Truth? That's a lie. (Book Review)

Truth (XVI #2) by Julia Karr

In this sequel to "XVI," Nina Oberon's life has changed enormously. After her mother was killed, Nina discovered the truth about her father, the leader of the Resistance. And now she sports the same Governing Council-ordered tattoo of XVI on her wrist that all 16-year-old girls have. But Nina won't be anyone's stereotype. Original. (Summary from Goodreads)

In XVI Nina Oberon was such a strong and interesting character. The whole plot felt so interesting to me and I coudn't help but get enthralled in the world that was the novel. I wish I could say that Truth was as good as XVI, but I would be lying. 

It seems like Nina has just gotten angsty with her new tattoo. There was info-dumping and it just seemed overly emotional. Like the book was trying to hard to live up to the first one and it failed. Miserably.

I wish I could say that I cared enough to read the next book but I'm not sure that I do.

2 points out of 5

Dearly, Departed NOOOO DONT LEAVE ME! (Book Review)

Love can never die.

Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie? 

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses. 

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.


I'm not sure why I didn't think that I would love this book. Maybe it's because of all the really cheesy zombie novels that have come out before. The ones that were overly dramatic, or just too quirky for my taste. But that is no matter because this book surpassed all of my expectations. 


I loved the diction in this novel that really fleshed out the "New Victorian" steampunk setting. Words like "festooned" and "spangles" that I don't read very much caught my attention and made me love this book all the more. 


I must admit that the POV changes could get confusing, but at the same time, it also made the story come together well so I understand why it was done. Bram might be my favorite zombie of all time :D


I can't wait to read the sequel!

4 points out of 5

Incarnate (Book Review)

Isn't the cover just beautiful???

New soul

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

No soul

Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

Heart

Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana's enemies--human and creature alike--let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

It seems that many YA novels have been following a pattern lately. There’s a weak-willed female character that doesn’t know much of anything(for whatever reason), meets the boy(or two) of her dreams, then comes a big fight scene and one way of another she ends up with the boy of her dreams. In all, the plot is pretty expectable. I hoped that Incarnate wouldn’t be one of those stories. Luckily enough for me, it wasn’t.

The very premise of the novel is unique. I can’t even say how many novels I’ve read where the female character is reincarnated each life in a world were most people aren’t. I love how the author put a completely different spin on the idea, making an idea that has begun to seem cliche, fresh. I’m so used to novels with a female MC that is different in a beneficial way. Ana’s difference has been her weakness all along. 

I admit that Ana is not the most likeable character at times. She can be overly needy, accusing, and possessing a “woe is me” attitude, but in the end, her faults make her all the more likeable. Not even counting the plot, idea, well fleshed out supporting characters, and writing that can all combine to make a really great YA novel. Don’t even remind me to read the next on. Already on my “to-read” list in Goodreads.

4 points of 5

Everneath? Evernope (Book Review)

Everneath by Brodi Ashton 

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever. 

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists. 

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen. 

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...

Sadly, I must admit, Everneath is one of those paranormal novels I didn’t expect to love from the beginning. But I thought it could be interesting. I thought it could be funny. The plot seemed good. But it really just didn’t cut it for me. 

Here is sort of how my mind reacted while reading:

Me: A broken girl deciding to go away for a century with an immortal and then suddenly coming back? That sounds amazing. She could learn so much! In a hundred years she could be easily the smartest girl out there. She must have gone back to earth to help society in some way, right? 

Book: Of course not! She did it for a boy. 

Me: Well, Jack must be really special. He must be somehow connected to the plot in some way that can effect all of the Everlings. He must be able to save her like no other. 

Book: Nope. It’s just their love. 

Me: Well it must be really special like- 

Book: No, Sarah. Their very unorigional teen love saved her. That is what this story is about. 

Me: Oh-.-

For all the people that really liked this novel, i’m sorry, but I just could not get into it. None of the twists surprised me. Nothing got to me emotionally. Part of me just wanted to stop reading this dang book. But it wasn’t quite that bad.

The end of the book was the best, and by the end of the book I mean the last 5%. The only thing that interested me in the entire novel was the bit with the professor and how it was realted to Egyptian-ness.

Will I read the next book? Deffinitely not. Did I like it? No really.

1 point out of 5

Books I Would Hate/Love to be Movies

With The Hunger Games movie so close and my giddiness coming to a climax I thought it would be good to talk about my nerves about the movie.
I’ve read the Hunger Games, the whole series, and it was brilliant. I was so enthralled with the series that when I first found it would be a movie I was so excited. The bright clothes, Rue’s song, how it was all supposed to me some kind of sick TV show. Unless they pulled a Twilight[by that I mean good actors with a horrible script because Twilight was a horrible book], there was no way it could go wrong.
But not all books are great for the silver screen. Here are some books that that I love to read but I would hate to see.
1. The Night Circus- The only way it would work is if it had a James Cameron style budget. Everything is so elaborate. There’s a lot of settings and the actors would have to be really good(even the child ones). I just don’t see it realistically being a good movie.
2. City of Bones- This wouldn’t work. All the hinting at incest would probably not go into the movie and then would change a lot of the plot. Maybe it would work more as a TV show? I’m not sure. Just no movie.
3. Before I Fall- This should be obvious. All the repittion would get really annoying and tiring in a movie.

Although there’s always the impending threat that the movie won’t live up to its book, there are some books that I would like to see as movies because they could just work.
1. Crank- It would be an interesting movie and a lot of people might not like it, but I think that it would just work. To be able to see how Bree changed and became so different and to what lengths you could take the movie would be interesting.
2. Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight- It would be so cute! Just the perfect love story all wrapped up into one cute movie. I would call it the new “When Harry Met Sally” with pride.
3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone- I just keep thinking of the fight scene in the air and how cool that would look. Might not work as well as it does in my head. But I love it.

The Power of Six... Or Seven?.. Or Ten? (Book Review)

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I really dislike the cover :(

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore

I've seen him on the news. Followed the stories about what happened in Ohio. John Smith, out there, on the run. To the world, he's a mystery. But to me . . . he's one of us. 

Nine of us came here, but sometimes I wonder if time has changed us—if we all still believe in our mission. How can I know? There are six of us left. We're hiding, blending in, avoiding contact with one another . . . but our Legacies are developing, and soon we'll be equipped to fight. Is John Number Four, and is his appearance the sign I've been waiting for? And what about Number Five and Six? Could one of them be the raven-haired girl with the stormy eyes from my dreams? The girl with powers that are beyond anything I could ever imagine? The girl who may be strong enough to bring the six of us together? 

They caught Number One in Malaysia. 
Number Two in England. 
And Number Three in Kenya. 
They tried to catch Number Four in Ohio—and failed. 

I am Number Seven. One of six still alive. 

And I'm ready to fight.

I also really dislike the blurb. Is that okay? YES because overall, I liked the sequel to I Am Number Four. It started out really slow and that caused me to keep putting it off(the very reason I am only reviewing it now), but now that I have read it, I wished that I had kept on reading. 

Number Seven is currently alive in Spain under the pseudonym of Marina and living in an orphanage with her Cepan, Addelina. She was thoroughly unlikable to me in the beginning of the book, which was why the only thing that kept me reading half of the time was Four's POV. The dialogue is occasionally really fake, sounding nothing like teens today would at all but most of the time it works, which was good enough for me.

Things that annoyed me or I would have changed:
*The text messages conversation between Sarah and John. It just was so fake I wanted to puke. 

*Sarah in general. "oh boo hoo people call me a weirdo." Go eat a cheezburger and GTFO.

*The character Miranda that just so happened to look a lot like Number Seven. At least mention the character before. -.- #ThingsThatFusterateMeInBooksToNoEnd

Quote that I absolutely LOVED:

Being in love is a very strange thing. Your thoughts constantly drift towards this other person, no matter what you’re doing. You could be reaching for a glass in the cupboard or brushing your teeth or listening to someone tell a story, and your mind will just start drifting towards their face, their hair, the way they smell, wondering what they’ll wear, and what they’ll say the next time they see you. And on top of the constant dream state you’re in, your stomach feels like it’s connected to a bungee cord, and it bounces and bounces around for hours until it finally lodges itself next to your heart.

 Overall:
*Did I completely LOVE the book to no end? No
*Were there PARTS of the book that I really loved? Yes. The fight scenes, above quote, Bernie Kosar, Sam, Number Ten and Sam's Dad.
*Will I read the next one in the series? With a cliffhanger like the one that I got how could I not? Things are finally starting to heat up!

4 points out of 5


Surprised that I've been doing a book review once a week? So am I! :D Hopefully I will keep it up. I do have a goal to read 100 books by December 31. And I suspect that about 20 to 30 books will be read over the summer. Anyway, until next time :)

Inspiration: Not the Usual This Week

I was going to post my normal pictures and music that inspired me this week but when thinking of inspiration two things stuck in my head and two things only. First was the song from the group piece that I am in. It is "Drumming Song" by Florence + The Machine, and I love it. It is at the top. But what I really wanted to write about was letting go. That was really what my week was about.

I'm a very bold person, and I never let anything try to stop me. In some ways, I think it's my best trait but sometimes it can be my worse. You see, I never can just let go. I'll believe in someone with all of my heart. I'll get attached, but life doesn't always go as planned and when there's problems I never can just let go. I'll keep pushing, keep hoping, keep praying, but sometimes all the action in the world wont help anything.

In January, I gave up. Second semester had just started and my life got turned completely upside down. There were tears, a lot of them, and I just couldn't handle it anymore. I had to get away, so I stopped trying. At everything. School. Writing. Cello. Friends. Relationships. Everything but Dance. I thought that by letting go everything might just fall into place. It didn't.

I now have bad grades, a novel that still isn't finished, very rusty skills at cello, less friends than I've ever had in my entire life, and I'm single. Am I angry at myself? Well, it's complicated.

I learned that when it comes to school, no matter how smart you are, you still have to work. I had always taken my work ethic for granted but now I value it. I also learned that cello isn't like riding a bike, you can't just relearn all your skills in a couple of minutes.

But on the other hand, I found that real friends are the ones that stay with you even when you have given up. Sometimes, after putting so much work into a relationship you have to step back and see if it can stand on its own. And taking a break from writing can occasionally be a good thing. It gives you a chance for a new perspective.

So letting go, not always the best. But do I regret it? Never.