More Mini-Reviews!!

Lament and Ballad

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genres: YA, urban fantasy, romance, suspense

Kindle Editions

Rating: 4 out of 5

As someone who is always on the lookout for good YA, faery stories, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Maggie Stiefvater (author of The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy) had two books published in the genre. I, of course, immediately jumped on Amazon and downloaded them to my Kindle for reading (I also bought them in paperback at Walden Books over the weekend :D).

Lament is the story of Deirdre Monaghan, a girl who lives a normal life until it's crashed by a gorgeous guy named Luke (who didn't see that coming? lol). Deirdre discovers that she is a cloverhand, someone whom faeries are drawn to, and her death has been ordered by the Faerie Queen. The connection she feels toward Luke is so immediate that it's not very believable, but considering the way romance has been happening in YA romance as of late, it's not surprising. I couldn't feel sympathy for her when it came to her feelings for Luke and their struggle to be together. Honestly, I didn't much like Deirdre. The character that did it form me in Lament was James. I fell in love with James and his wit/sarcasm from the very beginning. He's likeable and cynical all at the same time, and it's obvious how much he cares for Deirdre. The torment he (a minor character) felt throughout the book was more profound and touching to me than that of Deirdre's.

Which is why I loved Ballad to death. Rather than follow Deirdre, Ballad is told from James and Nuala (a leanan sidhe) POV's. While the switching doesn't occur every chapter, it happens fluidly and every chapter is titled with the name of the character whose POV of chapter is in, so it's easy to follow. The love/hate relationship James and Nuala develop (which, of course, ends up leaning more toward the love the side) is amusing and touching. It's easy to see the attraction and tenderness growing between them without Steifvater coming out and saying that they were falling in love with each other (unlike another certain author I've listed in this review dump, : \). Nuala's struggle with refusing to take a piece of James' life, even though she needs it to survive, as well as her fear of being burned to death on Halloween, is emotional and calls out to the reader. I felt her fear, as well as James' fear at the thought of losing her.

I would recommend this book to anyone. Whether you're a fan of faery stories, romance, or YA, this book will suck you in and keep you entertained. If it weren't for Lament, this series would have received a 5 out of 5. Even so, I would recommend that readers of Ballad read Lament as well. Not necessarily first, but at least after Ballad in order to fully grasp what happens throughout the book.

Firelight

Author: Sophie Jordan

Genres: YA, urban fantasy, romance

Kindle Edition

Rating: 4 out of 5

When I first heard about Firelight, I was excited. I mean, hell... A love story featuring a main character that can change into a dragon?! Hell yeah! And thankfully, I wasn't too disappointed.

The story is fast-paced and intriguing. We follow Jacinda as she's ripped from her foggy home in the Catskill Mountains and is shoved into a new life in the middle of the desert, a place that will eventually kill the Draki living inside of her with it's desolate dryness. While there, she runs into Will, a Hunter who saved her life before she left the mountains. He's dangerously beautiful and Jace finds that, around Will, her Draki thrives. So begins a dangerous romance. Jace knows she should stay away from Will, but can't seem to listen to her intuition. Not only that, but she has to hide the fact that she is a Draki from Will and his terrible family who would kill her in an instant if they knew what she was.

At the same time, we have conflict coming from Tamra, Jacinda's twin sister. Tamra never matured into a Draki, and just wants to live a normal life. With Jace's hormones (and Draki) running wild while around Will, Tamra pressures her sister not to ruin everything for her. Jace knows she owes it to her sister--that Tamra deserves to live a normal life--but is letting go of Will and allowing her Draki to die worth it?

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA urban fantasy. The relationship between Jace and Will is one of those typical to YA romances that we see so much of nowadays, but the conflict and storytelling sets it off nicely. There's more to this story than the budding romance between Jace and Will.

Vintage: A Ghost Story

Author: Steve Berman

Genre: YA, LGBT, paranormal

Kindle Edition

Rating: 3 out of 5

So... I had been dying to read this book for several years now. I wasn't able to find it at any local bookstores because it's out of print, and most of the prices I found on Amazon were just a bit too high. The day I got my Kindle, though, I jumped on the Kindle Store and nearly died when I saw they had it for $4. *ZOMGDIEZ* Needless to say, I immediately downloaded it and couldn't wait to get around to reading it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. Yes, it's a nice, fast-paced story with likable characters, but I didn't feel that there was much growth throughout. The nameless main character remains the same character throughout the story. Sure, he becomes a bit less shallow after the debacle that is his "relationship" with Josh and is actually tender and careful when it comes to Mike, but he just stays the same at his root as he is in the beginning. And I so desperately wanted him to grow, both into himself as a gay teen and himself as a person. But at the end of the story, he seems just as afraid of his sexuality as he is in the beginning.

On a humorous note, I found myself repeating "We sell those at Cracker Barrel!" whenever Maggie would go on a search for Valomilks and find none. Heheh. My boss got a good laugh out of that when I told her about it this morning. Being reminded of work while reading? Not the greatest thing in the world, but I don't think I've ever seen Valomilks in a grocery store (which is where Maggie conducted most of her searches).

Anyway, the relationship between the main character and Mike was well done, but I wanted to see more of it. I wanted to see more of the main characters internal conflict with his growing attraction to Mike, his best friend's younger brother. There was so much conflict when it came to Josh, and next to none with Mike. While that may have been intentional on the author's part (showing the differences in the relationships with the amount of conflict involved in each), but it just fell flat for me. Every relationship has its conflict, especially when it comes to a gay teen who isn't comfortable in his sexuality.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for YA LGBT literature. There isn't much out there and this is one of the better books I have read. Other than that, I'm not sure I would recommend it to anyone else.

I hope you all enjoyed these reviews!!! Happy reading!

Mini-Reviews!

Okay... So I'm a horrible, terrible, miserable blogger. Especially a make-up and book reviews blogger, considering that I've done several nifty make-up looks over the past few weeks and I've read 10 books since my last post, four of which have been read in the past week. : \ I'm sailing through books but not taking the time to do proper reviews for them as I finish. I'm going to try and fix that, but for now, here is a a blog featuring reviews for the first 3 books/series I've read over the past couple weeks. I'll post the other three tomorrow. :)

The Iron Fey series (including the novellas)

Author: Julie Kagawa

Genre: YA, urban fantasy, romance

Rating: 5 out of 5

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a picture of all five pieces of the series (Summer's Crossing would come after The Iron Queen), but this is a review of them all regardless.

First of all, I have to say that I loooooove the way that Ms Kagawa integrated the Iron Court into the well-loved and concrete world of faery mythology that already exists (i.e. the Seelie and Unseelie courts, Summer v Winter, etc...). It's imaginative and a breath of fresh air for the world of faery stories.

The storytelling is gripping and the characters are strong. I'm mostly one for the "dark, broody, and emo" characters and Ash was no exception. However, I have to admit that I fell in love with Puck, even more so after reading Summer's Crossing. Reading in his POV (especially since The Iron Knight is going to be in Ash's POV versus Meghan's POV throughout the first three books). Puck is a fun and intriguing character. While his love for Meghan is admittedly cliche for this particular genre, the way he handles it is well done. I really do want him and Ash to be able to put aside their differences and become friends again. Considering they'll be travelling together throughout The Iron Knight, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :D

The Witches of Santa Anna novellas 1-7

Authors: Lauren Barnholdt and Aaron Gorvine

Genres: YA, witchcraft, romance, angst

Kindle Edition

Rating: 3 out of 5

This isn't the greatest series out there. The storyline is predictable, the pages are littered with typos and/or incorrect punctuation/grammar, and it would have made more sense to put them all together as one novel (kind of like this package) rather than released seven different novellas. However, the story makes for a quick and easy read (I read through it one afternoon while babysitting) and it's one of those guilty pleasure stories that's hard to put down. I, for one, will most likely be getting my hands on season two of the series, if only to see what the hell Raine will come up with next to screw with Natalia and Campbell.

Virtue

Author: Amanda Hocking

Genres: YA, fantasy, romance

Kindle Edition

Rating: 2 out of 5

Part of me feels guilty for giving this book such a low rating, but the holder of a BA degree in writing feels differently. A LOT differently. While I enjoyed this story and read through it quickly, there were several things that bothered me about it. The most glaring of these things is the overwhelming about of "telling v showing" that occurs throughout the book. As one of my favorite writing professors always said: "Don't tell me the woman walked across the street. Show it to me!" 

One of these such lines is "For a moment, he was stuck completely mute by her beauty, and that response to her started him."

SHOW ME HE WAS STARTLED! How did he show he was startled? Did he stare at her with wide eyes? Did he stumble a bit? Catch his breath? I want to know how strongly Lux reacted to Lily's beauty rather than having the author use something so unemotional as "and that response to her startled him." How am I as a reader supposed to connect to Lux's emotion otherwise?

I could keep listing instances of this, but I think I'll just leave it at that. The number of typos and such throughout the text were also bothersome, though not so much as the telling. The characters were stock. Lily and Lux felt flat rather than fully rounded, and I didn't relate to their struggle at all. Wick was a bit more rounded in her desire to help and rescue Lily in memory of an old friend (Lily's mother), as was Gula in his readiness to help Lux regardless of what may happen to him in the end. Valefor, however, was a stock villian, as were his minions. I DID like the concept of the Sins and their opposite Virtues, but it wasn't expanded or developed enough to really excite me.

All in all, I'd recommend someone who was interested in a good read, but it's definitely not for someone who is always on the lookout for good literature.

Anywho, I hope you all were able to glean some good or bad vibes from the books here. The Iron Fey series is a definite "YES" for anyone who is interested in YA literature of any sort. The Witchee of Santa Anna isn't the best book around, but it's a quick read and one of those guilty pleasures you won't be able to put down. And Virtue is a good book for someone who wants something to read in order to waste some time, but not for much else. 

Happy reading, guys! I'll see you tomorrow with three more reviews!