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!

EOTD: August 29

Hey, guys! Sorry I've been nonexistent lately. :\ I feel really horrible about it, but work and trying to learn my way around my new phone and Kindle have taken precedence over other things. The good, and wild, thing I've learned, though, is that the camera on my phone takes better pictures than my actual camera. Even macro! Wtf is up with that?!?! Anyway, here is my makeup from yesterday which was inspired by the colors of my computer mouse. Random? Yes, but the colors in my mouse are awesome, lol.


Eyes: Micabella primer Lime Crime's "Abaracadabra" (pink) Icing palette (blue) Hot Topic colors (purple and green) Maynelline Great Lash mascara 
  Face: Hard Candy Sheer Envy primere.l.f. under eye concealer in light L'Oreal True Match pressed foundation in Porcelain

Once again, I'm posting this from my phone, so I'm going to keep this short. Time for me to read a bit and go to bed. I have a looooooong day of work ahead of me. :\ But hopefully I'll have the energy/motivation to do my makeup before I leave! I hope you all are well! <3 Nichole

 

New Toys!!

I was lucky enough to get my hands on two new toys today. 1) a Motorola Photon 4G, my very first (and totally mind blowing) smart phone!! And 2) a Kindle!! Of course, there are still several books on my shelf that I need to make my way through before I go to the Kindle fulltime, but I'm still super excited to have it!

Unfortunately I don't have any looks to post today, nor do I have any for the past several days. I was going to do a Draenei inspired look on Wednesday, but woke up feeling miserable. That carried into Thursday and I didn't feel like doing any makeup. Friday I babysat, and I had a look for today, but didn't take any pictures until my mom, grandma, and I got home from a local art festival. Aaand... I sweated most of my makeup off while there because it was so freaking hot. :( It sucks too because it was good and I received compliments from several of the artists on it. :(

Even though the lack of makeup photos sucks, I did get a gorgeous handmade necklace. It's made out of a Tab can and an Arizona tea can. It's really cool! I wish the photo was better, but I took it with my phone. I'll try to get a better one with my camera later.

Anyway, I'm typing this on my phone to try out the Blogger app, so I need to end this before I kill my battery. Heheh.

<3
Nichole

EOTD: Blood Elf

As posted yesterday, my inspiration for today's make-up were Blood Elves from the MMORPG World of Warcraft. They're a very regal (and kind of stuck up) race of characters with a rather complicated and interesting history. I currently have 3 B'Elf characters: a 72 female Paladin, a 14 male Rogue, and a 42 female Hunter. My Hunter = <3, and I will be jumping over there once I've finished writing up and posting this entry. :D

Obviously, I couldn't make my eyes glow green or anything like that (but how bad ass would it be if I could? lol), but I did my best to interpret it using eyeshadows. :)

Eyes:

MicaBella eyeshadow primer

Wet n Wild "I Dream of Genie" eyeshadow trio (green)

Wet n Wild "Comfort Zone" eyeshadow collection (light bronze in crease/under eye, gold on brow)

Icing palette (black in outer V/crease)

e.l.f. black creme eyeliner

Maybelline Great Lash mascara

Face:

Hard Candy "Sheer Envy" primer

e.l.f. under eye concealer in Light

L'Oreal True Match pressed foundation in Classic Ivory

This look was a lot of fun, and I got several compliments from guests while at work today (the best one was from a regular I see at least five times a week). I won't have an EOTD tomorrow because yeah... I'm opening and hell if I'm going to do a complicated make-up look at four in the morning. : \ Soooo be looking for a Draenei inspired look Wednesday! I already have a lot of ideas and can't wait to try them!

Yay Space Goats!!! Heheh.

In other news, today is the first time I've ever used face primer... And I'm in LOOOOVE! My complexion is still smooth and even, even though I haven't touched my make-up since I left for work at 11 this morning. Usually I end up sweating all my make-up off while at work, but not today. :D The primer is also extremely light weight. It doesn't even feel like I'm wearing any make-up! So yeah... Hard Candy's "Sheer Envy" primer gets a 5 out of 5 from me. For only costing $8, it's a win!

Tomorrow's Inspiration

No EOTD because today's look was pretty craptastic, but I bought some new make-up. I finally got a face primer and a white creme shadow from Hard Candy, as well as two of the new, highly pigmented Wet n' Wild palettes. One of the palettes has a GORGEOUS lime green color that immediately reminded me of the eyes of Blood Elves, a character race from World of Warcraft.

I currently have three Blood Elf characters: a 71 female Holy Paladin, a 14 Male Rogue, and a 42 female Marksmanship Hunter. Currently, I'm shunning everyone accept my Hunter because I'm pretty much in love with her. XD

Sylarial (my Hunter) and Auberon, her white tiger

If it ends up going well, I may do a theme of looks inspired by WoW races, or at least, by my favorite races. XD This would include: Blood Elves, Trolls, and Draenei. <3 I already have something in mind for a Draenei look, but Trolls will probably take a little bit longer. They're so complicated! Heheh.

Wish me luck!! There will be pictures sometime tomorrow afternoon if it comes out well!

Book Review: City of Fallen Angels

By: Cassandra Clare

Genre: YA, urban fantasy, romance

# of Pages: 424

Rating: 3 out of 5

City of Fallen Angels is the fourth book in Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series, which was originally supposed to have ended after City of Glass, the third installment of the series. Although I am a huge fan of the TMI series, as well as The Infernal Devices prequel trilogy that Clare is working on in tandem with TMI, I can't exactly say that City of Fallen Angels lived up to my expectations.

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!