Me on Recent Books I've Read Part 3

or as i've been calling it in my head, "Quick & Dirty Book Reviews that Mostly Say How Much I Liked the Book." ;)

i went to the library on Saturday & walked away with 9 books. score. :) but i've only finished 4 books since then. boo. :(

my reviews are spoilery, but what review isn't, basically?? that's why i've avoided all Crescendo, Nightshade, Beautiful Darkness, Matched, The Lost Saint and Anna and the French Kiss reviews. no spoilers.

Take Me There by Carolee Dean: i'll admit, i saw the cover & went, ooo, happy ending, yay. and i read the summary & thought, ooo, bad boy & nice girl, yay. i was wrong. sorta. kinda. when i realized what it was about, how it was all the dark side of life (-ish) & juvie & prison & gangs & violence, but i still liked it. i think this made ReadingTeen very happy. the book was brutal & gritty, it was surprisingly (to me) realistic, & maybe practical. there isn't always a happy ending in life, especially if you get dragged into the kind of situation Dylan & Jess get dragged into. i'll admit, if i knew what really happened, i might not have read it, but i think i needed to. just to be reminded that life isn't always perfect, no matter how much you try, but it's not supposed to be. besides, it's really hard to make your life perfect.

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien: i kept thinking of the Hunger Games books mixed with a genetics lesson when i was reading this. it was interesting, it was okay, but i wasn't totally sold on the idea. it seemed kind of long to me, but maybe it just needs to grow on me. the situation with Gaia's mom seemed a bit cliched to me, and Gaia herself seemed really wimpy until close to the end when she had to take charge or she and her (SPOILER) newborn sister were going to die. i'll read the next one, it's an interesting concept. as someone who's pale and freckled (i blame the faint Irish genes), i liked the whole birthmark/freckle idea of Gaia's mother. it was cute. :)

Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh: wow, a grown-up book. ;) in high school, i read a lot of romance, both contemporary & paranormal, then in university i added YA to that list so now i read both. this would be more urban fantasy, more action & less romance. i think that's what put me off. not quite enough romance for me, & even then Elena spent most of the book pissed off at Raphael for one reason or another. i'll admit, the angel/vampire thing was different, and it was a little interesting. i'm not sure if i'll read the next book in the series, this was just an interim read while i wait for the 1 copy of book 1 in Singh's Psy/Changling series (i know, i'm behind on it, i just wasn't sure if i would like them).

Perchance to Dream by Lisa Mantchev: gorgeous and magical, just like Eyes Like Stars. if you haven't read the first book yet, then avoid this very spoilery review. :) i loved it. Bertie is determined & smart, & very creative. Ariel was... Ariel, of course. sometimes a jerk, sometimes caring, almost always smouldering. ;) Nate was missed, i really like his pirate accent (accents are so hot ;)). and the little faeries were funny as always. i love Peaseblossom & her little marzipan boyfriend. :D i didn't see that coming with Bertie's father (she sure did meet him quickly, but i didn't have a problem with that), and Mantchev clearly knows of my love of pie (& @mstohl, if you've ever seen the #ITSALRIGHTTOPIE hashtag on Twitter) because i loved the pie car on the train. the triangle with Bertie, Nate, & Ariel is the best evenly matched love triangle i've seen. she clearly loves them both, even with the little detail about Ariel sometimes being a jerk. now i'm on pins and needles waiting for book 3, So Silver Bright.

i've got 8 books to read, plus i have to go up to the library again before Thursday cause another book is waiting for me. :)

Me on Recent Books I've Read Part 2

here's part 2 of recently read book reviews, now that i'm all full of dinner (fish & rice & peppers & sauce). we get such good fish out here in BC.

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough: i wasn't sure what to expect from this, but i was hooked when i saw family of witches when girl has no powers of her own in an overview or something for this book. it's almost become a cliche, but i like books like this. especially ones with witches (yes, i had one of those high school Wiccan phases). Tamsin was cool, & not just because of her name (i love odd names in books). she's a little bitter, but still interesting & very family-oriented. plus Gabriel is hot & he doesn't give a crap about Tamsin's lack of powers. awww. looking forward to the next book. :)

Wake by Lisa McMann: at the beginning i was unsure about liking it. it took me a couple of days after reading it to realize i liked it. i think what put me off in the beginning was how it was written. present tense, kinda choppy, no absolute concrete chapters. but then i got it, how Janie's pulled into people's dreams & how dreams can be weird at the best of times. Fade and Gone are on my to read list, as is Cryer's Cross. (i also still have it so i'll be reading it again in an attempt to write a better review)

Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast: i'd either pushed this series to the back of my mind or decided to wait until it was over to read all the books, but it took me this long to read the first one. it felt like lots of things were squished together, like vampires AND magical/witch-like powers AND goddesses that have their favourites, and it felt like i was reading something written for a teen audience, the teen slang felt obvious & not natural. Zoey's name is cool.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff: holy freaking crap. i love this book. Mackie was confused and tortured and a gorgeous hero (book crush). Tate was brutal and sad and so kicked butt (girl book crush). the concept of fae-ish creatures replacing human babies with their own kind sent me back to grade 6 when a teacher gave me a copy of Eloise Jarvis McGraw's The Moorchild. i'll admit, reading this book late at night did jack up the creepy factor, but it so added to it. this book is supposed to be creepy. if it wasn't, it wouldn't have all the Morrigan or the Lady or the Cutter or the blue girls. Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves was another book i read at night that had enhanced creepy. in conclusion, i love this mysterious and haunting book, & Mackie is hot (proof can be found here ;)). and yay for it debuting on the NYT children's bestseller list. :) also, this was not a library book, i bought this one cause i wanted it so much.

Torment by Lauren Kate: i really liked Fallen, and this just continued it. the lack of Daniel was to be expected, but Luce needed him not to be there so she could figure things out. the cover jacket flappy thing is unbelievably soft, i keep wanting to stroke it. the almost end felt a little hokey (i know how big Thanksgiving is to Americans, it's not as big here in Canada), & then the end was a shock, but a good one. the first book was all Luce's intro to what's going on with her, the second is her dealing with that & learning what had to happen/might happen/did happen, as well as her growing a spine & not being passive. the end sure was ballsy, and i approve. :) i have one question, though, which might be spoilery if you haven't read the first one, but i have to ask: if the reason the bad people went after her in the first book was because she wasn't baptized as a baby, why didn't they emergency baptize her once they saved her butt? this one was also bought with actual money. :)

so, that was the last 10 books i've read. i have 3 library books i picked up yesterday, plus another i have to pick up soon before they fine me for letting it sit there for too long.

and more props to @abbymumford. i really need to blog more.

Me on Recent Books I've Read Part 1

(and props to @abbymumford for making me blog)

i've been reading a lot lately, mostly because i just figured out the password for my library card for the library in downtown Vancouver. ;) i also learned that i get 50 free holds a year. i've been using them.

a lot. :)

most have been YA, because i've come to love it over the last few years (thank you, children's lit class). i haven't been writing enough of it because of this book overdose that started last Monday, but i'm going to try and write some more. i really need to get this book out of my head and into the Word file.

below is a quick and dirty review list of recently read books. most i really liked, some i sort of liked. none i totally hated, so yay. :)

and Falling, Fly by Skyler White: i don't think i read enough urban fantasy. i read a fair amount of paranormal romance, though, and i sort of wanted a change. plus it sounded cool: angels and vampires. :) i liked it. i thought the change in tenses/narrators was a bit odd (1st person when focusing on Olivia, 3rd person for Dominic), but it was okay.

A Year in Europe: Three Novels by Rachel Hawthorne: i've read 3 out of 4 of her YA werewolf novels, & when i saw this at the library i had an instant high school flashback when i'd read 1 or 2 of these 3 three stories. reading this was a wonderful refresher, and i felt it was like a pre-read for Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (X-mas present hint hint ;)). it was cute YA chick-lit that appealed to my inner 16 year old hopeless romantic (and so i bought my own copy because i know i'm going to read it again). ;)

Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev: YA plus Shakespeare plus magic. it was sweet and beautiful. it brought me back to my love of Shakespeare, especially the comedies. Bertie is wonderful, a young girl having grown up in this strange magical theatre, surrounded by characters from many different plays. her close friends are the faeries from the plays, like Peaseblossom and others (i'm spacing out on the names, please forgive me). i want my own copy of this book. it reminds me that theatre is far from dead, & that YA doesn't always have to be about kids in high school dealing with peer pressure. book 2, Perchance to Dream, is in my library book bag upstairs. :) also, i loved Nate. love interest who's a nice pirate?? yes. ;)

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston: the spine had a little Canada flag sticker on the spine cause Lesley's a Canadian author. :D i loved this. this was like book 2 out of 2 in my YA Shakespeare/faerie pile. more in the modern world than Eyes Like Stars, more dangerous & action-y, still good. i bought a copy. i want to read the next 2, then Lesley's next series. i'm all for supporting Canadian writers & their books (& also for getting more YA authors to come up to Canada on book tours, but that's a topic for another day *getting off my soapbox*).

The Devouring by Simon Holt: it was creepier than i'd expected. i thought there'd be an easing into the Vours and Reggie's little brother getting taken over by them, but no. and then there was all the weird stuff about what the Vours do and the Fearscape and Reggie going after Henry to find him. i liked it, don't think i didn't. it got weird and twisty and turned into a book i didn't expect to read (The Replacement also did this to me).

part 2 with the rest of my mini-reviews will be up later tonight. i have to make dinner. :)