Book: Every Last Kiss by Courtney Cole

Published by Lakehouse Press

Purchased for my Nook (244 pages)

Genre: YA: Historical Fiction/Fantasy

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Goodreads Summary: 17-year old Macy Lockhart has the weight of the world on her shoulders. 

For thousands of years, she has been a Keeper in the ancient organization, the Order of the Moirae. She literally holds fate in her hands. 

But this is something that she forgets, because her memories are wiped clean when she is reborn each time, until it is time for her cycle to begin again in her seventeenth year in each life. 

And for the last two thousand years, this has never been a problem. Until now. But now, fate is being challenged and to fix it, she is forced to return to a previous life, one where she was Cleopatra’s handmaiden, Charmian. 

Cue up the second problem: Unless she interferes with the fabric of time, the very thing she has returned to repair, then her soul mate, Hasani, will die leading Marc Antony’s armies against Rome. Can she really stand aside and allow the love of her life to die all over again?

There is something very beautiful about Every Last Kiss.  I love the setting and how everything is described.  I mean, how often do you see ancient Egypt as a setting, and Cleopatra as a character?  It’s nice to see a novel where the character doesn’t travel back to medieval Europe, or history that isn’t European.  I so want to go back to ancient Egypt after reading this book.  Some of the details are great, and they really made the novel interesting.

The premise is interesting- she holds fate in her hands, and every 17 years, she starts over, with her memories wiped clean.  The reincarnation aspect isn’t that unusual, and is even the teensiest bit cliche now.  Her going back 2000 years, and then foward 2000 years…it didn’t work for me.  It starts and ends in a completely predictable way.  There are some random time shifts, which were a little distracting.  I feel like there’s this really big picture, and that going back in time are really important, but we don’t really know what’s going on.  It just felt convoluted.

I didn’t get the romance- it’s clear there is one, but it didn’t work because we don’t see enough of it.  It’s really hard to see and understand why they’re so in love.  Then again, romance isn’t the main focus of the novel…but it’s likely to take center stage in the remaining books.

Things moved along, but I just couldn’t connect with the characters, especially Macy.  I didn’t feel like there was enough conflict- she had to choose between not changing destiny because of the potential consequences and saving the guy she loves.  It was hard to see why she’d want to save Hasani, but I will admit that the idea of changing destiny and history was intriguing.  It’s a shame it wasn’t really explored and that she ended up accepting that she couldn’t change things.

I didn’t mind modern language, because she did go back in time, and that’s to be expected.

It gets a 2 out of 5.  It was okay, and I don’t think I’m interested enough to keep reading.

Book: Bloodspell by Amalie Howard

Published by Langdon Street Press

Purchased for my Nook

Genre: YA: Fantasy/Paranormal- Vampires

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Goodreads Summary: The spell was simple…

Cruentus Protectum (Defend the Blood)

But what do you do if your blood is your enemy?

Victoria Warrick has always known she was different. An outcast at school, she is no stranger to adversity. But when she receives an old journal for her seventeenth birthday, nothing prepares her for the dark secrets it holds — much less one that reveals she’s a witch with unimaginable power.

What’s more, when she meets the dazzling but enigmatic Christian Devereux, she has no idea how much her life is about to change. Enemies will hunt her. Friends will turn on her. The terrible curse that makes her blood run black will stop at nothing to control her. And Christian has a sinister secret of his own…

Without knowing whom to trust, can Victoria survive her blood’s deadly desires? Or will she lose everything, including herself?

Bloodspell…I thought parts of it were really interesting, but overall, it was just okay.

So, interesting parts  first.  I thought the truce between witches and vampires was interesting, and the rivalry between them was interesting.

I thought Tori being a witch with a really interesting power was interesting.  A blood curse?  Definitely different, and the role it played was really interesting.  She doesn’t have just any ordinary power, she has a really unusual one, which was nice to see.  And it was cool to see her struggle with controlling it and figuring it all out by reading a journal and consulting with her cat because there doesn’t seem to be anyone else she can turn to.  I liked her struggle with accepting and dealing with what was going on.

But it was just okay.  The romance was really boring, and way too expected.  They, of course, can’t be together, but I just found it way too uninteresting.

I didn’t find the characters terribly interesting either, and it was a pretty predictable story…and for me, this was not a good thing.  I was definitely bored reading it, and it just wasn’t memorable for me.  I wanted to like Bloodspell but I just couldn’t.

As for the magic, it could have been interesting, but wasn’t.  It made solving things really easy, and it was frustrating because she picked up on using magic way too quickly for someone who just learned about her family history.

It does have potential but overall, it’s just okay, so it gets 2 out of 5.

Book: Private by Kate Brian

Published by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers

Purchased for my Nook (240 pages)

Genre: YA: Contemporary

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Goodreads Summary: Tradition, Honor, Excellence…and secrets so dark they’re almost invisible Fifteen-year-old Reed Brennan wins a scholarship to Easton Academy — the golden ticket away from her pill-popping mother and run-of-the-mill suburban life. But when she arrives on the beautiful, tradition-steeped campus of Easton, everyone is just a bit more sophisticated, a bit more gorgeous, and a lot wealthier than she ever thought possible. Reed realizes that even though she has been accepted to Easton, Easton has not accepted her. She feels like she’s on the outside, looking in. Until she meets the Billings Girls. They are the most beautiful, intelligent, and intensely confident girls on campus. And they know it. They hold all the power in a world where power is fleeting but means everything. Reed vows to do whatever it takes to be accepted into their inner circle. Reed uses every part of herself — the good, the bad, the beautiful — to get closer to the Billings Girls. She quickly discovers that inside their secret parties and mountains of attitude, hanging in their designer clothing-packed closets the Billings Girls have skeletons. And they’ll do anything to keep their secrets private.

I liked Private.  It’s been on my to-read list forever, so I finally got around to reading it!

It’s about this girl who goes to boarding school and becomes friends with the popular girls.  There are quite a few cliches, but it was still enjoyable to read. It’s definitely another mean girl-type of story, but it’s one of the better ones, I think.

I’m not sure what secrets Reed is supposed to discover, but since Private is the first book in the series, it’s much more likely that secrets will be revealed in the other books.

There’s definitely an air of mystery and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next.  Even though things were pretty predictable, I still wanted to know what happened.  There’s something very addicting about a series like this.

The characters are okay- pretty standard for this kind of story.  Thankfully, I’ve only the first book in the spin-off, and I don’t remember enough to have an opinion about the characters.  I get why Reed just went along with the Billings girls, and it’s interesting to see Arianna from a different perspective.  But I didn’t care too much about her.  I just couldn’t completely connect with her.

It gets a 3 out of 5.  I liked it, and I’ll keep reading, but it didn’t grab me the way I thought it would.

Book: The Patron Saint Of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Purchased for my Nook (320 pages)

Genre: YA: Contemporary

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Goodreads Summary: Agnes and Honey have always been best friends, but they haven’t always been so different. Agnes loves being a Believer. She knows the rules at the Mount Blessing religious commune are there to make her a better person. Honey hates Mount Blessing and the control Emmanuel, their leader, has over her life. The only bright spot is the butterfly garden she’s helping to build, and the journal of butterflies that she keeps. When Agnes’s grandmother makes an unexpected visit to the commune, she discovers a violent secret that the Believers are desperate to keep quiet. And when Agnes’s little brother is seriously injured and Emmanuel refuses to send him to a hospital, Nana Pete takes the three children and escapes the commune. Their journey begins an exploration of faith, friendship, religion and family for the two girls, as Agnes clings to her familiar faith while Honey desperately wants a new future.

I really liked The Patron Saint Of Butterflies.  The title was intriguing, and I just love the cover.

I loved that we have two narrators- Agnes, who is a huge believer in the community, and Honey, who isn’t.  It worked really well, and you get two very different perspectives on what life is like at Mount Blessing.  Patron saints are really important throughout the book, and it was nice to see Agnes go from believing she needs to be perfect and to atone for any sins she commits, to realizing that doing the right thing is more important.

It’s a really good look at what a religious commune is like, and I could picture everything so clearly.  The grounds of Mount Blessing seem beautiful, and I loved the idea of a butterfly garden.

Obviously, patron saints were pretty important.  And while butterflies were mentioned, I’m not really sure why they were included.  I’m not too sure why Honey is so attached to butterflies and it didn’t really work for me.  Maybe it’s supposed to be a nice contrast or it’s supposed to represent transformation.

Emmanuel refuses to let Agnes’ younger brother go to a hospital after he hurts himself, and that is what leads Agnes and Honey out of Mount Blessing and into the “real world.”  This is where Agnes got really annoying but at the same time, she did try to stick to what she believed in, because it’s the only thing she ever knew.  But Agnes and Honey really were like kids in a candy store.

Of course, there’s a family secret that changes both of their lives…which I predicted at some point when I was reading.  It definitely changes things for both girls.

I thought it was great, and I loved seeing their journey.  They really changed a lot.

It gets a 4 out of 5.  I really liked it, but I didn’t love it.

Book: Die For Me by Amy Plum

Published by HarperCollins

Purchased for my Nook (259 pages)

Genre: YA: Paranormal- Zombies

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Goodreads Summary: My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.

Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.

Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.

While I’m fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family’s—in jeopardy for a chance at love?

I didn’t like Die For Me.  It’s an interesting idea, dying for people so they can have another chance at life.  While Vincent and his family aren’t true zombies, it is what they call themselves.

I found that things only picked up towards the end, but by then, I didn’t really care about what happened.  I was kind of bored when reading Die For Me.  Even the battle was a lot more boring than I expected.

As for the characters, I didn’t particularly care about any of them.  I felt like I didn’t really get to know them.  Kate was especially boring, and I just felt like something was missing from every single character.

I loved the setting- it felt like Plum just loves Paris, which you can tell by the way everything is described.  It’s always cool when a book takes place in a different country.  Paris is such a good setting, and while we see a lot of it, it somehow felt like we didn’t see a lot of Paris.

The reason for Kate and Georgia moving to Paris didn’t feel like a big deal.  Their parents died, and while they move to Paris to live with their grandparents, it felt really forced.  Like Plum just picked the reason out of a hat or something.

I give it a 1 out of 5.  It’s an interesting idea, but I was bored reading it.

Book: Unseen by Rachel Caine

Published by Penguin Group

E-book borrowed from the public library (320 pages)

Genre: Fiction: Paranormal/Fantasy

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Goodreads Summary: After Cassiel and Warden Luis Rocha rescue an adept child from a maniacal Djinn, they realize two things: the girl is already manifesting an incredible amount of power, and her kidnapping was not an isolated incident.

This Djinn—aided by her devoted followers—is capturing children all over the world, and indoctrinating them so she can use their strength for herself. With no other options, Cassiel infiltrates the Djinn’s organization—because if Cassiel cannot stop the Djinn’s apocalyptic designs, all of humanity may be destroyed.

I really liked Unseen.  I just love seeing Djinn (or genies) and how there’s a serious battle ahead.  I just love her determination to destroy Pearl while in a human body.  And seeing her change over the series has been interesting.

She has the chance to become a Djinn again, but passes, because she is much sympathetic to humans now.  It turned out to be a good move on her part, at least at the end of the novel.  But who knows how it will turn out in Unbroken?

There’s a lot of action in this one, which made it go by really fast.  I thought Esmeralda was an interesting addition, being caught between two very different forms.  And there were some things I never saw coming.  Like someone betraying the wardens…and it being the last person I expected.

I have no idea how Cassiel is supposed to destroy Pearl, what with being human, Pearl turning children into assassins and making their powers and abilities manifest way earlier than they should.  Where the most powerful wardens are, I have no idea.  They’re mentioned, but we have yet to see them.  And we have yet to see a lot of the Djinn.  Maybe they’ll make an appearance in Unbroken.

And all of the drama with Cassiel and Luis.  I so want things to work out between them, but I have a feeling things won’t end happily for them.  And poor Ibby!  Things are not looking up for her.

Overall, the characters are pretty interesting, and I like some of the new ones that were introduced.  We still have some of old characters as well, but she has no problem with having her characters make really hard, gut-wrenching decisions.  Or kill them, if need be.

This is the first time I felt like I was missing some of the backstory- and the first time I wished I read the Weather Warden series first.  I have the feeling that some of my questions could be answered if I read it.

I give it a 4 out of 5.  I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Book: Darkness Falls by Jessica Sorensen

Self-Published by Jessica Sorensen

Purchased for my Nook (290 pages)

Genre: YA: Dystopic/Post-Apocalyptic/Paranormal- Vampires

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Goodreads Summary: When the disease spread through the world, people had no choice but to go into hiding. The Colony is hidden deep underground, far away from the vampires—humans that were transformed by the disease. The vampires are hideous, starving, and they will kill any human they come across.

Seventeen-year-old Kayla is a Bellator, a warrior that protects The Colony. In order to survive, there are three rules she must follow:
Rule #1—Never go out after dark.
Rule #2—Always carry a weapon.
Rule #3—No matter what, never EVER get bit.

But what happens when the rules Kayla has always lived by can no longer apply? 

The Highers run The Colony and accept nothing less than perfection. One slip up can mean death. Kayla has always worked hard to follow the rules and strive for perfection. But during a moment of weakness, she lets her imperfections show. Her punishment is worse than death. She is chosen for The Gathering and is thrown out into a world full of starving vampires. 

No one has ever survived The Gathering, at least that’s what Kayla’s been told.

But when she runs into a group who insist they were once part of The Gathering, Kayla discovers the Highers have been keeping secrets. Secrets that could lead to a cure.

Darkness Falls is interesting.  I like the premise of it- a virus that turned people into vampires.  That’s definitely unusual, but I like that it’s caused by a virus.  And the society is also interesting.  Things are definitely secretive and you’re not completely sure what is going on.  Plus, vampires have taken over, and everyone’s who left is in the Colony.  Or are they?  I have the feeling there’s more going on than what was revealed in the book.

But here’s the thing.  I didn’t like it.  I didn’t find the characters particularly interesting, and it felt convoluted.  I get the whole convoluted feel, because she’s been injected something that makes her forget things, and she starts to remember them.  It was slightly jarring to randomly see memories come back.  But it was interesting to see her remember and try to figure everything out.

There’s a lot going on, and it felt overwhelming.

That being said, I get why people like it so much.  There is a lot of action and adventure, and while I thought there were a lot of details missing, I get why they’re missing.

It’s just not for me, so I give it a 1 out of 5.