In Dreams by J. Sterling

Goodreads summary: When Katherine Johns starts dreaming about a boy she doesn't know, her college roommate Taylor is determined to find him. Convinced he must exist, Taylor is relentless... until she finds out exactly WHO the mysterious stranger really is.

The realization rocks the girls to their core and sends them down a path of unimaginable heartbreak as they learn to navigate their new reality.

Follow Katherine & Taylor's journey through love, friendship and tragedy in this emotionally captivating debut novel by J. Sterling.

Review: Along with What Kills Me and Faelorehn (a book I have yet to read and review), In Dreams was one of my impulsive sign-myself-up-because-I-have-nothing-to-do-and-I-want-to-read-a-book moments. Same with these three books, I did not read their summaries. When I read What Kills Me I was really excited to read In Dreams, hoping it would be as exciting as What Kills Me. Oh, but I felt like I made the biggest mistake on my twentieth year of living!

This book is too much of a catastrophe! Redeeming qualities? I think it has none. The first page just turned me off! The author, just from the way she wrote In Dreams, just showcased how much of a newbie she is and how much practice she very much needs. And probably some reading.

I felt as if the book was trying to kill me!

It was slowly killing my brain!

And turning me into something like this!

I have two words for In Dreams: unsubstantial and unrealistic. So our protagonist dreamed about a boy and because she felt the dream was too real, then the boy must be real! And her BFF roommate is helping her look for her dream boy after a five-second explanation of her dream and feelings. Oh, but they decide that real-life-cute-guy (cannot remember protagonist's other love interest) is way better than dream boy. But protagonist is wary of real-life-cute-guy because she is in love with dream boy and she waits for him every night to appear in her dreams.

I can't take the silliness of this book! Bad writing! Bad plot! Bad everything! I've read so many badly written fan fiction. And I can group In Dreams with them. A total waste of time! I suggest to the author to read, read, and write, write. And read, read some more. And write, write even more!

Rate:     

Read More

What Kills Me by Wynne Channing

Goodreads summary: An ancient prophecy warns of a girl destined to cause the extinction of the vampire race.

So when 17-year-old Axelia falls into a sacred well filled with blood and emerges a vampire, the immortal empire believes she is this legendary destroyer. Hunted by soldiers and mercenaries, Axelia and her reluctant ally, the vampire bladesmith Lucas, must battle to survive.

How will she convince the empire that she is just an innocent teenager-turned bloodsucker and not a creature of destruction? And if she cannot, can a vampire who is afraid of bugs summon the courage to fight a nation of immortals?

Review: Here I am in school, lunch break, just had siopao and iced coffee, and I keep on thinking what else to review. Sucks because I share my kindle with my older sister and she has it right now so I don't have anything to read. But I remembered a book, which I feel my previous review for it did not do justice on just how awesome it is. So I'm here to correct what I have done and to thank the author again for giving me the chance to read and review her novel.

Wynne Channing's debut novel, What Kills Me, just really killed me! The comedy, sarcasm, action, suspense, and romance packed in this book made me laugh, leave me in awe, grit my teeth, and drool over Lucas. The only problem with this book is that it had to end so abruptly. It left me in a very crucial moment, where you MUST know what will happen next, where you will wonder what happened to the next chapter. And then you realize there is no next chapter, but the next installment of the series. And Ms. Channing clarified to me and just made me uber happy and excited that there is another upcoming book of What Kills Me. Which made me go

AND

The characters of this book are hilarious, especially Axelia. I'm glad she's the speaker of this novel and not some kind of overbearing, air-head heroine I read in most YA novels. Axelia, or Zee, for short, changed from a normal, 17-year-old girl from Canada into a dangerously monstrous mistake of the Vampire clan, whom they must destroy. Yes, there was the initial drama of Zee not having a normal life again and the how to escape those badass captors, but (and this is why I love Zee) she got over that drama and quickly did something so she could escape and find refuge. From a useless marionette into a powerful vampire, that is Zee.

The typical prince charming in every YA novel is an unbelievably handsome, sexy, mysterious, snobby young man, who has a penchant for insulting, humiliating, and pushing the heroine away until he finally declares he is in love with her, but their budding romance must be stopped because he is very different or from the opposite side where the heroine stands. Lucas, as described in the book, is handsome, sexy, somewhat mysterious, and somewhat broody. But he is just the same as Zee. He is sarcastic and funny. He had me drooling and wanting him!

What I loved in their romance was that it didn't start with love at first sight. Their romance went through a roller coaster ride, a very long ride, where after all those loops, they realized they were in love with each other. See? It gave readers ample time to believe there really was a spark between them. And I was really waiting for that moment where they would finally profess their love for one another.

And when this scene finally happened

I went crazy happy.

And crazy happy tears came.

I very much enjoyed this book and would love to reread it. And this is totally recommended! What Kills Me is an all-new, one of a kind, original, and refreshing vampire novel (minus the sparkles) that will just leave you begging and needing for more!

Rate:  

Read More

Frost by Kate Avery Ellison

Goodreads summary: In the icy, monster-plagued world of the Frost, one wrong move and a person could end up dead—and Lia Weaver knows this better than anyone. After monsters kill her parents, she must keep the family farm running despite the freezing cold and threat of monster attacks or risk losing her siblings to reassignment by the village Elders. With dangers on all sides and failure just one wrong step away, she can’t afford to let her emotions lead her astray. So when her sister finds a fugitive bleeding to death in the forest—a young stranger named Gabe—Lia surprises herself and does the unthinkable.

She saves his life.

Giving shelter to the fugitive could get her in trouble. The Elders have always described the advanced society of people beyond the Frost, the “Farthers,” as ruthless and cruel. But Lia is startled to find that Gabe is empathetic and intelligent…and handsome. She might even be falling in love with him.

But time is running out. The monsters from the forest circle the farm at night. The village leader is starting to ask questions. Farther soldiers are searching for Gabe. Lia must locate a secret organization called the Thorns to help Gabe escape to safety, but every move she makes puts her in more danger.

Is compassion—and love—worth the risk?
Review: There really is something about Ms. Ellison's style of writing that I like. Frost was an easy and understandable read.

Here's the thing with people like me who live in tropical countries, we only experience two kinds of season per year: sunny and rainy.  We only know that we get really, really sweaty in the summer season, and we get really, really wet in the rainy season. We know that we can die of a heat stroke, or we can die of a flood. But with Frost I felt like I was in Alaska or Canada or somewhere really, really cold and I was shaking because of the cold. I wasn't feeling hot at all! You can never forget the coldness described in this book. KateAverymelovesyourwritingstyle<3

Lia is the kind of main character I read in a lot of YA books, but there is a flaw with those other heroines. Those heroines always fail to become the strong type of character they say they are. Most of the time, those heroines turn into mindless zombies when their love interest appears. Or, sometimes, the author tells the readers that their heroine is strong, but they never show it. Ms. Ellison clearly tells and shows that Lia is strong, and she convinced me Lia is a strong and great main character.

I have nothing much to say about Lia's love interest, Gabe. Although, there were some things revealed about him, he is still a mystery. And by mystery I don't mean the typical brooding-bad-boy-mysterious-past-kill-you-with-my-glare. Gabe isn't even the broody type. I think he's the complete opposite! There is much more of Gabe that we need to find out, probably in the next book, Thorns.

Adam Brewer is as mysterious as Gabe. And I think he has a connection with Gabe that wasn't revealed in Frost. I also have a feeling that Adam Brewer may have some feelings for Lia. I don't know but he had these tiny actions that I would love to consider as "acts of love". Wishful thinking, I know. Ms. Ellison told me I was perceptive. Hm... should I dissect this word in order to reach my answer?

I did have some issues with Frost. 1.) There wasn't anything explosive going on. Although the flow of the story was great, there really wasn't anything that interesting. But the whole plot itself was intriguing enough. 2.) Why so damn short? The author left us with so many questions!

But, still, I would recommend this book. This was just A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

Rate:     

Read More

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Goodreads summary: Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Review: Ah, the first book of the Iron Fey series. I've read so many reviews about this book saying that it was an awesome and fun read. But I would like to contradict this. The problem with books like The Iron King is that they are too predictable - too predictable that reading through every twist and revelation gets ridiculous!

List of predictable predictables in this book:

1.) Ordinary girl isn't ordinary after all. She learns that she is something powerful.

2.) Hot, mysterious(?), cold, snobby guy appears.

3.) Main character falls deeply and irrevocably in love with hot guy.

4.) Main character learns 'dark' past of hot guy.

Or probably numbers 1 to 4 are part of a formula you need to write a "fantastic" YA novel.

I have plenty of issues with this book. First, the writing style! My golly-lolly! I am sick and tired with styles like this, this Twilight-y, novice-ish style! I am not an idiot who needs to be told on what every damn movement the character makes or what that character looks like. I don't need to know that Ash has a great body, that his face is just superbly-perfectly-astonishingly-beautiful, and that his eyes are blue-azure-'ice cold'-'dark swirling'-(insert useless adjective here)! But I understand that not all people can write like Stephen King or Ian Mcewan or Vladimir Nabokov. I just wish authors won't treat their readers as morons and write in very unhelpful and useless detail what the shizzum the character is doing. Please go straight to the point, or else I will have to skip this part of the book.

Second issue, the characters. Meghan, Ash, Grimalkin and everybody else are your typical characters. They are cliche, Mary Sue-ish. There is nothing unique or original about them that can really stick to my mind, or make me remember them by heart. At least if you will use a cliche character add something about that character - a skill only that character has, an experience only that character has experienced, or anything so that character won't be tagged as 'cliche'. And please, please, PLEASE authors! If 'hot guy' has a secret past, don't make it cliche as well!

Third and last, the villain. The villain is supposed to be hateful, spiteful, 'cool', has awesome powers, omnipotent! But why did Julie Kagawa give us a pedophile for a villain? I think the Iron King just gave us one of the most pathetic and lamest reasons why he kidnapped Ethan, Meghan's half-brother, and why he needed Meghan. How do you spell Iron King? L-A-M-E!

This book is just a blend of popular books, mixed with cliche characters, and topped with been-there-done-that elements to make it seem 'unique' and 'one of a kind'.

BUT! yes,thereisabut Although, I definitely think that this book kind of sucks, there are some elements I can consider as interesting.

1.) The Iron fey. It's something I haven't heard of before.

2.) Puck. Enough said.

Rate:       

Read More

My very first book blog!

Hey! I'm Raizza and welcome to my very first book blog! It took a lot of time and thinking for me to create one. At first I was really hoping for my Lit Org in school to build one and to consider it as one of our club activities. Sadly, the president and other members of the club agreed that the school will not accept it as an activity, and will not help us garner points. Idon'tunderstandmyschool'spointsystem But the president did say that a book blog was interesting and could help the MassComm students apply what they have learned so far in their lectures.

But I wanna create a book blog NOW! So here is the product of my determination. I hope you guys will enjoy reading through the reviews I will write in the future.

Read More