Review: The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

The Dark Divine
Bree Despain

My Rating:

Back of the Book:

A Prodigal Son.

A Dangerous Love.

A Deadly Secret.

Grace Divine - daughter of the local pastor - always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kallbi disappeared and her brother Jude came home covered in his own blood.

Now that Daniel's returned, Grace must choose between her growing attraction to him and her loyalty to her brother.

As Grace gets closer to Daniel, she learns the truth about that mysterious night and how to save the ones she loves, but it might cost her the one thing she cherishes the most: her soul.

My Review:

The Dark Divine, for me, is like that movie everyone you know has seen and is raving about. It's amazing, epic, etc. Even your granny dragged herself into the theaters to check it out. Only, it doesn't really appeal to you and the trailer is kinda blah but when it comes out on DVD you rent it just to see what everyone is talking about.

And you kinda end up loving it.

I went into this book with very little knowledge of it, other than the main character was a pastor's daughter and it had a theme of forgiveness. I know that normally this is the part where I recap the story but I'm not going to with The Dark Divine because part of the appeal is watching it all unravel as the story goes on. It's done beautifully.

I'd be lying if I said Grace was my favorite female lead character but she wasn't annoying and did experience some nice character growth. I ended up really loving Daniel and really wish the book had focused a bit more on his life during the time he was gone and what he had fallen into to. It's implied but for the most part brushed over fairly quickly.

I was unsure of the religious theme in the book, with the belief that it may come off preachy. I've never been keen on Christian fiction, and while this doesn't fall into that category, it was one of the reasons it hadn't originally appealed to me. However, the religious elements worked well within the story. I ended up really liking Grace's father as well.

The book, however, wasn't perfect. I read the vast majority of it this weekend. For the first third of the book it was almost impossible for me to put down (which kind of sucked because I was filling in for some extra money and kept having to put the book down to help customers). However, the ending didn't have the effect on me.

I actually had to force myself to pick up the book and finish the last fifty or so pages because it was due back at the library. I'm not saying the ending was bad, it wasn't. It just wasn't up to par with the rest of the book and I think it came off to rushed.

Which is why I am giving the book a high four stars. It's definitely worth reading, just make sure you have a lot of free time before you start.

Review: You Are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay

You Are So Undead to Me
Stacey Jay

My Rating:

Description:

Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which mean she's a part-time shrink to a whole bunch of semi-dead people with killer issues. All Megan really wants is to go to homecoming, but when you're trailed by a bunch of slobbering corpses whenever you leave the house, it's kinda hard to score a date. Let's just say Megan's love life could use some major resuscitation.

Megan's convinced her life can't get any worse - until someone in school starts using black magic to turn average, angsty Undead into scary, hardcore flesh-eating Zombies. Now it's up to Megan to stop the Zombie apocalypse. Her life - and more importantly the homecoming dance - depends on it.

My Review:

You Are So Undead to Me is one of those books I really wanted to love. And, in a lot of ways, I did. It has Zombies, a "chosen" one and secret organizations that protect us from the things that go bump in the night.

And it kinda reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which has my undying love. And not just cause the cover is playing off the movie poster.




I liked Megan. She was slightly shallow and made some bad choices but she comes off as normal teenage girl who just wants to get on the dance team and have a hot date to the Homecoming Dance. And Ethan work well as the older love interest.

I also kind of loved the fact that the zombies came to her to talk about their last wishes. It was an interesting take. However, I was disappointed that this never took off or was the focus of anything. We had a girl who was murdered by her sister and that was dropped right after the scene and never mentioned again.

And, don't read this paragraph if you don't want spoilers....look away now, I was definitely not keen on the fact that the evil villains in this book turned out to be a lesbian couple. Which ok, is petty but lgbt characters aren't all that common so it saddens me how frequently they do get the role of psycho who is going to kill everyone. The book and ending would have worked well without that fact, in all honesty.

So I'm stuck with giving this book a very low four stars. I will probably check out the sequel and see where they're going with this. Plus...you know...zombies.

Note: Sorry for the short review. I'm working overtime, so I'm a bit drained. I may go back and add more later.

Review: Glass Houses by Rachel Cain

Glass Houses
(The Morganville Vampires, Book One)
Rachel Cain

My Rating:

Description:

College should be an exciting time, but for brainy 16-year-old Claire Danvers that's too mild a word. Due to advanced placement, Claire can start college early, but her parents refuse to allow her to go to the distant Ivy League school of her dreams. She goes to Texas Prairie University where she is tormented by the popular girls—but that's the least of her worries. Morganville, home of the university, is also home to vampires and vampire hunters. Claire finds protection from the horrors of the town in the Glass House with three fellow outcasts, Goth girl Eve, rebellious Shane, and Michael, who disappears during the day. Claire falls for Shane and would do anything to protect her friends, including facing down bloodthirsty vampires and dangerous bikers. (from bn.com)

My Review:

Glass Houses was one of those books that, for the first third of it, I didn't think I was going to like it. I was lining up flaws and issues that I could foresee coming in the story and character plot lines. However, I ended up surprised by how everything eventually just started clicking together and how it all worked.

The cliff's note of the version of the story is sixteen year old Claire is attending university in the small, Texas town of Morganville. She's a genius with dreams of Ivy league but her parents wanted her to stay close to home. However, their plan to protect their daughter doesn't really work out all that well because the popular girls have taken to harassing her. This ends up escalating to a point where they push her down the stairs in their dorm and threaten her life. Fearing for safety, Claire seeks out other living arrangements which is ultimately how she ends up being roommates with 18 and 19 year old's Eve, Shane and Michael in the glass house. Eve's a goth girl who works at Common Grounds, the local coffee joint. Shane's a slacker with a pretty face. And Michael? He's a musician that never leaves the house and sleeps all day. The three hometown teens introduced Claire to the real side of Morganville, where not only are vampires real but they rule the town. And Claire finds herself on the vampires' bad side very quickly and it's going to take the four of them to get her out of this alive.

I kinda sorta really love this book because, with the flooding of the YA genre with vampire books that take huge liberties with the mythology, the Morganville vamps are extremely traditional. They need to drink blood to stay alive, they can't come out in the daylight, you need to invite them in for them to gain access to your house, garlic is a big no-no, etc. You don't understand how utterly happy this made me.

Also Cain does a great job explaining how it is the vampires can exist, known to the general public in the town, without making it feel forced. There is a logic behind it, how it's just part of life there.

Like I said earlier, I was unsure of this book at the start. One of my biggest issues going into it was the discovery that Claire was sixteen, despite being in college (not something I was aware of, due to the college element I was expecting the female lead to be of age). I figured this would either highly limit the character or force it to become extremely unrealistic. With the rest of the cast 18 or 19 year olds I figured we wouldn't get a real romantic interest for her along with the nagging realization that her parents are nowhere to be seen.

And I actually ended up loving the fact that Claire was younger. In a lot of ways it shows in her character, she may be a genius when it comes to school stuff but she is a bit naive in the workings of the world. It also explains, to an extent, why the other three are so protective of her opposed to her simply being a victim (and their is some lovely character growth on Claire's part throughout the book). Not to mention, upon moving into the glass house Michael brings up the fact that having a minor living with them could get him and Shane into a lot of trouble. And when her parents show up, they act like parents. It's refreshing the age thing wasn't just forgotten within a few pages and it was reflective in the storyline.

And ultimately, yes, it does add a nice element to the relationship between Shane and her. Which, by the way, I absolutely adore. It was played out absolutely lovely. There is a lot of subtly to the interaction between the two and the foundation has been built before you even realize it's happening.

Warning: the book does end with a cliffhanger so make sure you have the second on hand. But this is so worth the read. The only reason this baby didn't earn five stars is because the first third of the book did start off rather slow, in my opinion. Here's hoping the second book can keep this up.

Review: Dirty Laundry by Daniel Ehrenhaft

Dirty Laundry
Daniel Ehrenhaft

My Rating:

Description:

The School: The Winchester School of the Arts, nick-named "The Laundromat" because it's where better schools send their "dirty laundry." Get kicked out of Exeter, Hotch-kiss, or Choate? End up at Winchester.

The Girl: Carli, a gorgeous pigtailed Hollywood actress going undercover at Winchester to research her role.

The Boy: Fun (short for Fellini Udall Newport), an embittered senior and graffiti artist who was almost expelled - until his dad (and a lot of money) convinced the headmaster to let him work off his crime as Carli's assistant.

The Problem: Beautiful, talented senior Darcy Novak, one of the least screwed-up people at Winchester, has disappeared.

As Carli and Fun discover each other's hidden talents, there's a villain setting them up. Can they save Darcy - and themselves - or will they wash out?

My Review:

Dirty Laundry was one of those books I picked up on a whim. I was at the library, with a stack of suggested books and it caught my eye. After passing it for the third time I finally picked it up because it had a cute cover, the plot sounded interesting and I thought why not. If it sucks, I'll have one bad review for my blog to give it street cred.

I'm extremely happy I did because Dirty Laundry ended surprising me. The book revolves around two main characters, Carli and Fun. Carli is a C-list actress who has been cast as the lead in a new show about private school. She's sent off to Winchester School of the Arts in order to "get into character", using her characters names and observing the behavior of other students. That is where Fun comes in, he's the son of Carli's boss and has agreed to work as Carli's personal assistant in order to not be expelled for all the graffiti he's done on campus.

As for the school, Winchester is the place where all the bad apples end up after being expelled from other boarding schools. So it's an interesting array of characters and staff that Carli interacts with upon arriving at the school. Most of whom are focused on Darcy, one of the more stable students who had mysteriously disappeared at the start of the book and the surrounding investigation.

The narration in the book switches back and forth between Carli and Fun, along with the occasional police transcript, IM conversation or blog entry by Nails. It can be a bit jarring at first but after the first part of the book it gets into a good flow and works well.

The book also gets points because, despite a cast of unbalanced boarding school students, it stays mostly within the realm of reality and the ending is quirky but not over the top.

It's not a perfect book, Carli's shame spirals are overdone in the first part of the book and Fun's a bit to stand offish to really get into. That and the interaction between the two isn't explored to the extent that I hoped it would be. The few scenes they have together are awesome, but most of the book is spent with them in a group or separately.

Dirty Laundry isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but it was one I strongly enjoyed.

Review: Perfect (A Pretty Little Liars Novel) by Sara Shepard

Perfect
(A Pretty Little Liars Novel)
Sara Shepard

Rating:

Description:

In a town where gossip thrives like the ivy that clings to its mansions, where mysteries lie behind manicured hedges and skeletons hide in every walk-in closet, four perfect-looking girls aren't nearly as perfect as they seem.

Three years ago, Spencer, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and their best friend Alison were the girls at Rosewood Day School. They clicked through the halls in their Miu Miu flats, tanned in their matching Pucci bikinis, and laughed behind their freshly manicured fingernails. They were the girls everyone loved but secretly hated—especially Alison.

So when Alison mysteriously vanished one night, Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna's grief was tinged with . . . relief. And when Alison's body was later discovered in her own backyard, the girls were forced to unearth some ugly memories of their old friend, too. Could there be more to Alison's death than anyone realizes?

Now someone named A, someone who seems to know everything, is pointing the finger at one of them for Ali's murder. As their secrets get darker and their scandals turn deadly, A is poised to ruin their perfect little lives forever. (from bn.com)

My Review:

Perfect, the third Pretty Little Liars novel, picks up roughly a month after Toby's suicide at the end of the previous book, Flawless. The cryptic messages from "A" have stopped and the girl's are moving on with their lives.

Aria is trying to find a sense of normalcy by dating Sean, Spencer has thrown herself back into school despite her mom putting her into therapy, Hanna and Mona are back on normal bff terms and Emily has been dating Maya in secret. However "A" isn't done with them and starts outing the girls deep, dark secrets.

I finished this book several days ago but have been sitting on this review because for, the longest time, I wasn't sure how I was going to rate it. From my previous two reviews of the series, it's obvious that I am a huge fan of the Pretty Little Liars novels. That said, this book was...lacking in several ways.

Which is understandable because, in the notes at the end of the novel, Shepard comments that this was the hardest of the original arc (contained in the first four novels) to write due to so many clues and events having to fit together perfectly in it.

And it does show in the book, certain parts of it feel ridiculously rushed. On top of that, I found Aria (a character I have been more or less neutral about) annoying and hypocritical in this book. I ended up rushing through most of her chapters, which unfortunately make up a good percentage of the book.

However, whatever faults the novel has it made up for in the other three girls. Not much happens with Hanna except her friendship with Mona falling apart and a drastic loss of popularity. Despite this, it's a humanizing effect and I ended up having fond feelings for her at the end of the book. Her character development has been a nice surprise.

The story also starts exploring Spencer's blackouts and the recovery of a memory that occurred the night of Alison's murder. The way the memory was slowly revealed, piece by piece, was well done and created a nice twist. And, as always, Emily's storyline remained my favorite as we see her relationship with Maya being outed to the entire school and her family. The fall out of it and Emily's feelings over it is a part of the book that ends up a bit rushed, unfortunately. I would have liked to see a bit more time used on this storyline opposed to Aria's. But then again, I do have a bias when it comes to Emily.

We also learn more about the girl's relationship with Alison prior to her death. Continuing in it's normal fashion, the glamor and rose tinted glasses surrounding it are removed a bit more.

As always the rotating point of view works well. The twist and turns of the novel also get back on track. While not up to par with the first book, the foreshadowing is well down and not as obvious as it was in Flawless. I had a gut feeling about one of the major twists but wasn't positive about it till right before the secret was outed.

I ended up giving this book four stars, although it's on the lower end of the spectrum. Fans of the series will obviously enjoy this book and I still highly recommend it. It's just not the strongest in the series.

I sadly don't have the fourth book in my possession yet, but I really need to get on that.

My Reviews for the Other Books in the Series:

Pretty Little Liars
Flawless

Review: Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

Title: Something From the Nightside

Series: The Nightside Series #1

Author: Simon R. Green

Format: Audiobook

Rating:

Description:

John Taylor is not a private detective per se, but he has a knack for finding lost things. That's why he's been hired to descend into the Nightside, an otherworldly realm in the center of London where fantasy and reality share renting space and the sun never shines.

For John Taylor, there's no place like home...

My Review:

Something From the Nightside is one of those books that has been around for a while (it was originally published in 2003) but unfortunately had gone unnoticed by me. Similar to the Anita Blake series, I finally noticed it in a trip to Barnes & Noble's sci fi section a few weeks ago. Specifically, it was the cover of the sixth book in the series, Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth, that caught my attention (it's absolutely stunning, in my opinion). I've been on a urban fantasy kick for the past few months so it got added fairly quickly to my wishlist.

In this book, we're introduced to John Taylor, a down on his luck detective with to many bills and not enough cases in a run down part of London. With a not-completely-human mother who disappeared after his birth and a father who couldn't cope with it, John was raised in the Nightside by neighbors and survived by his own wit (along with the supernatural talent to find things, as a result of his mother's true nature).

The nightside itself is hard to describe. It's alternate universe, in a way, to normal London. The things that go bump in the night make it home, aliens, Gods, anything you can imagine can be found here really. On top of that, everything in the nightsides falls into the extremes. I'm not doing it justice here, you really need to read the book to get the proper feel for it (Simon Green did an absolutely stunning job creating an atmosphere).

In this particular book, the first in the series, John finally returns to the nightside after fleeing it five years ago on a case to find a missing teenage runaway, Cathy, with her mother Joanna. The case takes us through shady bars, back alleys and the lowest points in the nightside and Joanna works well as good conduit through all of this. Her introductions to the nightside is ours.

We are also introduced Razor Eddie, Punk God of the Straight Razor, and Shotgun Suzie. Those names (and personalities) should be more than enough reason to pick up this book. But I will admit bias, I'm a fan of anything with a badass girl who carries a shotgun and whose career choice falls into the mercenary field.

The book also sets up some subplots that will be answered in later books, along the lines of what John's true destiny is and why the powers that be are after him.

We're also offered several twists in the story that where foreshadowed well but far from obvious. The big bad is slightly....off but I'll forgive it. In the case of this book, it's more about journey than where we end up.

Something from the Nightside is a quick and dirty trip into urban fantasy at it's best. Also, due to it's age, it's fairly cheap so in my humble opinion it is definitely worth picking up.

Review: Flawless (A Pretty Little Liars Novel) by Sara Shepard

Title: Flawless

Series: Pretty Little Liars #2

Author: Sara Shepard

Format: Book

Rating:

Description:

In the exclusive town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania, where the sweetest smiles hide the darkest secrets, four pretty little liars - Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna - have been very bad girls...

Spencer stole her sister's boyfriend. Aria is brokenhearted over her English teacher. Emily likes her new friend Maya... as much more than a friend. And Hanna's obsession with looking flawless is literally making her sick. But the most horrible secret of all is something as scandalous it could destroy their perfect little lives.

And someone named "A" is threatening to do just that.

At first they thought A was Alison, their friend who vanished three years ago... but then Alison turned up dead. So could A be Melissa, Spencer's ultracompetitive sister? Or Maya, who wants Emily all to herself? What about Toby, the mysterious guy who left town right after Alison went missing?

One thing's for certain: A's got the dirt to bury them all alive, and with every crumpled note, wicked IM, and vindictive text message A send, the girls get a little closer to losing it all.

My Review:

It's not a secret that I absolutely loved Pretty Little Liars (you can read my review for it here), so much so that I picked up the second in the series the following day at my local library.

With the discovery of Alison's body buried under the Gazebo in what use to be her backyard at the end of the previous book, the girl's are shaken with the realization that it couldn't have possibly been her sending them the cryptic messages. The four girls are desperate to figure out who "A" really is but are reluctant to work together because it would force them to reveal the truth about themselves to each other.

Meanwhile, the book finally flashback to the "The Jenna Accident" that the girls and "A" had been alluding to. In sixth grade, Alison had attempted to prank their neighbor Toby by launching a firework at treehouse to scare. It had gone horribly wrong and Jenna, who had been in the treehouse with him at the time, ended up blinded by it. Things are further complicated when Toby returns to town and begins to interact with the girls.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is the continued use of flashbacks to sixth and seventh grade to expand on the four girl's friendships with Alison prior to her death. Alison remains a main character, despite her death, as they girl's re-examine their feelings about her.

The rotating view point between the Aria, Hanna, Emily and Spencer continues to work in favor of the book. The voices are still unique enough that it's easy to tell them apart. Another favorite part of this book, for me, was how the girl's viewed situations depending on the information they had. The way events or people were depicted depended, in a lot of ways, on whose point of view we were reading from. In the case of certain people, like Toby, the reactions had huge variations.

Some of the more outrageous behavior that was unbelievable in the previous book does not appear in this one and the girl's act a bit more like the high school girls that they are. Even the party they end up attending at the end of the book, that was being talked up as a huge high society events, turned out to be a standard party for teens acting like teens.

Which was a nice change of pace.

However, I'd be lying if I said this book was on par with first in the series. The mystery surrounding why Toby took the blame for the Jenna accident or what Alison had really seen that night where fairly obvious by some choice lines. Along with the resolution of the Toby storyline was lacking and equally transparent.

That said, I still had difficulty putting the book down. Especially considering the plot lines of the current secrets, most of which come to a head in a well written manner.

I will once again admit I have a bias towards the relationship between Emily and Maya, despite Maya only making two or three small appearances in the book. Despite the over-the-top feel to most of the situations in this book Emily's reluctance to accept her lesbianism, confusion over her feelings and fear of what people would think or say comes off as one of the more true to life depictions in the book.

I ended up going with a four stars for this book, although I still think it's worth reading and already have the third in the series in my possession.

When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be Anita Blake

Title: Guilty Pleasures

Series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #1

Author: Laurell K. Hamilton

Format: Audiobook

My Rating:

The Description:

Learn how Anita Blake started raising the dead-and killing the undead-in Guilty Pleasures, the debut novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series. (via amazon)

My Review:

For as long as I can remember (and before Twilight made them the next big thing), vampires have always been my monster of choice. However, up until this year I had never picked up an Anita Blake book or even really knew they existed.

I'd heard the name on number of occasions, even had the books recommended to me by a friend but it was always just a fleeting thought and they were quickly forgotten. It wasn't until I was wondering around Barnes and Noble's horror section that they truly caught my attention.

I'm almost ashamed to admit that it was the updated cover that drew me in but, in all honesty, I'd be lying if I said otherwise. The industrial noir feeling and coloring of the new covers easily make them among my favorites out there. I didn't purchase the book that day but it stuck in my mind so last month when the audiobook version became available to me I couldn't turn that down of at least checking the series out.

Guilty Pleasures introduces us to Anita Blake, a young independent woman who raises the dead for a living and does some vampire slaying on the side in a world where everything sort of the boogey man is out in the open. Attending a friend's bachelorette party at Guilty Pleasures, a vampire strip club that is the namesake of the novel, Anita finds herself pulled into the mystery of who, or what, has been murdering vampires by the Masters of the city.

Normally this description of the book's heroine and plotline would make me skeptical because in the sci fi/horror genres it seems almost impossible to write a female lead without falling hard into every cliche out there and I could almost see her running off to a strapping "good" vampire to save her.

Anita, as it turns out, is a refreshing to change to that. I can't speak for how the series progresses but in this book Anita is truly the tough as nails bad ass the book presents her as without losing a human element.

The rest of the cast does little to disappoint:

Nikolaos: the child vampire Master of the city, Edward: the untrustworthy occasional vampire slaying partner, Jean-Claude: the owner of Guilty Pleasures and a lower Master and, my favorite, Phillip: A young vampire-junkie stripper.

Overall, Guilty Pleasures easily won me over with the dark, vivid world and cast of characters. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the vampire genre.