Early Book Review | Gold by Talia Vance

Series: Bandia # 2

Format: e-ARC

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Flux

Publication Date: September 8, 2013

Pages: 408

Goodreads | Amazon

 Descended from an Irish demigod, Brianna has fled to Ireland to escape destruction at the hands of her sworn enemies, the Sons of Killian. Taking refuge at the estate of her former nemesis, Austin Montgomery, Brianna discovers a rift in time that opens to an era before the feud began.

Wrestling with her newfound feelings for the more innocent Austin, Brianna begins to wonder if she can alter the past. But when Brianna and Austin learn that the Sons are raising an army of mythical beasts, the pair will need to use their magical strength in the present to avoid a tragic end.

Silver ends with a fragile truce between the Sons and Brianna, but it’s painfully obvious that the truce wouldn’t last for very long.  Gold starts off with Brianna going to Ireland to hide from the Sons after she is accused of something that she didn’t do.    
 

Brianna is such a strong character and she continues to prove it countless times during Gold.  I really respected the way that she handled all of the challenges that were thrown her way and that she didn’t give up, no matter the cost.    
 

Going into Gold, I really didn’t know how to feel about Austin, but he absolutely stole my heart over and over again.  He’s so charming, sweet and he would do anything to protect Brianna, no matter the consequences.        
 

I really didn’t care too much for Blake in Silver because of the way that he treated Brianna and I still didn’t like him at the beginning of this book.  But by the end of Gold I liked him a little bit better but still not as much as Austin.
 

Gold is jam packed with action, suspense and an utterly heartbreaking ending. It will grip you from the very first page and not let go.  This played on so many of my emotions; I laughed, I cried, I got angry.  I can’t wait to see where Vance will take these characters next book.

Book Review | Frigid by J. Lynn

Series: Frigid #1

Format: Kindle Edition

Source:Purchased

Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary

Publication Date: July 15, 2013

Pages: 240

Goodreads | Amazon

For twenty-one-year-old Sydney, being in love with Kyler isn't anything new. They'd been best friends ever since he pushed her down on the playground and she made him eat a mud pie. Somewhere over the years, she fell for him and fell hard. The big problem with that? Kyler puts the 'man' in man-whore. He's never stayed with a girl longer than a few nights, and with it being their last year in college, Syd doesn't want to risk their friendship by declaring her love.

Kyler has always put Syd on a pedestal that was too high for him to reach. To him, she's perfect and she's everything. But the feelings he has for her, he's always hidden away or focused on any other female. After all, Kyler will always be the poor boy from the wrong side of tracks, and Syd will always be the one girl he can never have.

But when they're stranded together at a posh ski resort due to a massive Nor'easter, there's nothing stopping their red-hot feelings for each other from coming to the surface. Can their friendship survive the attraction? Better yet, can they survive at all? Because as the snow falls, someone is stalking them, and this ski trip may be a life-changer in more ways than one.

I’ve said this before and I will most likely say it again; I will read anything with the name Jennifer L. Armentrout or J. Lynn on it.  Yes, her writing is THAT good.  I can pretty much guarantee that when I pick up a JLA book that I will fall in love with the story and the characters.  Plus, she knows how to write some swoon-worthy guys.

Sydney and Kyler have been best friends since he pushed her down on the playground and she made him eat a mud pie in retaliation.  But somewhere along the way Sydney’s feeling for Kyler have changed and she fell in love with her best friend.  Kyler is a bit of a man-whore and he is absolutely oblivious to Sydney’s feelings.  Kyler has Sydney on a pedestal and in his mind she is too good for him or any other guy.

 

I really felt like Sydney was very easy to relate to; she’s smart, nice and really sweet.  Her only downfall is that she over-analyzes everything.  Now we get to Kyler *sigh* Kyler is so charming, not to mention he has an eight pack, I can absolutely understand why Sydney fell for him.   Hell, I think anyone with ovaries would want him and maybe even a few without them. I also really enjoyed Andrea and Tanner, even though they weren’t that much a part of the story.  I would love to read a book that features just them *hint, hint*

I really loved that JLA didn’t follow the normal pattern that we usually see in the New Adult genre and that we actually get a little bit of mystery thrown in with all of the sigh-worthy romance.  

Overall, Frigid is another masterpiece by the one and only JLA.  Take my word for it; if you haven’t read any books by JLA, you are missing out on one AMAZING author.  

Much Loved Passage

 We walk-or shuffled along-about a yard and then I walked straight into a mailbox.  I grunted.  “Son of a bitch jumped right out in front of me!”

 

Kyler stopped, shaking his head.  “You are a hazard to yourself right now.”

“I’m fine.” I waved him off, edging around the tricky inanimate object as I shot it a dark look.  “I’m watching you.”

“Let me help you,” he offered.  “Okay? I’ll get us both home in one piece and keep us far away from ninja mailboxes.”

Top Ten Tuesday (12) Books I Wish Could Have Had Sequels

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.

 

This week's topic is: Ten Books I Wish Could Have Had Sequels

 

Here's  my list:

 

 

 

What are some books you wish could have had sequels?

 

 

 



Book Review | Prodigy by Marie Lu

Series: Legend # 2

Format: ARC

Source: ARCycling

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Publication Date: January 29, 2013

Pages: 371

Goodreads | Amazon

 

 

June and Day arrive in Vegas just as the unthinkable happens: the Elector Primo dies, and his son Anden takes his place. With the Republic edging closer to chaos, the two join a group of Patriot rebels eager to help Day rescue his brother and offer passage to the Colonies. They have only one request—June and Day must assassinate the new Elector.

It’s their chance to change the nation, to give voice to a people silenced for too long.

But as June realizes this Elector is nothing like his father, she’s haunted by the choice ahead. What if Anden is a new beginning? What if revolution must be more than loss and vengeance, anger and blood—what if the Patriots are wrong?

In this highly-anticipated sequel, Lu delivers a breathtaking thriller with high stakes and cinematic action

Prodigy starts off a few weeks after Legend ends with June and Day on their way to Vegas to track down the Patriots in hopes of finding Tess and Eden along the possibility of getting their help.  While they knew that help would come at a price, they are completely caught off guard by what that price is.  Day and June must join the Patriots and help them in their efforts to assassinate the new Elector.  

June is such an amazing character and I loved reading her POV.  She is so strong and she is willing to do whatever it takes to help Day find and rescue Eden.  But at the same time she also wants to do what is right and sometimes that line isn’t so clear. 

Day is another great character to read about.  He would do just about anything to find and protect his little brother, Eden.  But the very thing that he has to do to get to his little brother could be the one thing that could keep him away from Eden.

I absolutely loved Legend when I read it last year, but you guys, Prodigy was soooo much better.  There was so much more suspense and I was constantly guessing what would happen next and what the right thing was and who was hiding something.  And I don’t even know what to say about that ending.

Overall, Prodigy is a fast-paced adventure that is packed with suspense.  It will keep you flipping the pages in order to find out what happens next.  Lu’s writing is amazing and I’m excited and scared to see how she will end this trilogy in Champion.

 

Deal Discoveries (4)

 

Here are some amazing books that are on sale on Kindle right now.  All of the below books are $3.99 or under!

 

Clicking on the link will take you to Amazon.

 

The Books

 

FREE

 

 

The Prices

The Crown of Embers – 1.99

My Life After Now – 2.99

Chain Reaction – 2.99

The Compound – 3.99

Unbreak My Heart – 2.99

Bright Young Things – 1.99

Scorch – 1.99

Feed MT Anderson – 1.99

Hourglass – 1.99

Timepiece – 1.99

Storm – 3.82

Don’t Turn Around – 1.99

 

Happy Reading!

 



Stacking the Shelves (20)



Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tygna's Review that allows us to show what we got the previous week.

 

Here's what I got this week:

 

 



Fated by Alyson Noel (Traded)

 

Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentout (Traded)

 

The Rules by Stacey Kade (Traded)

 

Counting Backwards by Laura Lascarso (Traded)

 

On Kindle:

 

 

Timepiece by Myra McEntire

 

For Review:

 

Conjoured by Sarah Beth Durst

 

Witchling by Ari Harper

 

Steel Lily by Megan Hurd

 

Viral Nation by Shaunta Grimes

 

 

What did you get this week?

 

 

Book Review | Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

Series: Born of Illusion #1

Format: ARC

Source: Won

Publisher: Balzer & Bray

Publication Date: June 11, 2013

Pages: 384

Goodreads | Amazon

Anna Van Housen helps her medium mother Margeurite do stage shows and seances in 1920s New York. Possibly Houdini's daughter, she can sense feelings and see the future. Frightening visions show her mother in peril. New downstairs neighbor Cole introduces her to a society that studies people with gifts like hers. Sorting truth from illusion yields her destiny.

To be perfectly honest, if I hadn’t won Born of Illusion I probably never would have picked it up, not because the blurb didn’t sound interesting but because 99% of the time Historical Fiction and I do not get along.  But surprisingly, I really enjoyed this book.  I adored the mystical and mysterious world of magic and mediums that is Born of Illusion.  

Anna Van Housen has always assisted her mother in her mentalist stage show and séances.  Not only is Anna a great magician, but unlike her sham of a mother, Anna actually has physic abliitles.  She’s able to sense what people around her are feeling and she can also see the future.  Anna has always tried to hide her abilities, because if her power hungry mother found out she would use Anna in any way that she could in order to increase her own status and wealth.  

I thought Anna was a very easy character to like; she smart, nice, determined and extremely talented. However, I really hated  diskliked Anna’s mother.  She’s domineering, controlling and not to mention the fact that she’s a scam artist.  I also didn’t like the way that she would sabotage Anna’s magic act whenever she was mad at her or when she felt like Anna was outshining her, although at the end of this book she redeems herself a little.  I loved Mr. Darby and I really wish that he could have been a bigger part of this book.

There is a little bit of a love triangle in Born of Illusion, but it was easy enough to choose who to root for because one of them I did not trust at all and as it turns out I was right not to trust him.  

Although Born of Illusion is a historical fiction and a little obvious on who the ‘bad guys’ are, I still really enjoyed reading it.  Would I have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t historical fiction? Probably, but I would still recommend this book to those of you who enjoy the historical fiction genre.

CBA Discussion | Closure, Please

 

While I was working on my best endings/beginnings for my Top Ten Tuesday post this week I got to thinking about how I like my books/series to end.

As a reader, when a series or a standalone book ends, I NEED to have some kind of closure and it drives me crazy if I don’t get it.  I get so invested in these characters, especially if it’s a series, and if I don’t know how it all works out, I get really flippin angry upset.  

I know that everyone’s different and some people like the books that leave everything open, so that they can form their own version of what happens to the characters.  But, I’m not that imaginative so I’m not one of those people.  The only way that open endings don’t bother me is if there is going to be another book in the series.

 Personally, if I get to the ending of a standalone book or series and it leaves everything open, I will most likely drop it a star. I know that this probably seems unfair, especially if I really enjoyed the rest of the book, but I get so disappointed and I just can’t bring myself to give it a full five stars if I don’t love every aspect of it, including the ending.

 One of the hardest books that I’ve ever rated was Requiem by Lauren Oliver (MyReview).  I loved Delirium and Pandemonium and I honestly really enjoyed MOST of Requiem.  But the ending...

 

Honestly, I still struggle on whether or not I should go back and change my rating from 3 stars to 4, I’ve even thought about not putting a rating on it at all. This is the reason why I just posted the review yesterday even though it's been weeks since I've read it.  Maybe someday I will go back and re-evaluate, but for right now I think I’m just going to leave it alone.

Talk To Me

What do you think about open endings? Will you drop a star if you don’t like the ending? Have you ever struggled with rating a book? 

Leave me a comment and let me know.