she and her lover Lon embark on a dangerous journey through her magical past, Lon's teenage son Jupe sneaks off for his own investigation. Each family secret they uncover is darker than the last, and Cady, who has worn many identities—Moonchild, mage, fugitive—is about to add one more to the list.

Note: This review may or may not be incoherent. Do not blame me. Blame the fact that I just finished one of my favorite series.

It is kind of hard to believe that one of my favorite urban fantasy series has finally come to an end. I was late to the party but for the past year I’ve loved and re-read this series and become a huge fan of the author and it’s so sad to let a series you loved finally go.

This series is perfect, you have great characters, a great supporting cast, great romance and entertaining plots. This book was no different, however this time around we were also introduced to Jupe’s POV.

Cady and Lon never fail to amaze me. They are such strong and wonderful characters. You just cannot help but like them. They both have their moments but at the same time they are just so lovable. They both have insecurities but it’s been so much fun watching them grow over the course of 4 books. From being too scared to say those 3 words to finally admitting them. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to express how much I love the two.

Their romance is still as wonderful as ever. There was a twist at the beginning that initially brought things down for me. I wasn’t completely sure it would work out well and I was too scared that I would end up raging instead of enjoying the romance between one of my favorite couples but I shouldn’t have worried. Jenn has it covered. She pulled it off and I loved their romance this time around as well. Lon is a little withdrawn in this book but he has his reasons and I kind of love how he is giving her room.  He gives her the space she needs but at the same time he is so supportive. Not that that’s a new thing. There are things he doesn’t agree with, wishes there was another way but he doesn’t stop Cady because he respects her as a person even though all his instincts are screaming at him to shove her inside a closet and protect her to the best of his ability.

One of the drawbacks of this novel for me was Jupe’s POV. I know many people have been looking forward to this and I am pretty sure it’s me and not his POV that makes it difficult for me to enjoy reading those bits. For the past three books I’ve observed Jupe from an ‘adult’ point of view so I think of him as the ‘cute little kid’ (and he is indeed adorable) but the change to his POV kind of just makes it hard for me to see him as a kid and forces me to see him as a teenager. Which just makes things a little awkward for my brain. With that said, I still adored Jupe in this novel.

Priya; however, not so much. I felt like Priya took advantage of Jupe’s need to be an adult to manipulate him into doing something that could cause him harm and so I wasn’t Priya’s biggest fan in this book.

The plot was strong in this one. Jenn did not disappoint with the finale. I was on the edge of my seat eagerly awaiting the final showdown. Emotions ran high. There was action and there were also amazing paranormal bits.

The epilogue, predictably, did not work for me. Epilogues are not my thing and I can only think of one off the top of my head that I actually loved to death. I always find them to be too HEA and it just reinforces the fact that the series has come to an end and these characters that you’ve come to love will no longer have amazing adventures.

Writing this review is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do this week (and believe me, my week has been hellish). It’s so impossibly hard to say good bye and you know what, I’ll do it with a smile on my face knowing that I wasn’t let down and that Jenn didn’t disappoint me.

This is a series I will recommend to everyone until well the end of time because Cady and Lon are full of win and everyone should get to appreciate their brilliance. 

ARC Review: Talker 25 by Joshua McCune

Talker 25 by Joshua McCune
Series: Talker 25 #1
Release Date: April 22nd 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow
Source: Edelweiss
Pre-Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

It's a high school prank gone horribly wrong-sneaking onto the rez to pose next to a sleeping dragon-and now senior Melissa Callahan has become an unsuspecting pawn in a war between Man and Monster, between family and friends and the dragons she has despised her whole life. Chilling, epic, and wholly original, this debut novel imagines a North America where dragons are kept on reservations, where strict blackout rules are obeyed no matter the cost, where the highly weaponized military operates in chilling secret, and where a gruesome television show called Kissing Dragons unites the population. Joshua McCune's debut novel offers action, adventure, fantasy, and a reimagining of popular dragon lore.

This book is a big fat joke and I really wish I hadn’t been drawn to it because of it's pretty cover. I should have learned my lesson but I never do. Plus I decided to not read any of the reviews which could have prevented me from wasting the painfully long time it took me to read this book.

At first there was some potential. The first couple of pages made me think this book stood a chance and could either blow my mind or go down the drain. It took the latter path. The first time I knew this book was a goner was when the main character referred to her friend’s appearance as ‘the whore look’. Slut shamming right there and it happened so many more times. There wasn’t only slut shamming though, there were so many instances where female characters were mocked for various things.

Melissa falls under the teenagers that I’d like to slap category. She is self-centered and insensitive. She yells at her father and brother all the time and goes so far as to publicly humiliate her younger brother. Sure it was an accident but just because you’re fucking stressed doesn’t mean you have the right to take your anger on whoever the hell you want to. Melissa, like any other annoying ass teenager out there, swoons when she encounters a hot guy. Never mind the fact that the government thinks she is an insurgent and will most likely arrest her.

The insurgents are stupid. They are supposed to be rebels. They support the dragons and you know what? These shit heads aren’t rebels. They are kiss-assesses. They kiss up to dragons and try to win their favor. I am not kidding. The dragons are apparently self-sufficient so I don’t even understand why they need humans to help them. I don’t think the dragons even care. Like seriously. This is basically what the insurgents are like when it comes to dragons.

They fawn over them but aside from that, they don’t know shit.

The James dude, the love interest is equally as annoying.

“Probably. I don’t know. If you don’t face death every once in a while, how do you know how to live?”

It reminds me of a book I read a while ago, The Wicked We Have Done. The book referred to this ideal as Chaos Theory and because of the events of that book, his ideas don’t make me think, they just piss me off. No. Going out of your way to look for trouble is only going to end up with you being dead. There is something known as self-preservation and I am not sure James has it. Thankfully though, he doesn’t play a major role in this book so I didn’t have to put up with his stupidity for too long (this also means that there wasn't much of a romance so yay for that too).

A lot of the instances of slut/woman shamming aren’t exactly portrayed in a negative light. They are supposed to come across as jokes but they didn’t. For example, this

"Claire, whose hairy legs could be very well belong to a sasquatch..”

I didn’t laugh. I might have if I was the sort of human who thought that all women should shave their legs because otherwise, they’re just disgusting freaks, but as it is, I DON’T! Melissa also called her friend at the ‘camp’ a whore, and of course it was playful because she is one. She uses her body to get alcohol. If you cannot tell, I am being sarcastic here. Instead of mocking and making fun of her friend, she should try to help her. If she is so dependent on alcohol, then there is obviously something wrong here. But no. The world revolves around Melissa and no one else matters.

There are other completely insensitive instances in this book. Like this one.

"..sitting all retarded in the restroom”

This sentence was used to refer to a girl who just died and they were trying to think of things to comfort themselves so that they wouldn’t feel so bad about her death. I cannot even. I seriously cannot. SO MUCH RAGE. SO SO SO MUCH RAGE.

The book is way too fast for the first 1/3^rd of the book with things happening one after the other and no time for readers to digest what is going on. The next 2/3rds slows down and kind of reminds me of some odd mix between The Program and The Hunger Games except with dragons. These kids are sent to Antarctica to be reconditioned so that they aren’t ‘dragon friendly’ anymore. The government is completely evil and for what reason I don’t understand. Of course humanity is going to freak out if a bunch of dragons came out of nowhere. Humans are not required to accommodate them. THEY SHOULD. They definitely should out of common courtesy but dragons are the strange species here and not humans (or the animals that inhabit the planet). Their presence could result in fractures in the ecosystem and a whole heap of other problems so I am not sure why the government is seen as evil (and also portrayed as evil in a very cartoonish way). Things are not so black and white and shouldn’t be portrayed as such. 

Also there is a weird TV show in this book which is why I said Hunger Games. These people are made to dress up and kill dragons to entertain the dragon hating public. *rolls eyes*. I don’t even know what to say to that.

The world building is very weak in this novel. The dragons came out of nowhere 15 years ago (the dragons don’t remember where they came from either), they are digging a giant pit in the middle of Kansas. Why? Also the dragons themselves make no sense. Their reproduction techniques remind me of flowers which just makes me go huh? On top of that, the ‘baby’ dragons remind me of giant puppies. The dragon in one scene goes so far as to ‘lick’ Melissa’s face a bazillion times. What? WHY? The adult dragons just reminds me of stuck up humans. We’re talking about dragons here and as someone who loves dragons, I am annoyed. There was a LOT of potential here for developing interesting dragons but the potential just went down the drain.

I ended up skimming huge chunks and even then it took me ages to read. This book dragged on and on and made me rage and even writing this review kind of makes me angry. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless you’re sure you're be able to handle it. I am pretty sure I won’t read the sequel unless I am feeling masochistic and decide I want to know what happens from this point onwards. 

Note that all quotes have been taken from an uncorrected proof and may be subject to change.

ARC Review: The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer

The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer
Release Date: May 13th, 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Source: Edelweiss
Pre-Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

Growing up in a house of female morticians, Lily Graves knows all about buried secrets. She knows that perfect senior-class president Erin Donohue isn’t what she seems. She knows why Erin’s ex-boyfriend, hot football player Matt Houser, broke up with her. And she also knows that, even though she says she and Matt are just friends, there is something brewing between them—something Erin definitely did not like.

But secrets, even ones that are long buried, have a way of returning to haunt their keeper.

So when Erin is found dead the day after attacking Lily in a jealous rage, Lily's and Matt’s safe little lives, and the lives of everyone in their town of Potsdam, begin to unravel. And their relationship—which grew from innocent after-school tutoring sessions to late-night clandestine rendezvous—makes them both suspects.

As her world crumbles around her, Lily must figure out the difference between truth and deception, genuine love and a web of lies. And she must do it quickly, before the killer claims another victim.

The Secrets of Lily Graves can easily be summed up as addicting. Can I pack my bags and go now? Drat. I have to say more? But I don’t know what to sayyyyy because really, while The Secrets of Lily Graves was fun, it wasn’t anything special. It was a quick read and I finished it in around 2 hours and the ending confused me a little but other than that, I never really thought about it as soon as I put it down.

The author makes use of common tropes but she does it in a way that doesn’t grate on you, so while there are the popular mean girls and there the girls who are bullied by these ‘mean girls’ they also see each other as humans. When Erin dies, the main character is shocked; this person wasn’t nice to her, at all, but a young life was lost and Lily understands the significance of that.

Lily as a character was really fun. She is original, she likes weird things and she is proud of it. She doesn’t want to be normal and it doesn’t matter how much crap people give her, she aien’t gonna change. Hell she dressed up as a normal human being for Halloween because that’s the scariest thing she can think of. I mean doesn’t that make you like her already?

The love interest, Matt is definitely one of the better love interests I've come across. The author takes the jock trope and puts a spin on it. He’s a jock, he probably isn’t all that smart, but he isn’t a complete bully. When one of his friends was bullying a girl for her weight, he started making fun of his friend in a friendly manner to take the attention off of the girl. This also happened before Lily registered on his radar so he gets the brownie point. He isn’t an asshole either! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? He doesn’t pull the passive aggressive shit. He does have depth to him but it doesn’t turn him into a character you pity but instead one you cannot help but like because it makes him more human than his status as a jock does.

I love her family too. They are an odd bunch with her mom being over protective, her aunt being really cool and her grandma just being silly. They don’t play a major role when it comes to the actual happenings but I like that the author attempted at making them seem somewhat normal seeing that they live in a funeral home (which by the way is kind of awesome).

The romance is adorable. It’s almost non-existent but that’s because there is a mystery to solve. These two are not a case of insta-attraction or even opposites attract. They became friends over the course of the summer when Matt asked her to tutor him for a history re-take because he failed the first time around. When Erin is found dead, he is the number one suspect and Lily doesn’t doubt him for a second because she knows him well enough to know he wouldn’t kill her. He hardly had the guts to break up with her, why would he kill her? So over the course of the book, little by little, they become even closer. Don’t go into this book looking for a lot of romance, go into this book expecting a nicely developed romance that is adorable.

The plot is where things get interesting. You have a bunch of amateur sleuths trying to figure out the truth behind how Erin was murdered. The primary suspects are Matt and Lily because everyone assumes they were an ‘item’ and so one of them might have ‘offed’ Erin so the two could be together. Lily, who aspires to join the family business, knows that only a professional could have done it because of the accuracy of the cuts on her wrists. The problem is that no one is telling the whole truth, everyone is hiding something and it’s up to Lily to figure out who murdered her since the police is too busy looking in the wrong direction. Slowly, Lily starts unravelling the mystery.

It’s the twist at the end that kind of throws you off; it’s not so much as unpredictable as it is just… awkward. The author puts hints throughout the whole book so it doesn’t come out of nowhere but at the same time, I am not completely sure how I feel about it. Even after thinking it through I am not sure whether I am annoyed or whether it makes sense. I’ll figure it out one day when my mind wanders to this book again.

All in all, if you’re looking for a quick comfort read, grab this and devour it like I did. It’s fun, it’s got good characters, no slut shamming and the romance was cute. The mystery was pretty fun too and really, what else can you want from a comfort read?

ARC Review: The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier

The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier
Release Date: 11th March 2014
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Source: Netgalley
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

The Lost Sisterhood is the new novel from the author of Juliet, an Oprah's Book Club Pick published in 30 countries which has been picked up by Universal to be made into a feature film. The Lost Sisterhood tells the story of Diana, a young and aspiring--but somewhat aimless--professor at Oxford. Her fascination with the history of the Amazons, the legendary warrior women of ancient Greece, is deeply connected with her own family's history; her grandmother in particular. When Diana is invited to consult on an archeological excavation, she quickly realizes that here, finally, may be the proof that the Amazons were real.

The Amazons' "true" story--and Diana's history--is threaded along with this modern day hunt. This historical back-story focuses on a group of women, and more specifically on two sisters, whose fight to survive takes us through ancient Athens and to Troy, where the novel reinvents our perspective on the famous Trojan War.

The Lost Sisterhood features another group of iconic, legendary characters, another grand adventure--you'll see in these pages that Fortier understands the kind of audience she has built with Juliet, but also she's delivering a fresh new story to keep that audience coming back for more.

Do you like adventure? Does a good treasure hunt intrigue you? Are you fascinated by ancient history and mythology? Then perhaps you have come to the right place for this book provides you with a good mix of everything I just mentioned above.

There are mixed reviews all over the place about this book and it’s really easy to see why. Some people will love this and some people won’t. One reviewer described this book as the Dan Brown of women’s fiction and that is a very apt comparison because this book does have the same vibes as a typical Dan Brown book and your enjoyment of this book will largely depend on whether or not that sort of thing works for you. If you haven’t read any Dan Brown and are confused as to what I am referring to.. basically, do you like info dumps? Do you mind being stuffed with information? Avoid this if that doesn't appeal to you, but if you don’t mind so long as the topic interests you (which in case it did for me), dive right in but prepared for a couple of unrealistic things that may bother you.

I was in 3^rd grade when I first heard about the lost city of Troy and since then, mythology hasn’t let go of the grip it has on me. As soon as I came across this book and saw the combination of mythology, history and women’s fiction, I knew I had to read it and I was not let down. I went into this expecting a good adventure and that is exactly what I got.

This novel follows the story of two women, namely Myrina, who lived in the Bronze Age and Diana who lives in present day.

Diana is approached by a mysterious man who tells her that proof that Amazons existed has been found. The man proceeds to hand her an image to back up what he is saying. Diana is definitely vary but she is also intrigued because well she is passionate about Amazons and something about the writing in the image seems familiar. It turns out that the notebook her grandmother left her was written in the same language and so begins our adventure as Diana follows the same path Myrina did over thousands of years ago.

Diana for the most part is a pretty decent female lead. She is headstrong and can make her own decisions. She doesn’t let the men make her choices for her but instead does what she feels is right. She’s grown up, she can handle herself… for the most part. Sometimes she may need to be rescued and sometimes her decisions land her in icky messes but really the one thing that bothered me about her is how oblivious she can be. Especially with the whole thing about her grandma. It’s GLARINGLY obvious what’s going on there yet Diana was blind to that for a major chunk of the book.

Also, I do not buy the fact that this chick translated an ancient scripture in a manner of days. Uh.. NO. Even with the ‘translating dictionary’ Diana had (her grandmother’s notebook), it should still take more than a mere 5 days. Remember when I mentioned unrealistic things? Yup, this was one of them.

Myrina was an interesting character to say the least. Both Diana and Myrina get thrown into circumstances that turn their lives upside down, they follow similar paths but their stories are different. Myrina travels all the way to a city to find the Moon Goddess so that her sister can be cured of the blindness that came as a result of a fever. Myrina is a wonderful sister and more than that, she is a brave warrior. She is a hunter at heart and she is a strong female lead and a great leader. In spite of all these wonderful things about her, I never really liked her. I didn’t dislike her, but her story, while fun to follow, was not nearly as enjoyable as Diana’s. Perhaps this is because Myrina’s story has an underlying sadness to it. When you realize that all of this occurred in a past so distant, in a part of history that has been lost and might not ever be recovered, it makes you feel very melancholic.

One of the loop holes in Myrina’s story was her elder sister. I have no idea what happened to her. Perhaps I accidentally skimmed over the part (hey, the book was long!!), or perhaps it was never mentioned.

The world building is were some of the other issues arise. The scholars in this world are constantly looking down on women and I know this happens in the real world. I KNOW. But the extent to which it happens in this book kind of pisses me off. It seems overdone. Then there was also the thing about the female lead being half American and other scholars constantly mocking her for her ‘Americaness’ when according to her she was raised in Britain. Really? Are we really going there?

The author brought some original twists to the tales we know and some of them, well, some of them just didn’t work for me. They were believable. The author didn’t just pull them out of nowhere but sometimes some things don’t work for you and nothing can change that. There were also other things that the author threw into the mix which didn’t sit well with me but I learned to live with those grievances to enjoy the adventure I was on.

One of my other issues with this novel was the romance. No the romances. Neither of the romances were all that well developed. The romance is not the focus of either story (okay so perhaps Myrina’s tale has a tad bit more romance) but I never saw it coming. I mean I knew there was going to be a romance, but there wasn’t enough development in either case to make the romance more believable. They seemed to have popped out of nowhere.

With that said, Myrina’s romance, even with my annoyance of how it seemed random, was so sweet. It really just brought out emotions. Yes I was annoyed that Myrina willingly gave up who she was but then her romantic interest is just so adorable that it’s hard to stay mad. There is so much respect in their relationship and so much love and SO MUCH COMPANIONSHIP. They can tell each other things. They do get mad at each other but they are sweet together.

Diana’s romance was… iffy. Nick is not the best love interest out there. He has been lying to her since the dawn of time and has pulled her inside this complicated web of lies and really I have no idea how she could trust him after everything that he has done. I know I wouldn’t. Pretty face be damned (although I am not sure we know what he looks like exactly).

There are secrets, lies, ancient civilizations and heaps of mythology involved and if you’re looking for an adventure, this book does give you one.

But it’s best not to go into this book expecting to be wowed. Similar to a typical Darn Brown book, the excitement only lasts for the period you are reading the book and once you’re done, everything will fade away. This book makes for excellent brain candy and I’d recommend this to fans of Dan Brown but also to anyone who is looking to lay back and just chill with a good adventure. Don’t let the number of pages scare you off for they go by pretty fast and the book will be over before you know it. 

ARC Review: The Wicked We Have Done by Sarah Harian

The Wicked We Have Done by Sarah Harian
Series: Chaos Theory #1
Publisher: InterMix Books
Release Date: March 18th 2014
Source: NetGalley
Pre-Order: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

Evalyn Ibarra never expected to be an accused killer and experimental prison test subject. A year ago, she was a normal college student. Now she’s been sentenced to a month in the compass room—an advanced prison obstacle course designed by the government to execute justice.

If she survives, the world will know she’s innocent.

Locked up with nine notorious and potentially psychotic criminals, Evalyn must fight the prison and dismantle her past to stay alive. But the system prized for accuracy appears to be killing at random.

She doesn’t plan on making friends.

She doesn’t plan on falling in love, either.

“We die if we’re supposed to die, right?”

While The Wicked We Have Done is not the most original book out there, it certainly was a highly entertaining read; until it took a turn which I couldn’t accept, a turn I STILL cannot accept. It enraged me with how easily it could waive something like ‘that’ off. I just couldn’t.

Comparisons to the Hunger Games will be unavoidable because of the whole survival aspect and how they always found food randomly.  Comparisons to the other dystopian book will also be made due to the whole stimulation aspect but in spite of all these similarities, The Wicked We Have Done does manage to stand out because of the way it presents these ideas. It puts a psychological spin on them and adds the throws in a bit of crime. Because how can what is happening to them be wrong when some of them are in fact evil criminals who ruthlessly harmed other people and took great pleasure in it? The Wicked We Have Done brings up the age old question of the ethicality of death penalty and a hand full of other questions about who the victims are and whether a crime can be justified.

The book opens with a touching scene between the main character, her mother and her brother. They are having their final farewell before she goes to the Compass Room where she will most assuredly die. The chances of survival are extremely low but the main character comforts her mother and younger brother instead and puts on a brave face while the first breaks apart and the latter buys her story (because he is 5). 

Evalyn was a great character (until that one thing which I will get back to later). She was full of guilt and self-doubt yet she also managed to be a leader for all these other criminals. She doesn’t fall apart but instead tried to keep the group together to the best of her ability. She supported everyone, cared about everyone and made good decisions. Yes some were rash but in the end, she was a wonderful leader.

All the other characters fall into the category of well-developed characters. The author gives all of them a sort of depth that I usually find lacking in all other books in the New-Adult category. The author doesn’t just focus on the love interest, Casey. She develops all the characters in the supporting cast and she develops them WELL. And when I say supporting cast, I mean even the characters we encounter in the female lead’s flash backs.

The relationships that  emerged between these characters (except the romance) are wonderful and sweet. It’s just heartwarming to see them all get together and let go of their differences and just survive together. They have each other’s backs. They laugh together. They comfort each other and they help each other face their fears.

The romance was one of the things that bothered me in this book. It definitely had potential. It started off slowly. I was so sure I’d finally found a slow-burn romance that seems to be almost completely absent from New-Adult but then they declared their ‘I love you’s’ in a time span of two weeks. We’re talking about the same people whose first kiss was not a result of attraction but was meant as a way of comforting each other. Given the circumstances, it’s highly probable that bonds will be forge but ‘I love you’s’ declared when the female lead claimed to have been in love with her childhood sweetheart who she was together with for 5 years?? Yeah, not so much.

“..this place is patiently waiting to peel back the layers of your skin and claw out your insides.”

The world building, as I mentioned earlier, was not particularly original, but it worked. The Compass Room was a wonderful idea. It wasn’t built to torture children. It was built to distinguish the morally corrupt from those who weren’t so because while some of these youngsters have committed horrid crimes, for a good number of them, it’s a one-time thing. And so The Compass Room gives them the opportunity to show their innocence. What I also found interesting was that this book wasn’t like a typical dystopia, hell I am not sure it can even be classified as one because I don’t find the government to be at fault here. Yes glitches occurred and shit went down but the intentions were not evil. And the people in this society have a voice. People are allowed to protest, LOTS of people DID in fact protest against the idea of The Compass Room because they didn't find it to be morally correct to put young kids through something so difficult. 

The plot revolves around a group of misfits trying to survive and finding a way to beat the system to save themselves. We are also trying to unravel the mystery of what exactly it was that what went down that landed Evalyn in jail. This was the biggest drawback of the novel. THIS was what screwed the book over. For starters, the author spent too much time dancing around what happened offering us hints instead of just telling us. When we learned what went down, it was heartbreaking but I also think the author was trying to make us see Evalyn as an innocent party which is something I wholeheartedly disagree with. She is not innocent. She may have been a victim but you most definitely cannot label her as innocent. She was definitely guilty and she deserves to do time in jail. Some things cannot be justified in my book, no matter what. Some of the crimes the other characters committed were justified but I cannot write off what she did and I absolutely hate how it was waived off as an act of love. 

If you’re looking for a book that deals more with the whole criminal aspect, read Criminal. It does an excellent job of it and takes crime seriously unlike this book.

That issue was a total buzzkill when it came to this book. It flushed all of my enjoyment down the toilet and replaced said joy with rage. I was angry. I was pissed. But I couldn’t completely dismiss this book. The first 80% was enjoyable. The book (until that point) was a page turner. I was on the edge of my seat, crossing my fingers for all my favorite characters and was thoroughly enjoying the book.

In the end, I would still recommend this to people because it’s something new in the New Adult category, something I haven’t seen before and it really gives me hope for New Adult. That someday I will read a New Adult that makes it to my list of all-time favorites. Until then, I shall patiently wait for that day (and read another book in the mean time).

Note that all quotes have been taken from an uncorrected proof and may be subject to change.