Shattered Promises by Jessica Sorensen

A re-imagining of the YA Fallen Star series, Shattered Promises follows Gemma, a 21 year old college student who has never felt emotion, until now. After being swamped by every emotion she's never felt, strange thing begin happening around Gemma. Two new students seem to appear everywhere she is, and hulking beasts watch her, promptly disappearing as soon as she takes notice. There's more to Gemma's world than what she's always believed, and she may not have long to find the answers.

For a supposedly mature book, I found this novel extremely immature. I could tell it was a rewrite of a young adult book because the characters remained immature. Unfortunately, they didn't grow into the age they were supposed to be. Alex, who is twenty four acts like a moody teenager, and for the fits Gemma throws I would place her right around sixteen. The content warning at the beginning of the description was unnecessary, because other than some cussing and very vague descriptions of sexual encounters, this wasn't a graphic book, and I would still shelve it as young adult. Compared to a lot of NA books that are out there, this is practically Dora the Explorer.

As far as the writing goes, it wasn't terrible, especially for an india author. However, there were a lot of words used incorrectly as adjectives and verbs and such. It felt like Jessica took a thesaurus to the book and tried to replace words she used too many times, however the words she replaced them with weren't quite right. Now, I will applaud the effort because there's nothing worse than repetitive writing, however it is important when using tools like a thesaurus to make sure the words actually mean the right thing, and aren't just similar.

Let's talk about Gemma. I really liked her as a character. I felt like she was relatable and often times I would find myself asking a question, and she would ask it the very next line. Here's the deal though, she acted like a teenager, not a twenty year old. If I had read this with the expectation of a YA book with teenage characters, I would have liked it a lot more. However, I was expecting more mature characters with less of the teenage angst, and so it did leave me feeling disappointed. If I wanted to read the YA version, I would read the original.

The supporting characters never really gain any substance in the book. Laylan comes close, but he's in the book for such a short time that we never really grasp his character. I think he has a lot of potential, and I was actually upset that he wasn't in the book more, because what we do see of him definitely makes him the most mature character in the book. Aislin, Alex's sister is in short scenes throughout the book, but she's always just there, only ever contributing with a few spells.

Alex I really wanted to like, but as I said before, he acts like a moody teenager, not someone in their mid twenties. At first he is a huge jerk, and I don't mean like the sassy jerk in a lot of YA books these days that you love to hate and hate to love, but I mean actually someone I would slap in the face. He pushes her over, he lets a door slam into her, and is constantly being an ass. After he finally warms up to her his and Gemma's interactions are strange. He's always restraining her, and in an awkward way, too. Half their conversations he has her laying on her back with him laying over her talking down to her. Whenever they make out he grabs her hands and pins them above her head. Once or twice that kind of thing can be hot, but I literally mean every single time they kiss. Alex was a strange character for me, and all of his explanations were vague, took a long time, and honestly just frustrated me.

The bottom line with this book is I like the cover (anything with stars like that draws me in), and I really want to love the story, but the immaturity of the supposedly mature characters just doesn't fly with me. The plot is original and I like the emotions twist, but in the end I can't see myself spending the time continuing with the series.

Two Stars

Rosalie Williams

Shattered Promises on Goodreads

Taken at Dusk by C.C. Hunter

With Derek gone Kylie can finally investigate her feelings for Lucas, but that doesn't mean they can be together. With his pack, and his grandmother, both against her, their relationship will be far from easy. On top of that, animals are saving her from death, and someone is trying to kill her.

The problem I had with this book is that it's really full of non-action. I think as the third book in this series it really stalled as far as plot goes, because really nothing happens. All the development happens in the last few chapters. Kylie has really long conversations with everyone she talks to, and nothing ever comes out of them. They talk in circles about the same problems over and over again, and it gets hard to stay interested. Even the big climax is pretty bad, because all the excitement happens when Kylie isn't there, and she just rolls in later. Then the confrontation leaves her completely unscathed, and someone else dead.

I had a lot of hope for this series, and absolutely loved the first book. But at this point I'm losing interest. The little progress Kylie makes as far as finding out who she is leaves you wishing the author would just tell you already. The love triangle is annoying because Kylie ends up not being with either Lucas or Derek for most of the book, and then when she finally is with someone, she expects him to be perfect and judges him for every little thing he does wrong. Newsflash, Kylie, you were ridiculously judgmental when you first showed up, so what if he's not perfect all the time?

All in all this installment left me frustrated, and not exactly dying to read the next book in the series. I'm afraid to wait though, because I feel like I've lost all my enthusiasm, and will end up never finishing the series. Either way, I really didn't like this book in the series, which bums me out because I loved the series at the beginning. The plot is too slow, and Kylie whines too much.

Two Stars

Rosalie Williams

Taken at Dusk on Goodreads

Indebted by Amy Bartol

The third book in The Premonition series, Evie is struggling to find her place in the violent world of angels and demons. Pursued on all sides for different reasons, Evie must discover who she can trust–before it's too late.

The writing in this book is eons beyond the previous two books. The first two, while the plot, dialogue and characters were strong, the writing made me feel like I was reading a self-published Amazon book that I should have gotten for free or $0.99. But this was a 180 degree turn around as far as the quality of writing, and even the editing seems to have been stepped up for this novel, as there were far fewer errors. This leads me to believe that the second book was a bit rushed, and she spent more time on this one.

I loved the plot in this. I came to actually really likes Brennus, and I feel bad for him because he really does love Evie, but she can never love him. He is fiercely protective of her–a trait that I totally love–but also treats her as an equal. He fills her in on plans and while he wants to keep her safe, he allows her to participate. He's also startlingly compassionate, and the funeral scene was particularly moving for me. I love how Amy wrote their accents into their words, and I very much look forward to seeing what roll Brennus and the Gancanagh will be playing in the next book.

Reed really isn't in this book too much, but I liked all the scenes he was in. I do feel like his character may be slipping a little, because I don't feel the same chemistry between him and Evie that I did in the first book. To be honest, I was leaning a little more towards Evie and Brennus by the end of this.

Here's the thing though. People are always coming after Evie, and I love the plot, because it's exciting and fresh. But nothing really bad ever seems to happen to her. It's always red-shirts that are dying, and I feel like that makes it unrealistic. She's always crying about how awful her life is, and yet compared to most people (especially other people in the group) nothing terrible has happened, and yet they all treat her like she's survived worse things than them. Shall we recap? She hasn't been physically tortured (Russell, Brownie, Reed, Zephyr and probably Buns, though it doesn't mention it). She hasn't been raped (every girl in the Gancanagh castle). She hasn't had the love of her life turn on her (Reed, Brennus and Russell). So I just don't understand why Amy is making it out that her life is so bad. Sure she's always running, but she seems to have escaped the worst of it.

I'm very interested to see where the plot leads. I'm not completely sure if the fourth book is the last, but I think it is. The story ended with a lot of potential, and I hope that the ending lives up to the excitement of the rest of the series. I can honestly say I can't predict the ending, which is very new to me. I just hope that it's a good one, and doesn't ruin the series for me.

Four Stars

Rosalie Williams

Indebted on Goodreads

Intuition by Amy Bartol

Taking place right where Inescapable left off, Evie is living with Reed and still trying to survive. After being attacked by non-Fallen angels, Evie realizes the risk that protecting her Reed faces, and decides to take matters into her own hands–even if it means leaving the man she loves.

The second book in this series is strong on plot, just as the first one was. There was one lull in the story that was a little boring, but for the most part it kept me invested. The narration switches to Russell at one point, which is interesting to see another perspective on everything that's going on. I do like reading from Evie's POV more, but it was a nice change.

While the writing did improve some, I noticed a lot more little issues with this one, like missing quotation marks at the end of a spoken sentence, or a word in the wrong tense. It didn't bother me too much though, and the writing was a little better so it makes me even more optimistic for the next book.

There's an introduction of a new "villain" in this book, and I really like his character. Brennus is intriguing because he loves Evie and will do anything to get her back, but unlike Reed's love for Evie, he wants her because she makes his life better, not so that Evie's life can be better. This dichotomy really shows the difference between Reed and Brennus' love.

The time Evie spends with Brennus is interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat. The slow shifting of her thoughts and feeling toward the Gancanagh is really intriguing, and while I didn't want her to become one of them, it was just a really good part in the story after things got a little boring with her and Russell up in Canada!

I liked that Reed, even though Evie left him, doesn't hold that against her and try to push her away. He's upset that she did it, but realizes why she did, and accepts the blame for his part in her leaving. All in all I think it made them a better couple, and once they were together again it was like breathing a fresh breath of air after drowning.

I very much look forward to the next book.

Three Stars

Rosalie Williams

Intuition on Goodreads

Born at Midnight and Awake at Dawn by C.C. Hunter

 

Born at Midnight is the first in a series of five books. Narrated in third person by the main character Kylie Galen, the story takes place in a Texas summer camp called Shadow Falls. We first meet Kylie as her father leaves her with her icy mother, and are told that she has a mysterious stalker who no one else can see. After being arrested at an underage party, her mother ships her off to a summer camp with all sorts of strange people, who do very strange things. Derek, a boy who resembles her ex-boyfriend (but even more attractive) takes an instant liking to her. We also meet Lucas, a boy from Kylie's past who she isn't sure remembers her or not, but still has a pull on her.

A quick disclaimer, I'm doing the first two books as a single review because I read the second before I wrote about the first, and unfortunately it did change my feelings, and I can't give the first quite the glowing review it deserves.

Therefore, the first book was very good. It held my interest and I instantly liked Kylie. Unlike many heroines these days, I found her reactions to the male protagonists to be better than most. She isn't overly clumsy (for some reason YA writers think this is an endearing trait to teenage girls, let me tell you, it's not) and she's beautiful, but doesn't flaunt it (that bothered me especially in the Vampire Diaries books). But the best thing was she was nice, without being a pansy. She cares about her friends and makes good decisions by them, but doesn't act like a wimp, or pretend to be nice to everyone no matter what.

So what, might you ask, changed my mind about liking Kylie so much? Well, I'll tell you, the second book did. The storyline is good and interesting, and so in that aspect I really enjoyed the second book. I listened to it on tape and managed to finish it in two days (that's about ten hours of listening). But like so many unfortunate heroines of YA these days, Kylie couldn't make up her mind about the boy she likes until it was too late, and he couldn't be with her anymore. It's unfortunate because in the beginning I liked that she didn't lose her head over the two boys, but in the second book she falls into the trap of every other YA love triangle out there.

SPOILER ALERT!

I can't write about the part where my feelings are the strongest without getting into details, so if you don't want to know, skip this paragraph! So here we go. Lucas is gone for most of the second book, which honestly didn't bother me that much, because I liked Kylie's relationship with Derek. But, like I said before, she couldn't stop thinking about Lucas, and eventually that came between her and Derek. When she finally chooses him, he is leaving the camp and says he can't be with her until she has her feelings for Lucas sorted out! Don't get me wrong, I like both Derek and Lucas, but Derek was there for her the entire time, and so I really wanted them to finally be together! To no avail I'm afraid.

END OF SPOILERS!

The end was very good. The finale of the second tied into the finale of the first, and I can see a sort of string stretching between them, and the overall storyline of the series is beginning to be flushed out. If you're wondering, no, Kylie does not find out what she is in the second book, but we do get some more clues. I've been grappling with whether or not to google what she is, because to be honest, the suspense is killing me and the third book is currently checked out from my library. But here's what's held my hand thus far: the mystery is really keeping me interested in the story. If I find out I'm afraid I'll just get frustrated because I know, and Kylie doesn't, and that's such a big part of the story I know I'd get angry.

So there you go. I liked everything in the first book. but Kylie really lost brownie points with me in the second. Hopefully she can redeem herself in the next book, because I'm not sure I can handle more of these cliche, overprinted YA love triangle mishaps.

Born at Midnight: Four Stars
Awake at Dawn: Three Stars

Rosalie Williams

Born at Midnight on Goodreads
Awake at Dawn on Goodreads

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Meghan Chase must follow her best friend, the infamous fairy Puck into another world to save her brother who has been replaced by a nasty, biting child.

The writing in all of Julia Kagawa's books is fantastic. While the storyline didn't appeal much to me, after reading her Immortal Rules book I decided I had to give it a try, and I'm glad I did.

Now, the first thing I have to rant about quickly is the similarity between this book and the Immortal Rules. While I like the story, I feel like they are exactly the same, just one with vampires and one with fairies. In both the girl's life changes early in the beginning, and has to go on a quest or journey. They both meet boys who eventually help them and fall in love, and they both achieve their goals only to be separated from their loves. So, yeah, very similar. If I had to choose, hands done the Immortal Rules was better.

Now, on to Meghan. Something I've noticed about Julie's books is people are very mean to the heroine. While I realize the world she lives in is dangerous, not everyone is mean like that. Every turn Meghan is making a new enemy and people are trying to hurt her. To me there wasn't enough balance, and I did get tired of the animosity always targeted at Meghan, and I ended up not liking her very much either.

The Prince, yum. I really did like the romance in this book. However, like the Immortal Rules series, they are separated at the end! Why can't her romances have happy endings? Unfortunately I read the description of the second book and I don't know if I'll be reading it simply because it sounds dumb. Enough said.

The story itself was exciting with basically nonstop action, and a lot of really fun magical scenes. I wish the relationships had developed more, but all in all I did enjoy it, though I definitely wouldn't call it a page turner.

Three Stars

Rosalie

The Iron King on Goodreads

Intertwined by Gena Showalter

Intertwined, as suggested by the title, is about the lives of four teenagers, who all seem to be mysteriously linked. Aden, the main character, has four souls trapped inside of him, who can do numerous paranormal acts such as time travel, raising the dead, body possession and seeing the future.

Unfortunately I cannot give a plot summary because this book was highly complicated, as well as deceptively long. But basically Aden falls in love with vampire Victoria, Mary Ann falls in love with werewolf Riley, and Aden and Mary Ann feel a strange connection like they are siblings. Aden is a troubled teen being kept at the D and M Ranch because of his diagnosis of schizophrenia, and violent history. That's about as basic as I could possibly go, because there are so many elements in this it would be impossible to explain the book without giving away the ending and the two climaxes.

So let's start with Aden. Overall I liked him as a male lead. He recognized Victoria's strength as a woman and a vampire, but also felt it was his duty to protect her. He was very selfless throughout the entire book, and apart from an extremely awkward beginning, he was a good friend.

Mary Ann on the other hand, was beyond annoying. Not only is she self-centered, but she's obsessed with being a goody-goody and grades and school and her job. The amount of times she said "I want to be a clinical psychologist, so I know blah blah blah" made me want to scream. Really, I'm sorry, but she was the weakest link in the story. Sort of like a Bella character, everyone feels drawn to her and love her oh so very much, but to the reader she just seems awkward and self-absorbed.

I'll take Riley and Victoria together, since Riley is Victoria's bodyguard. They were fun characters, but still didn't seem to have as much substance as Aden did. Riley was super fantastic, and deserves way better than Mary Ann. Victoria was cool, but didn't really do anything to stand out much throughout the book. Mostly Aden just obsesses about her, and then she shows up and says some things, then leaves and Aden goes back to obsessing.

As far as the plot goes I'll say it was a little predictable, but not completely. I can say I guessed one of the climaxes, but not the other. However, the story seemed really long. It took me forever to read, when I've read much longer books in a shorter time. I'm not sure why this is, but it could have had to do with how many elements were in the plot. It just felt like it would never end! And it doesn't, by the way, most of the big mysteries are left unsolved, which makes it clear Ms. Showalter was planning on making a few sequels.

Gena mostly writes adult novels, a few of which I have reviewed on this sight. Normally I really love her stories, but I think this attempt at Young Adult was a little weak, to be honest. I think it got too complicated, and there was so much plot mixed in that there wasn't time for character development. There was a lot of internal conversations going on that weren't really necessary, and that made it really drag. I'd say I definitely like Gena's adult books more than this one.

So in conclusion I'd have to say I don't recommend this very highly. I don't think I'll be finishing the series, and to be honest I'm really glad I'm down so I can move on to something better. The world and characters all just seemed blurred and grey to me, though I wish I could say otherwise.

Two Stars.

Rosalie

Intertwined on Goodreads