Review: Girl of Nightmares

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Series: Anna Dressed in Blood #2

Published by Tor Teen

Genre: YA paranormal

$17.99 (US hardback)

332 pages

 

What it's about:

It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost hunter Cas Lowood can't move on.

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live--not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep, and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong... these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

 

My thoughts:

I read the first book, Anna Dressed In Blood, back in December and loved it. I thought it was creepy and dark, but great. I loved Cas, Thomas, and Carmel (especially Carmel. Her and her anger cracks me up) and thought they made an interesting trio. Everything I loved about the first book, I still loved about The Girl of Nightmares.

The problem I found I had with this book was that I couldn't read it  in one sitting, or two, or three. I would read a few pages, and have to put it down. Maybe I'd get through a few chapters before I had to put it down. Either because something came up that I had to do or it wasn't holding my attention.  When I read Anna, I read it in the perfect setting. I read it at night, in the dark, during a huge storm. It was perfect. But while reading GON, it was a 100 degree sunny day. This is not a good setting and having the right setting while reading this book is a big deal. It's the difference from loving the book or just liking it.

I think that is the biggest thing I want to say about this book. The other big thing I want to say is about the ending. While the ending was good, I felt like it just...ended. Everything was getting to the exciting part, the part you wait the whole book to get to, and in about 20 pages it's done. And then to my utter horror, there is no epilogue! Ugh. I really truly hate it when there is no epilogue.

If you liked the Anna, you'll like this one as well. Just make sure to read it in the right setting ;)

My rating: 8/10

No epilogue = lower rating from me. It's a pet peeve of mine. 

Top Ten Tuesday-- real life relationships

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish.


This weeks top ten is:Top Ten Book Romances That You Think Would Make It In The Real World (outside the book)

I'm gonna be different and say "all of them." That's right, all the characters and their relationships would make it irl. Who am I to say that they couldn't make it? I would really hope that every single one of them could make their relationships last and be happy ones. So no list for me this week.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Welcome to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! This meme is hosted by Book Journey

This is my first time participating in this meme. I've been wanting to get into more memes lately so I'm trying out a few, see if I like them or not.


Last weeks reads (the link takes you to their Goodreads page):
Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard.
I borrowed this one from the library and ended up  reading it really fast. Great book. I have a review up for it here


Hotter After Midnight by Cynthia Eden:
I read a great review for this a long long time ago so I got myself an ebook of it right after I read the review. I just now got to reading it (won't post a review, not the type of book I review on here). It was a pretty good book.

Hunger Games by Susan Collins (audiobook):
I listened to the audiobook of this. I'd tried listening to it a few times and only ever made it through the first chapter. I thought the ladies voice didn't fit Katniss and ugh. I dunno, I just didn't like it. Then my sister said to try again and I did, got further and I ended up really enjoying it. The lady changed her voice a little and it fit better.

What I'm reading now:
GIrl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake:
I'm loving this book so far, but I've been so busy lately I haven't really been able to sit down and enjoy it as much as I'd like it.


What I want to read this week:
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
I have this waiting for me at the library and just need to pick it up. Everyone is talking about how good it is so I'm excited to read it.

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry:
I've had a Netgalley of this for a while now and haven't been able to read it lately. I've been in the mood for paranormal and not contemporary. This will get read this upcoming week though.

Review: Something Strange and Deadly

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

Published by Harper Teen

Genre: YA historical paranormal?

 $17.99 (US hardback)

388 pages

What it's about:

The year is 1876, and there’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper—

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor…from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she’ll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including their maddeningly stubborn yet handsome inventor, Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

My thoughts:
This was instant cover love for me. Cool, dark, somewhat steampunky background and a girl in a beautiful black dress on the front is something I always love in covers. Yet after reading this book, I feel the cover doesn't match the book that well.

Going into this book I knew it was about two things 1. a historical setting and 2. zombies. That was all that needed to be said in order for me to be interested. Then the cover blurb also said it's a lot like the Clockwork Angel and I was sold. Now I just had to read it.

There are 4 main questions in this book. 1. Where is Elijah? 2. Who and what is the spirit? 3. Who is the necromancer? and 4. What's wrong with Clarence? I thought that all of these questions were pretty obvious, all but one of them I knew pretty much from the beginning. At some points I was wondering why the characters didn't see the answers as well. Even though I thought the answers were pretty clear very early on, Dennard did a wonderful job with the layout and the turn of events. I may have guessed the answered, but I didn't see how Dennard was going to answer the questions until it happened and it left me shocked. She is most definitely not afraid to make her characters do what they have to do.

And as for her characters, I absolutely adored Eleanor. She was strong, brave, and always had a good comeback, yet she had enough girly insecurity to make her believable. There were things that Eleanor said that had me cracking up (the Grecian position and women being camels? So funny!) and she made good choices as well. I never wanted to yell at her and ask what she was doing because she wasn't stupid. She made the right choices. I love that in a character.

The only complaint I have for this book is the lack of character descriptions. It isn't until the end of the book that we find out that Eleanor has blonde hair (though you can sort of guess from the cover) and throughout the book she mentions having a little extra weight in her hips and others also mention it. She also compares the heights of other characters to Eleanor's height, but we are never told her height as well. This doesn't just go for Eleanor, but to all the characters. We never really get descriptions of any of them besides hair color. I'd really of liked to see more than that.


My rating: 9/10

Top Ten Tuesday--



Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is Top Ten Posts On Your Blog That Would Give The BEST Picture of YOU (as a reader and a person -- so pick the 10 best reviews/posts that you wish every potential reader of your blog would see!)


Holy cow this is a really really really hard one.

1. My Book Boyfriend-- Harry:
I am a massive Harry Potter fan and have been for more than half my life. I used to play Harry Potter with my friends when I was younger (who am I kidding, I still do), I've seen all the movies the day they came out in theaters, bought the movies the day they came out on dvd, I've had HP posters hanging up on my walls since I was 11, I have hp shirts, I make wands for fun, I went to the theme park a few months after it opened and I cried when I walked into Hogsmead for the first time. I also went to London/Edinburgh and took pictures of everything HP related and I happened to meet JK herself on that trip. Harry Potter isn't an obsession, it's a lifestyle.

2. Let's talk about what makes you angry in a book:
This is a post I recently did talking about what annoys me in my books. These are all things that bug me a lot and some also apply to my day to day life.

3. Book buying spree:
This is not unusual for me to do. Just like every other book blogger, I adore buying books. I adore it so much that it has actually become a problem. Like a few weeks ago, Powells sent me an email saying "free shipping today!!!" and I went "Omg noooo wayyyy" and ordered a few books *facepalm*

4. YA or Bust tour:
This was the book tour I really wanted to go to and was able to go even though it meant I had to drive 4 hours and out of state to get to. So worth it.

5. Fun Book title survey:
Remember back when Myspace was cool or mass emails and everyone always did those surveys about themselves? I was a BIG fan of those. Did them all the freaking time. I took my love of surveys and applied them to my blog. I've done a few of them but this one was my favorite. I've done it a few times and will probably end up doing it again sometime.

6. When I'm not Reading:
I've done a few of these (and did a guest post on Missie the Unread Readers blog for it) and this one is about my painting. I paint a lot (these are all 2 years old or older) and I use the books I read as inspiration.

7. Favorite Book Quotes:
There are a few TTT that will be on this list. This one is my favorite book quotes (or some of them. I could never come up with only 10 of my favorites). There is a quote out there that goes something like "the quotes people like say more about them than the actual quotes" and I believe that is so true. :)

8. Books that gave me strong emotions:
The books I love and hate and my reactions to them I think says a lot about me ;)

I'm sure there are more posts that show the dazzling personality of yours truly (just read any of my TTT's and that shows a lot of my personality) but I was getting kinda tired of going through all my old posts. :)

Book Blogger Confessions- Making money off your blog

Book blogger confessions is a meme hosted on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month. The meme is hosted by Tiger's all consuming books and For What It's Worth

 This weeks topic is:
Making money off your blog: There was a recent controversy about bloggers charging authors for reviews which leads to this week's question:
Almost all of us blog as a hobby in our spare time, usually for free but is there anything wrong with making money off your blog?
Should bloggers charge for reviews?
What about advertising on a blog?
When a blogger does allow book related advertising does it turn you off? Make you wonder about the honesty of their reviews?

Do you have a problem with purchase links (Amazon for example) that earn a blogger a small commission if a person purchases a book through that link?


Wow, apparently I did not hear about this new controversy in the blogging world because when I read that, it shocked me.

I do not see the harm in trying to make a little money on your blog. Blogging takes up a lot of time, both with reading the books and writing about them. Then there is all the networking that is involved with blogging and maybe the giveaways. That all takes time and maybe money so having things like Amazon purchase links is no biggy. It's not in your face and all it is is a link. But what disgusted me a little when I read about it is people charging for reviews. WTF? To me that is just wrong. I find that the deal is the author/publisher sends you a free copy of the book, and you give a review. The payment itself is the free book. To me, that is a sweet deal because most likely I would have bought the book anyways and still wrote a review for it. So I'm saving money by getting a free copy.

As for when bloggers have book related advertising on their blogs, no, that does not turn me off or have me distrusting the bloggers reviews. I'm just going to trust that the blogger liked the book so much that they allowed advertising on their blog. To me, my blog is my baby (figuratively speaking.) I have spent a big chunk of time designing (and learning html so I can design it), organizing, and networking to get it to what it is today. There is no way that I would clutter it up with advertising for something I dislike. I trust that can also go for many other bloggers. People who spend tons of money on personal designs (have you seen the prices for those? It's like $100 if not more. Yikes) wouldn't want to clutter it up either.

Series review: Solid and Settling

Solid by Shelley Workinger

Published by Createspace

Genre: YA

$7.99 paperback or $3.99 kindle ebook

221 pages

What it's about:

Clio Kaid may be 17 and just beginning the last summer before her senior year, but her life is anything but typical.

She's just discovered she was genetically altered before birth and is now headed to a top-secret Army campus to explore the surprising results of the experiment.

Follow Clio and the other teens as they develop fantastic super-abilities, forge new friendships, find love, and uncover a conspiracy along the way.

 

My thoughts on bk.#1 Solid:
I read Solid a year ago when I first received a copy of it and I thought I had written a review for it but it turns out I didn't, so I read it a second time.

The first time I read this book, I read it really fast and enjoyed it. I thought that the idea of being genetically altered teens with super powers was pretty neat. Plus there was a boarding school/camp setting which I always enjoy. I know that a lot of people get annoyed when the parents are conveniently absent, but that is not a situation I have a problem with. I actually really enjoy the whole boarding school setting. I like the hardly there parents.

I also really liked the group dynamics of Clio and her friends. I like how there are flaws in each character and how all the characters are aware of them. I like how there is a friend in the group that doesn't fit in and is unwanted for a while (isn't there always one of those people in a group?)

And lastly I liked how Clio wasn't super special when it came to all the genetically altered special kids and I liked how there was questions as to what in the world is Jack's special abilities? Does he even have any? I want to know!

The only problem I really had was it all seemed too easy. The group of friends discovered everything very easily and the problem at the end happens very fast and is easily overcome. I would have liked to see more complications.

Settling (book #2)

$9.99 paperback or $4.99 kindle ebook

242 pages

What it's about:

At the beginning of the summer, Clio Kaid was one of a hundred teens brought to a secret Army installation. But it was no ordinary camp and they weren’t ordinary kids…

Picking up where “Solid” left off, Clio and her friends realize that they aren’t ready to go home; they’re determined to stay on campus and continue their journey of self- discovery. But someone doesn’t feel the same way and will do anything to drive them away – even kill.

Friendships will be tested, abilities will evolve, and more secrets will come out as the teens race to stop the killer before he sets his sights on one of them…

My thoughts on Settling:
I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as Solid. I was so annoyed with Clio during the whole book. I really just wanted to shake her and talk some sense into her. She was being so stupid and she never seemed to stop being stupid. This really ruined the book for me. I just couldn't get over it and due to spoilers, I can not say what it was she was doing that bugged me so much.

Settling also had the same problem when it came to everything happened so easily. The big problem of this book according to the description is that people were being murdered, yet that seemed to be a side story to Clio and her whining and all the mistakes she was making. Ugh.

So to say the least, I will probably not be continuing with this series. The first book was good and interesting while I found the second book lacking.

Ratings:
Solid- 8/10
Settling- 6/10