In the Immortal City (that would be Los Angeles), angels are huge. After revealing themselves to the world about a centRating: 4/5 ***Minor spoilers***
In the Immortal City (that would be Los Angeles), angels are huge. After revealing themselves to the world about a century ago, they now use their saving abilities as a business. For large sums of money, a person can receive a guardian angel who will save their life should they ever be in mortal danger. Jackson is in the process of being promoted to guardian angel. He also happens to be the most popular angel in LA, so all eyes are on him. On the other hand, Maddy doesn't follow anything about angels. After the passing of her parents, she lives with her uncle and helps him run his restaurant while balancing school. She doesn't see what all the hype is about, and wouldn't recognize Jackson if he was sitting right in front of her - which actually happens. The two cross paths one night while Maddy is working, and they will soon realize that their family histories may be more intertwined than they thought.
I always love books that introduce a unique take on something that has been reused forever. While not all angel books are the same, of course, they all have the same sorts of traits. They're beautiful, immaculate, hidden on earth, etc. etc. Immortal City offers a new take on angels - they've revealed themselves, and the world is obsessed with them. They save people for money, and they aren't the squeaky clean do-no-wrong angels they can be portrayed as. Yes, it has some tropes from other books I recognized, such as (view spoiler)[ the main female being part angel and needing help coming into her powers (hide spoiler)].
While we have Maddy and Jackson's storyline in the book, another plotline has to do with the angel murders taking place in LA. Angels are being mortalized by having their wings ripped out, and then murdered. Due to the pattern, it is believed that Jackson will be next. This was a pretty interesting aspect of the novel and personally I didn't realize who was behind the murders until the moment it was revealed. Maybe I'm just slow, but even during the buildup when you're supposed to start putting things together for yourself, I didn't have it. It was pretty unpredictable for me, which added to my enjoyment.
Overall, this is the best novel I've read in a while, and I love the new take on angels and how they act. The whose superstar thing was a bit excessive at times, but it added an extra source of stress to the plot because of how popular Jackson was. Maddy was a good character, she was quite strong but I think I like Jackson better. This was a fun fantasy book to read, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for their next great fantasy read, because I got a lot of enjoyment out of this. ...more
Susie Salmon was like anyone else to school. She was about average in her classes. She had a younger sister aRating: 1/5 ***Minor spoilers, TW: RAPE***
Susie Salmon was like anyone else to school. She was about average in her classes. She had a younger sister and a younger brother, and two parents who seemed to love each other well enough. She had a bright future ahead of her, but this was all ruined by a man who took this all away from her. As she was walking home through a cornfield, he enticed her to look at something in his backyard that he just made. Seeing as he has lived there for a while and seemed like a decent neighbour, she followed. He showed her a bit of an underground fort, which she entered with him. However, he soon overpowered her, forcing himself on her and raping her, and then murdering her. He is able to hide the evidence in a sinkhole nearby. The story follows how Susie's family deals with the loss, and how the police department attempts to solve the crime. It is told from Susie's perspective as she watches from heaven.
This book was a downward spiral for me. It started off well enough with Susie's murder, which was the most interesting part of the book. I was fine with what was happening for a while, but soon it just got repetitive. We watched Susie's family, there were weird jumps in time, and that was it. I don't think what was written in this book was sufficient to carry on a story that was actually interesting. I wish they incorporated the murder mystery into the story more. Since we already know who was responsible, I wish Sebold would've written more about solving the crime and how to family contributes. Unfortunately, its pretty repetitive in that Susie's father has a suspicion but nobody in the police department will believe him, and the police aren't doing anything useful either. That pretty much only left the lives of Susie's family, which got boring fast.
While I found the whole personal heaven thing quite interesting, I don't understand what happened in the last bit of the book, or why. It was completely random, came out of left field, and made approximately zero sense. (view spoiler)[ Basically, Susie was able to come to Earth, temporarily possess her friend's body, had sex with a guy who she used to have a crush on, and then leave her friend to deal with it. The thing that I found most annoying was that all she did was have sex then leave. She didn't even mention who her murderer was or where her body could be found, even though she definitely had time between the possession and the sex. Seriously? You're more interested in sitting in silence than to give your family closure? (hide spoiler)]
Overall, this book was pretty disappointing. It seemed okay at first but quickly became repetitive and exhausting to read. Some things could've been done better, and I think a bigger element of mystery could've done the book a lot of good and kept readers more interested. I know there's a movie out and I might see it anyway just to see how they translated the novel to a film, but now I know not to go in with high expectations. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, it gets much too boring. ...more
Anna has lived quite a pure life - she doesn't lie, she is never cruel, she prays all the time, and goes to church evRating: 2.5/5 ***Minor spoilers***
Anna has lived quite a pure life - she doesn't lie, she is never cruel, she prays all the time, and goes to church every weekend. She is the epitome of purity. Above all, she has the gift to see the emotions of others, and feel it along with them. Before long, she discovers that is she actually a Nephilim - a half-demon child of a fallen angel. Anna is especially different - her mother was an angel. After she learns of her background from her adoptive mother, Patti, she travels across America with a "friend" Kaiden who is also a Nephilim in order to meet her father, and a nun who was present at her birth and apparently has something to tell Anna. After meeting her father, she hopes that this universe of angels a demons becomes clearer.
I had been meaning to read this book for quite some time after seeing all the great reviews floating around Goodreads. I was a bit apprehensive to return to the book universe of fallen angels and Nephilim, since the last time I've been there was when I read the Hush, Hush series several years ago. Before you read the rest of this review, don't immediately cross this off your to-read because it reminds me of Hush, Hush. I can ensure you that the male lead is nowhere as creepy as Patch. (Although he can be crude.)
I found the plot itself interesting but the thing that has me not rating the book as high is the writing. There were several things that made this book seem very juvenile to me. First of all, Anna didn't feel very mature to me. She didn't come across as someone who now had to burden a lot of responsibility. I also felt that the author was trying to make her purity her defining feature, which was quite annoying to me. I prefer my heroines to be likeable because they're something like brave, witty, or intelligent, not because they're a virgin. There were also some things that I noticed were very repetitive, like mentioning Patti offering sweet tea because of her "southern manners."
Overall, I thought the plot was alright but the way the main character was written was a bit irritating. Regardless, I will probably pick up the second book from the library because I see potential in the series, although I will be pretty disappointed if there ends up being a love triangle between Anna, Kaiden, and Kaiden's friend, Kopano. I would recommend for you to read this book unless characters that are repeatedly mentioned as being pure and virgins as if it matters bothers you....more
Rating: 2/5 ***Minor spoilers, spoilers for the previous books in the series*** (I'm writing this from my phone so please excuse any errors!)
It's been aRating: 2/5 ***Minor spoilers, spoilers for the previous books in the series*** (I'm writing this from my phone so please excuse any errors!)
It's been a long, long time since I've read Days of Blood and Starlight. So long, in fact, that I didn't remember much from the series whatsoever. I had a general idea of what happened, and I had to spend the first portion of the book looking up definitions of things on Wikipedia and I was still a bit confused. This contributed to my low rating but I still had other reasons for disliking this book.
I'm pretty disappointed by this book. I'm pretty upset that I didn't enjoy it like so many other people did. Usually if I like the book, I can breeze through 600 pages within 2 days, but with this book I had to push myself to read it and it was a struggle to get through. It nearly put me to sleep a couple times.
This book starts off with the Misbegotten and Chimaera forming their alliance, with Ziri in Thiago's body. They must find a way to somehow get along so that they can defeat Jael and thwart his plans to get advanced weaponry from the humans. We're introduced to several new characters and we see our fair share of old ones.
Right off the bat, I had an issue with how many point of views were going on. We were hopping from Karou, then some new girl who I didn't know why I should care about, to Mik/Zuze, to the Stelian queen. And man, was it confusing. This on top of my shoddy memory left me barely able to keep up with the characters.
People describe Taylor's writing as beautiful, and at times, it is. But also, sometimes it's just downright confusing, like she's trying too hard to be poetic in her sentences. I have the utmost respect for how different authors write their books and I know they write in different styles, but I actually found her writing confusing at times. I had to reread some stuff several times before I understood what was being said.
The romance felt forced. I can appreciate a good romance. But why were Karou and Akiva even attracted to each other? I get that they were in love in Karou's previous life, but although Karou has Madrigal's soul, she isn't Madrigal. At times I felt like Karou only loved Akiva because she felt like she should, because her previous body did. I also had a problem with what happened between (view spoiler)[ Liraz and Ziri. How did that even happen? Liraz hated Chimaera. She thought Ziri was still Thiago. Sure, Ziri saved her, but how can you fall in love so fast? I swear she went from hating him to loving him in under an hour. (hide spoiler)]
Overall, this was a pretty big disappointment and it felt like a waste of my time. The story felt choppy and I had a lot of issues with it. I may come back to it for a reread or rerate if I reread the previous 2 books. If you enjoyed the previous 2 books, give it a try, because I know a lot of people enjoyed it, but I recommend not going in with super high expectations....more
This book basically gives us all we need to know about the universe in The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. It contains informaRating: 3/5
This book basically gives us all we need to know about the universe in The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. It contains information on everything from Shadowhunter origin, to the Accords, to Downworlders, and weapons. If you recall from The Infernal Devices, this book was given to Tessa in order to learn more about the Shadow World, and that is essentially the purpose of this book.
Reading this was pretty interesting. I did find that a lot of the information in here I already knew, obviously because I already completed both TMI and it's prequel, TID. However there is some things that I didn't already know that was cool to learn. The origin story was especially interesting. I also found it enjoyable to connect the Shadowhunter history to characters which we already know of from reading TID. Henry Branwell's name pops up often as the inventor of several things. To think everyone thought nothing he made was useful!
I must say, the most enjoyable thing about this book was the little comments made by the characters. Throughout the book, you can read comments about the contents written by Clary, Simon, and Jace. At times when I was somewhat bored with the contents, these would cheer me up.
Overall, this was an interesting companion to TMI universe. Of course, it isn't necessary by any means, and a lot of the information provided in it you would have already learned by reading the other two series. However, if you're a fan of either or both series, this book is a good read. I wouldn't recommend it if you have not finished The Mortal Instruments series, as it contains some huge spoilers for it. However, if you haven't finished The Infernal Devices sereis then the threat of spoilers is not as high....more
Rating: 2.5/5 (I received a free ecopy of this book from the publisher, Booktrope, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.) ***Minor spoilers***Rating: 2.5/5 (I received a free ecopy of this book from the publisher, Booktrope, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.) ***Minor spoilers***
Riley has lived a normal 16 years, but everything changes when she's involved in a dangerous car accident. After the impact, she witnesses a teenaged girl hovering over a young boy and claiming what appears to be his soul. The only thing is, nobody else could see the girl - only someone who is at least part Angel of Death can. She's taken in front of the Council and told she is a Halfling, half human, half Angel of Death. The angels aren't fond of Halflings since one led a revolution long ago, so Riley is worth quite a lot to the enemies of the angels, and she always has to watch her back.
I thought this was quite a good book. No, it wasn't fantastic and it wasn't original, but I still found it entertaining. I liked how everything was easy to understand, and the characters were enjoyable and they felt real. I found the plot interesting, and I've read several "halfling" type books where the protagonist is half human, half something else, and while I didn't think this one was as good as some of those, I thought the whole half-angel thing was interesting. I haven't seen one of those before.
While it was a good book, I still thought the writing was a bit bland. Everything was written in a very straightforward way, and the dialogue felt a bit forced in places. The way the characters spoke seemed unnatural and unlike how actual teenagers speak. I also found the story predictable and I saw who the villain was before the reveal, but I didn't mind all that much. The biggest improvements I would make is making the writing flow better and to add more suspenseful elements to the story.
Overall, this was a pretty decent book which featured a half angel, half human protagonist, which is something I haven't seen before. While there were a couple things I thought could've been better, there were also a lot of things about it that I liked. If you enjoy angel books or are interested in the whole halfling sort of thing, give this book a try. It's a pretty quick read so even if you don't love it, it doesn't take too long to get through....more
I decided to read this book because of the amount of people that really enjoyed it. For some reason, I just find mysRating: 3.5/5 ***Spoilers hidden***
I decided to read this book because of the amount of people that really enjoyed it. For some reason, I just find myself unable to get really into angel books. While I liked this book, I didn't love it.
This book is told from the perspective of Penryn several weeks after the angels came and destroyed nearly everything. She's struggling to provide for her disabled sister and her schizophrenic mother. At the beginning of the book, she comes across several angels cornering another angel as they gang up on him and cut off his wings and leave him for dead. Penryn feels the need to help this angel, but as she does, another angel takes her sister and flies off. This book focusses on Penryn's journey to recover to sister from the hands of the angels.
This was quite an interesting concept at first. I haven't ever read a book where angels were the destroyers and were the ones causing the apocalypse. The concept itself was intriguing, but I was bored for the first chunk of this book. Nothing was really happening, but thankfully it picked up soon after. I really liked Penryn as a character and how she didn't rely on others to take care of her, because she herself was usually the caretaker. I found Raffe really interesting, and I liked how while he was usually serious, he had a fun side to him as well. I also appreciated how there wasn't really romance in this book - I mean, it's the apocalypse, so it wouldn't have seemed very realistic.
While I enjoyed a lot of stuff about this book, I didn't like how some parts seemed predictable and a bit unbelievable. (view spoiler)[ I made the connection between the name Raffe and Raphael almost immediately. This is probably thanks to being addicted to Supernatural, but it didn't make for much of a surprise when it was revealed he is the archangel Raphael. Also, I find it a bit strange how nobody realized she was alive. I get that she was paralyzed, but it's not like her heart wasn't beating or she wasn't breathing. Also, it's said that Raffe has extraordinary hearing, so why couldn't he hear her breathing? (hide spoiler)] I also found some things a bit confusing and I didn't like how some questions went unanswered, but I guess that's why there's more than one book. (view spoiler)[ What happened to Paige and those other children? What were those scorpion thingies? Why were they there? I'm still really confused about that. (hide spoiler)]
While it took me a while to get into, I can't deny that this was a good book, and that many other people would probably enjoy it a lot more than I did. If you enjoy the standard book about angels, I'd probably recommend you give this one a try because it is quite different from the average angel book. I'll probably be reading the second one this summer....more
Rating: 4/5 ***Minor spoilers, actual spoilers hidden***
I've completed another series! I usually start a series and take a long time to finish them, soRating: 4/5 ***Minor spoilers, actual spoilers hidden***
I've completed another series! I usually start a series and take a long time to finish them, so I'm quite proud of myself. I'm happy that I decided to finish this series because this was my favourite book out of the three.
I enjoyed this book much better than the other ones. There are a few reasons why. Honestly, I was soooo thankful that a portion of the book was spent without the presence of Tucker so we didn't have to constantly read about Clara's love triangle issues. God, do I hate love triangles. He shows up later but by that time I already knew that I liked this book much better so it didn't bother me as much. The other reason I enjoyed this one better was because I liked the story so much more. I'm not really sure why, and maybe it's just because I'm in such a good mood since I finished my last exam today. (Hello, summer!) It just felt more action packed and intriguing. I was also happy to see that Clara and Christian were growing closer together, in the friend sort of way.
(view spoiler)[ I really enjoyed Samjeeza's character development in this book, and I think it was cute how he was telling stories about Clara's mom. Her mom lived such a long life, and it would be impossible to share every moment with Clara. I'm happy that Sam was able to provide Clara with some insight about the life her mom lived before she was born. I found his character really interesting throughout the series. (hide spoiler)]
One thing I found pretty annoying is that Clara couldn't seem to ever stop thinking about Tucker. I understand that she was in love with him and I can see why she would miss him and wouldn't be able to get over him. I do. But regardless, it just became annoying. (view spoiler)[ After Clara sees Tucker in the barn that one time, it seems that she went back to book 2, love-triangle-blinded Clara, which is basically what I disliked most about the last book. (hide spoiler)]
Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with how this series ended. I feel like the author should leave this universe alone now that it's done, since I know how hard it is for some authors to let go of a universe they created. It was a pretty solid ending for a series I only found half decent. If you enjoy books about angels you might want to give Unearthly a shot since I'm a bit biased against books about angels. ...more
Rating: 2/5 Disclaimer: I received a free ecopy of this book from Smith Publicity via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***Minor spRating: 2/5 Disclaimer: I received a free ecopy of this book from Smith Publicity via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***Minor spoilers, major spoilers hidden***
I went into this book not really knowing what to expect. I find that this book had a story that progressed quite slowly, but at the end, everything got thrown at you at once.
This book started off very very slow. I found myself quite bored, because for the first half of the story or so, you're simply reading about the life of this New York socialite who goes to functions and school and speaks with her sister. Near the beginning of the book, you discover that Camille has the ability to float. Not fly, just float, stationary. When I first read this, I wasn't sure what to think. It definitely seemed boring to me.
Camille meets a man named Xavier and instantly falls in love. I always have problems with books where the romance just doesn't seem right. I don't believe in love at first sight, so this was my main problem with the relationship between Camille and Xavier. However, if you look past this fact, their relationship is quite beautiful and I liked it.
Around halfway into the book, things begin coming together. Some mysteries are solved and some new ones are revealed. I enjoyed this book until about the 80% point where the book took a turn I didn't really like. (view spoiler)[ I'm honestly on tumblr too much to take a book about the Illuminati seriously. If it was under any other name I would've been fine, but the fact that the author introduced the Illuminati as a part of this book seemed a bit cliche to me. (hide spoiler)]
I didn't really like Camille all that much. I liked the other characters much more than her. The problem I had with her is just that she seemed so boring. She put on a pretty face and fake personality for people in public, and when she's alone she seems a bit annoying to me. I think that some more problems introduced closer to the beginning of the book would have developed her character more and made her seem like somebody other than an annoying socialite.
I consider this book an okay read, but I don't think it was anything special. I didn't find anything about it extraordinary, but then again (view spoiler)[ I always have a bit of a hard time getting into books about angels (hide spoiler)]. Thanks again to Smith Publicity and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book. ...more
Rating: 2.5/5 ***Contains spoilers for the first book and slight spoilers for this one***
I'll start off by saying that I usually have a very hard time Rating: 2.5/5 ***Contains spoilers for the first book and slight spoilers for this one***
I'll start off by saying that I usually have a very hard time getting into books about angels. I'm fine with vampires, werewolves, demons, or whatever else, but I've always had a tough time with books about angels. To me, it just seems too mega-religious to me (nothing against being religious, of course). If there are any books about angels you've enjoyed, I'd appreciate a recommendation because my experiences with them haven't been so great.
I read the first book in the Unearthly series last year and it didn't impress me much. However, I saw this book in the library and thought I would give the second book a try, since sometimes I enjoy the second book a lot more than the first, which I did. Although I liked this one better, the book was still pretty underwhelming. I didn't go in expecting too much, and I suppose while it didn't let me down with low expectations, it didn't really exceed them.
I really hate love triangles. I can live with them in some books, but I DESPISE the ones where the girl is CONSTANTLY worrying about what boy she has to choose. "I love Tucker, Tucker is my future" and then "But Christian! He could be part of my DESTINY!" It just made me sick. It was just ridiculously annoying, and on top of that, Tucker was being crazy jealous when Clara and Christian so much as hung out together. It was like a testosterone battle every time they were even in the same room. Frustrating, to say the least.
The book just seemed to go by really slow. At some parts it would be extremely boring, then pick up, then go back to being extremely boring. Of course, there were some parts that I enjoyed, but the love triangle and the slow pace dampened the experience for me.
Also, the book just seemed so predictable at times. In this book, you learn a bit more about Jeffrey and his purpose. I made a guess at what it was around a quarter into the book and it ended up being correct. I just don't find books as good when they can't keep me on my toes because they give too much away before the big surprising giveaway.
I don't really think I'd recommend this book to anyone, since it was so frustrating for me to read. If you're looking to get into the series, I'd probably tell you not to go in with high expectations. Since I've already read up to the second book, I'll probably pick up the third sometime soon since I don't like leaving a series unfinished....more
