DNF Early Review - Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X, Book 1) by Richelle Mead (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Size: 464 pages
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Release Date: June 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-0525953685
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Age of X series
Source: eGalley from Edelweiss
Rating: 2/5 stars


I got a copy of this book to review through Edelweiss. Thanks to Dutton Adult and Edelweiss for allowing me the chance to read and review this book. I've pretty much love everything else Mead's written; from her YA to her other adult works (excluding her Dark Swan series). That being said I was very excited to read this book. Unfortunately this book was a bit flop for me. Pretty much everything about it was sloppy, confusing, and just not at all well done.

I read about 40% of this book and ended up setting it aside. This is the third time I've sat down to try and read this book and it's just been a struggle for me. I have too many books to read and review to waste time struggling through a book like this.

The story is told from two main viewpoints. The first is that of Mae, she works for RUNA, and is being sent on a mission to Panama as a break from her normal duties. She recently lost her partner and is having trouble coping so RUNA decided a change of pace would be good for her. The second point of view is that of Justin March, a man who has been exiled to Panama for unknown reasons. He is the man Mae is sent to interact with. Together they are supposed to solve a series of murders that are happening in RUNA territory. There is a third POV that of a younger girl whose name I forget.

Let me start by saying that I'm not a big sci-fi fan anyway, and this is definitely a sci-fi type world. So, yeah I guess I should just let you know that. I do love some sci-fi, for example Scalzi writes some wonderfully entertaining stuff. My problem with a lot of sci-fi is that the world throws a ton of unknowns at you and never explains them. You are expected to struggle through and figure out what all this terminology means. This book definitely suffers from that. Mae works for RUNA (at 40% through the book I still don’t know what that’s an acronym for). There is also a sect called EA (it seemed to be some sort of Asian conglomerate). None of this is explained, it’s all kind of confusing and to be honest not all that interesting.

The characters are just as difficult to engage with. Mae is some sort of drug-enhanced fighter. Apparently this makes her edgy...she likes to hit things and have sex to take off the edge. Yet she somehow manages to come off as prissy, elitist, and boring.

Justin is incredibly confusing, I finally figured out that all of the characters he talked to were in his head...I think. Pretty much his POV starts out with him talking to all these people in italics and the people don’t seem to be people that anyone besides Justin can see. So yeah, very confusing. Justin likes to do addictive things like drugs, drink, smoke, and have sex with a different woman every night. I didn’t really like him and didn’t really want to know more about him.

I think Justin and Mae are supposed to be love interests to each other but am not sure. They are sleeping together after a drink at the bar and then hating each other for it very early on in the story. They have absolutely no chemistry together and were absolutely flat as a couple.

The most interesting character of the bunch was the young girl that moves from Panama with Justin in order get a good education at a RUNA university...and I can’t even remember her name because she just wasn’t in the story much.

The story was such a wandering and meandering mess that the whole murder investigation plot wasn’t dealt with all that much in the first 40% of the book. Justin and Mae do some investigating and then the story gets weirder with Justin seeing visions of flowers over Mae’s head. There are also strange people threatening Justin about the Gods and the evil people...but this isn’t ever really explained well and just makes the story a bigger and longer mess.

I finally just gave up on this. The story was meandering and a mess, the characters were not at all engaging. I tried, I really did. I have no idea where this story was going or why. I kind of was beginning to think this was some kind of joke to see what Mead’s readers will tolerate given her past successes.

Overall this was not a good read, I just couldn’t finish it. The world is confusing, the characters are numerous and confusing. Worst of all I just didn't find it engaging enough to work through all the confusion and actually care. I just can’t recommend this book. Check out Mead’s Vampire Academy series if you like paranormal YA, that’s a good read. Check out her Georgina Kincaid series for a decent adult paranormal read. Skip the Dark Swan series and skip this one.

DNF Early Review - Romulus Buckle and the City of the Founders (The Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin, Book One) by Richard Ellis Preston Jr. (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk/Science Fiction
Size: 456 pages
Publisher: 47North
Date: July 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1611099188
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin
Source: ARC through Amazon Vine
Rating: 2/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This is the first book in The Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin series. I love steampunk books and was excited to read this one. Unfortunately I ended up not finishing it, it was just too hard to read and I could not stay engaged in the story.

Captain Romulus Buckle and his crew are taking their ship, the Pneumatic Zeppelin, on a mission to rescue their leader Balthazar Crankshaft. Their mission leads them across lands devastated by some alien war that has left the Earth in a post-apocalyptic mess.

I ended up getting about 1/3 of the way through this book before I decided it was time to set it aside. It was just so hard to read and I was absolutely not at all interested in it. Rather than being sucked into the story, I constantly felt like this book was trying to push me away from the story (if that makes any sense at all)...I constantly had to force myself to engage with this book.

The book throws a plethora of characters at you from the get-go. All of them are hard to picture and engage with. They all seem like interesting characters when they are introduced, but you bounce between them so quickly that it is hard to get a good grasp on the characters’ personalities.

A big problem with this book is how it is parsed into such tiny chapters and how each chapter bounces between different character POVs. Just as soon as I felt like I was actually engaging in the story, then suddenly that chapter was over and we were onto another character's perspective of the battle. Many of the chapters are only a couple pages long. It really fractured the story and made it hard to follow and engage with.

The book is also very wordy with a ton of description that doesn't really help to describe the settings or what is going on. For example nearly a page is spent describing Buckle's clothing, but no explanation is given as to how/why Buckle has to plug his hat into his ship. In fact all of the characters plug their hats into the ship but we really never find out why (at least not in the first third of the book).

The story goes basically from one action scene to another, the action scenes alternate with these scenes of long description. The action scenes are not all that well written and I had trouble figuring out exactly what was going on. I felt like the pacing and plot was just a jumbled mess.

The writing also flowed very poorly, I constantly had to go back and re-read portions of the story because I missed something. Not to mention somehow despite all of the action scenes the story was boring.... You know how some books just suck you in and suddenly you’ve read 100 pages and you don’t know how that happened because you are just so absolutely drawn into the story? Well this book was the opposite. I would sit there reading and realize that I was still on the same page I was on 10 minutes ago...reading and re-reading the same paragraph and trying to figure out exactly what was going on.

Anyway, I really really disliked this book and will not be finishing it. I just have too many other good books to read. I can say that reading this book was truly an epic struggle for me.

Overall not a good read and not recommended. If you want to read some good military based steampunk check out Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century series instead.

Review - Seven Kinds of Hell (Fangborn, Book 1) by Dand Cameron (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 374 pages
Publisher: 47North
Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1611097955
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Fangborn series
Source: ARC through Amazon Vine
Rating: 2/5 stars


I got a copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program. Thanks to Amazon for providing this book for review. This book sounded like an interesting start to a new urban fantasy series; I mean archeology and werewolves sounds kind of cool! It really wasn’t that great of a book, everything about it was okay but not great.

Zoe has been on the run with her mother for her whole life from her father’s violent people. When her mother dies, Zoe is looking forward to a new start at life. Then her cousin is kidnapped by someone, she thinks her father’s people. As she tried to comply with Danny’s capturs in order to facilitate his release she is drawn into an archeological quest to find the keys to Pandora’s box.

I did not enjoy this book and almost didn’t finish it. The storyline was all over the place, the writing was difficult to read and the characters didn’t have much depth and were hard to engage with. I pretty much struggled through the whole thing.

Zoe is a very strange character. Supposedly she was raised running from place to place with her mother, living carefully and avoiding detection. When her mother dies you would think she would be careful, especially when she is followed by some of her “father’s people” through the city. Soo....what does she do? She leads them right to her family and friends, because you know she spent her whole life hiding....how did she not get caught ages ago if she is this horrible at hiding and sneaking around?

Additionally Zoe’s background feels shallow and contrived. She never thought to question why her and her mom ran around hiding until now...when she is in her mid-20’s; she just kind of accepted it. It seemed like a flimsy back story to me and made Zoe seem very 2D.

Zoe has a love interest that also goes quickly in and out of the story. The scenes between Zoe and William are flat feeling and boring; there’s not a lot of chemistry here and it really didn’t engage me at all.

You would think that Zoe trapsing around to exotic locations and exploring to find hidden artifacts would be cool...it was not. The locations aren’t described well and never really come alive for the reader. A number of characters flit in and out of the story but never really make that big of an impression. The idea is cool and I love that the author explores the mythos of Pandora’s box...but the rest is not so cool.

The world building is incredibly weak. Supposedly vampires and werewolves are called Fangborn. The vampires and werewolves are incredibly bland; the vamps can do some mind control and the werewovles are hot-tempered and stronger than normal. To spice things up vamps actually like the sun in this book, but that is about as creative as this world gets. Outside of the Fangborn this world doesn’t have anything else creative or exciting.

The book ends well enough I guess. I just had a lot of trouble caring. I was not engaged with the story or the characters. While there didn’t seem to be anything technically wrong with the writing, I just had a lot of trouble reading the writing style; it didn’t flow well and I had to constantly go back and re-read things because I felt like I was missing things.

Overall not a great urban fantasy read. The world is boring, Zoe is not a character that has much depth, none of these characters are all that easy to relate to. The concept sounds neat, but the execution left a lot to desired. I definitely don’t recommend this urban fantasy read.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- Debut Author Reading Challenge
- Paranormal Reading Challenge

Review - The Daylight War (The Demon Cycle, Book 3) by Peter V. Brett (2.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Size: 656 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: February 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0345503824
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Demon Cycle
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 2.5/5 stars


This is the third book in the Demon Cycle by Brett. The fourth book will be titled, The Skull Throne, and is scheduled for a 2014 release. I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley. Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the chance to review this book. Like the previous book, this book was incredibly slow moving until the last 100 pages or so. There is a lot that I didn’t really enjoy about this book.

The story starts out following Arlen and Renna as they journey back to Cutter’s Hollow. Then it flashes back to Inevera’s past. From then on we bounce between Inevera’s past and present; while occasionally hearing from Arlen or Leesha in the present.

The story about Inevera’s past recounts a lot of events we have already been present for, but this time we see them from Inevera’s perspective. These parts are lengthy...but still seem rushed...like Brett is trying to give a quick outline of a whole series full of events from Inevera’s perspective. The book would have been better without this back story...it just bogged things down so much.

Much of the book is spent basically getting everyone back to Cutter’s Hollow. We hear from Arlen and Renna as they travel back. We hear from Leesha and Rojur as they travel back from Jardir’s conquered city. Then we spend a ton of time listening as Cutter’s Hollow is expanded and fortified.

Additionally we visit Jardir’s new capital and listen as he deals with bickering between his sons and people, and as he tries to make plans to conquer the rest of the Northern lands. Mostly it’s fairly boring and slow moving stuff.

Having Arlen and Renna proclaim their love for each other was cute in the first couple chapters. Having them repeat “Love you Arlen”, “love you Renna” continuously is just silly and obnoxious. Seriously it felt like half of these two characters’ dialogue through the entire book was “Love you Arlen” “Love you Renna”. Ugh...it got to be too much.

There is also way too much in here about Leesha’s love life and her struggle to find men to have sex with. Also I am not impressed with how our chosen few characters keep gaining more and more unbelievable powers (Arlen, Reena, Rojur). Arlen, Reena, and Rojur are gaining seriously crazy powers at a very rapid rate.

Additionally new types of demons pop up randomly with no previous explanation or structure. It’s like “Oh look there is lightening...hey let’s make that a lightning demon”...it’s never even been mentioned before but they must exist!...so whatever.

As with the previous book the last part of this book features a huge epic battle with mind demons and mimics. This part is very engaging. There are a couple of surprises right at the end that will really grab and engage the reader.

Just be warned this story ends on an absolutely horrible cliffhanger. After spending forever wading through this excruciatingly slow story and finally getting to the good part at the end....then to be left how Brett left his readers....well...it really pissed me off. I hate it when authors depend on cliffhangers to engage their readers. They should really just work on making the story tighter and more engaging.

Overall not my favorite installment in this series. I am so sick of unnecessary flashbacks into random characters’ pasts. It just drags out the story forever. The characters that were so heartfelt and complex in earlier installments are turning into superpowered caricatures of themselves. The pace is excruciatingly slow...after nearly 700 pages we aren’t all that much further along in the story than we were in The Desert Spear. Then there is the horrible cliffhanger that the book ends up. Seriously, I am done with this series. Just absolutely done.

Check out Brandon Sanderson’s books, Robert Jordan, Brent Weeks, or Michale J. Sullivan for excellent epic fantasy that is entertaining and actually goes somewhere. I would personally skip this series...it started out pretty good...but has just degraded from the first book on.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge

Review - Lost in Time (Blue Bloods, Book 6) by Melissa de la Cruz (2.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Size: 368 pages
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
Release Date: July 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1423134138
Stand Alone or Series: 6th book in the Blue Bloods series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 2.5/5 stars

This is the sixth book in the Blue Bloods series by Cruz. I almost didn’t read this book because I have been very disappointed in the last two books. Then I heard that the seventh book, Gates of Paradise, was going to release the end of Jan 2013 and that it was going to be the final book in the series. So, I decided to go ahead and read this book. This book continued to be lackluster. There are a ton of POVs and not a lot going on.

The story is told from Mimi’s, Schuyler’s, and Allegra’s POV. Jack and Schuyler have been married and Jack is convinced to delay his vengeance on Mimi in order to help Schuyler search for one of the gates. Mimi is determined to journey to Hell in order to win back Kingsley and Oliver is along helping her out.

Allegra’s story is told in the past. She tells about how she fell in love with Ben and betrayed Charles. I think this is supposed to be getting us the back story about why Allegra ended up in a coma. However the timing of these portions is confusing and the story itself is boring. This backstory could have easily been explained in a few paragraphs instead of one third of the book. Also having these sections prefaced with a date would have alleviated some of the confusion.

The book is more like three novellas parsed awkwardly together than one continuous story. All in all I was not impressed. I wasn’t even going to read this book until I saw that the next book, Gates of Paradise, will be the final book in this series.

All of the female characters seem to have lost their spunk and are merely pawns of the men they love. Schuyler ends up following what Jack around and is constantly being saved by him or being kept safe by him. Mimi journeys to Hell in the hopes that Kingsley still loves her. While Mimi’s story does tie into other things, I was surprised that her retrieving Kinsley was such a big part of the story.

Allegra’s back story is just as sad and disappointing. She betrays everyone to follow her true love and then ends up messing things up horribly.

The story is boring overall, predictable, and scattered. I just don’t care what’s happening, too much has been added that doesn’t matter to the main story. I do miss Bliss and wonder where she’s gone to.

The book was decently written and readable. Just not all that engaging or interesting.

I guess go ahead and read this is you want to finish up the series. Just don’t expect a lot. The main female characters are love-sick fools who betray those around them in the name of love. I have a lot of trouble engaging with any of them.

Overall another lackluster addition to this series. It’s okay, the story progresses some, but definitely not as good as early books in the series. There are too many POVs and too many things going on that aren’t related to the main story. This is more like three novellas squished into one book than an actual book. I would like to finish the series, but I am not sure if I will read Gates of Paradise if it is another exercise in mediocrity like this book.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- VAMPIRES: Paranormal Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge
- Young Adult Reading Challenge

Review - Empire State by Adam Christopher (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Size: 448 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: December 27, 2011
ISBN: 978-0857661937
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Empire State series
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 2/5 stars

I got a copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program to review. The second book in this series will be titled The Age Atomic and is scheduled for a March 2013 release. This sounded like an awesome premise for a story and I was excited to read this book. I started this book two or three times and just couldn't get into it. I finally was determined to read it over Christmas break. I again had a lot of trouble getting through the first 30 pages or so, but the story improved a bit after that.

The story follows Rex and Rad. Rad is a PI who ends up investigating the disappearance of a young woman in the Empire State. Rex is a mobster who ends up in the Empire State (originally from New York city) and is disoriented and confused by his presence there.

The style is kind of a blend of crime, urban fantasy, and steampunk. The story is incredibly original; involving parallel worlds, super heroes, steam driven power, and rifts in time. It kind of reminds of a Doctor Who episode, the movie Dark City also comes to mind.

Rex is a mobster type character that is very unlikable and very hard to relate to. I had a lot of trouble reading through the parts where he featured.

Rad was a much more interesting character that was easier to engage with. The portions where he features in the story were a lot more interesting. Despite the fact that he is a heavy drinker and always on the edge of self-destruction, Rad is determined to do his job and solve the mystery set in front of him. I admired his determination.

There are a variety of other characters, all of them fairly forgettable since they are in and out of the story quite rapidly.

As the story continues and things get more and more complex (with double of the same characters but from different parallel areas) things got very ambiguous and hard to follow. The story became a burden to read and I had a lot of trouble picturing the story and characters. I struggled through it and I understood what was going on, but I really didn’t enjoy it.

This book is not an easy or pleasant read. The characters are hard to relate to. The story is especially fractured towards the second half of the book as it rapidly switches between a number of different POVs. It becomes hard to follow and boring. The ending felt rushed and forced.

Overall not a great read. I really really wanted to like this book. The premise is pretty neat and you have super heroes, steampunk, and investigative elements...all things I enjoy. Unfortunately, the characters were hard to relate to or engage with. Also as you approach the end of the story it becomes very fractured switching rapidly between numerous points of view, all in all it makes for a difficult and unpleasant read. By the end of this book I was just happy to be finished with it. I won’t be reading any more books in this series which is a pity because it sounds so cool.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Get Steampunk’d Reading Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Review - The Map of Time (Trilogia Victoriana, Book 1) by Felix J. Palma (2.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Size: 720 pages
Publisher: Pocket Books
Release Date: June 26, 2012
ISBN: 978-1451683035
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Trilogia Victoriana
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 2.5/5 stars


I got this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. It was a very long and very pretentious read about time travel...kind of.

The book is broken into three parts. In part 1 Andrew falls in love with a whore named Marie who is murdered by Jack the Ripper. After many years of depression his cousin Charles convinces him to go to a time traveling emporium to travel back in time and save her. When the time traveling company revels they can only send people to the year 2000, Andrew despairs. But the business owner suggests they talk to HG Wells. HG Wells confesses he has a time traveling machine and sends Andrew back in time to save Marie; or so Andrew thinks.

In Part 2 we follow the story of Claire who is determined to leave her world and travel to the year 2000 with Murray’s Travel Emporium. When in the year 2000 she meets the hero of the human race, Shackleford, and falls in love with him. What follows is twisted and sorted relationship involving a love affair that occurs backwards in time. H G Wells again ends up involved by writing love letters for one of the involved parties.

In Part 3 we follow Inspector Garrett who is convinced that Shackleford is the one murdering people in the streets with a futuristic weapon. Besides Garrett’s perspective we hear from HG Wells a lot. In the course of all of this we find out that this book has nothing to do with any of the characters we’ve met except coincidentally. The true star of this novel is HG Wells for reasons that are again twisted and fairly unbelievable.

The book is written in three parts and each part features a set of different characters...although the characters do run into each other across parts. The one continuous theme is HG Wells and time travel.

This book diverges constantly and sidetracks into random stories before finally wandering back to the main point. The language is flowery...this is the kind of book where if you miss a paragraph or two you're not really missing any of the story. In fact I think you could probably cut out half of this book and still not miss the main story.

Most of the book is not about time travel at all, but about human nature and the lying and scheming nature of humans. As you can imagine none of these characters are very admirable or easy to engage with. The pacing is very slow and it was very hard for me to finish this book.

The story takes a seriously implausible twist in the last 60 pages or so. I find it ironic that after spending so much time with Murray trying to justify the plausibility of his sci-fi novel, that the last 80 pages or so of this novel are completely unbelievable, implausible, and absolutely crap for pacing. Ah the irony of it; this book is just as pretentious, wordy, and ultimately implausible as the author sets out to say that Murray’s work is in the novel itself. Is this irony the intention of this novel?...I am not sure. But in the end I just didn’t care and if I hadn’t received this book for review, I would have stopped reading it at page 100.

Overall I did not enjoy this book. I guess if you are a huge HG Wells fan and interested in reading fiction about him you might like this. In reality though it's a pretty wordy and lengthy novel to deliver such an awkward message.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Get Steampunk’d Reading Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge

Review - The White Tiger (Dark Heavens, Book 1) by Kylie Chan (2.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 528 pages
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: August 30, 2011
ISBN: 978-0061994050
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Dark Heavens Trilogy
Source: ARC through Amazon Vine
Rating: 2.5/5 stars

This is the first book in the Dark Heavens trilogy. This is a tough review for me to write because I am a bit torn about this book. I loved the idea and the Chinese mythology...but the writing is just sooooo bad. It’s almost like Chan has trouble with her English and didn’t have a decent editor.

Emma is a native Australian teaching English as a second language in Hong Kong, she also teaches private lessons after hours. John Chen, a client of hers, wants to hire her to be a full time nanny for his daughter Simone. For Emma it’s the chance of a lifetime, she loves teaching Simone and John is paying her really good money. Then Emma finds out that John isn’t exactly human and that her life may be in more danger than she ever dreamed.

Okay let’s start with what I loved about this book. I absolutely loved learning about the Chinese mythology; it was fascinating and super interesting. I loved the characters. Emma is spunky, yet nurturing, and just a neat character. John Chen is amazing; I love that he’s a God yet is so down to earth and love to spend time with his daughter. Simone adds a ton of laughter and fun to the story, she is four years old and an absolute delight to read about.

The gods that flit in and out of their lives are fun to read about. John’s predicament of not being able to take True Form until Simone is grown is an interesting one and lends a fascinating aspect to the story. The tension between John and Emma is delightful, and I was really rooting for them to work things out.

There are a ton of action scenes and lots of martial arts training both of which I enjoy reading about. I loved the exotic settings that the stories take place in as well.

So what’s wrong with this book? Well it is just absolutely horribly written. Hands down it is one of the most awkwardly written books I have ever read. The language and dialogue between characters is very uncomfortable and stilted throughout.

Chan repeats herself a lot which causes the story to move slowly. Chan also uses the same descriptors over and over and over again. Emma is constantly described as cold-hearted...which doesn’t really make sense and sounds awkward. John and Emma constantly say they are fools, people around then call them fools....I get it they are fools. These descriptors are just really awkward and uncomfortable to read. The English sounds very broken throughout and there are a lot of things technically wrong with this book...and by I lot I mean pretty much the whole book.

I kept reading this book in hopes that Chan would find her stride at some point. She just never does...in fact the book got worse the longer I read it. I just loved the idea behind this story so much, I really wanted to love it.

I really really want someone who can actually write to write a book with this idea behind it. Maybe a great urban fantasy writer like Ilona Andrews, Jennifer Estep, or Kim Harrison can cut a deal with Chan and write this awesome story in a way such that it is actually readable.

Overall a pretty bad read. There are some great characters and ideas here; I wanted to love this book. I did enjoy the tension between John and Emma, the mythology, and the action scenes. However, the writing is some of the worst I have read this year. The language is broken, awkward, and stilted. Chan repeats herself over and over using the same adjectives over and over and they are awkward sounding adjectives. The pacing is slow because of Chan’s language and writing struggles.

Maybe future works by Chan will be better written. Chan has some great ideas, she just can’t quite seem to get them on paper in a way that’s readable. Not recommended. Instead check out other urban fantasy such as books by Ilona Andrews, Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher, or Jennifer Estep.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Audiobook Review - Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Book 2) by Laini Taylor (2.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 528 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: November 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-0316133975
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 2.5/5 stars

This is the second book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. A third book is scheduled to be published in 2013. I really did not enjoy this book as much as the first book in the series, it was just so scattered and depressing. Definitely don’t start with this book, start with The Daughter of Smoke and Bone or you will be totally lost.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was decent. The narrator captured different character voices well and was easy to follow. It wasn’t a spectacular audiobook but it was good enough.

Karou is still in shock from events in the last book and is using her resurrection skills to help the White Wolf, Thiago, rebuild a new and more gruesome army of Chimera to battle the angels and seek revenge. Akiva believes Karou is dead and is doing his best to atone for all the damage he did to the Chimera by diverting and undercutting some of the Angelic attacks he leads.

I had a lot of problems with this book. The constant POV switching kind of gave me whiplash and really broke up the story. The other thing that fractures the story is the erratic time changes and jumping around. Taylor will leave an event hanging and then come back some time in the future to resume that character's POV, then she'll have them go back to explain what happened in the gap after they've been telling the story in the current time. It makes for kind of a fractured mess.

The descriptions are still beautifully written at points and the world very detailed and creative. This world has become epic and massive. We end up reading about a lot of politics in both the Chimera and Angelic regions.

I still am having trouble enjoying Karou and Akiva as characters. Karou is so passive and makes the glaring error of never trying to leverage the service only she can provide to bargain with Thiago. She spends a good 3/4’s of the book whining and being inactive; when she does take action it is to destroy and distance those around her.

Akiva is a bit better, at least he is trying to help save lives throughout the book. Still it takes him a good 3/4’s of the way through the book to actually take decisive action. He is still way too emotional and angsty for me.

The two characters that really lighten, and at times made, the story for me were Zusana and Mik. Zusana and Mik do bring some light and fun to the story. They are both way more interesting than Akiva and Karou and a lot more fun to read about. I am still not entirely sure what the purpose of them being in the story was, but I do think the story was better for their presence in it.

Things are so dark and so violent in the story that at times I felt like the violence was more than actually necessary. This is one bleak story, so don't come to this book looking for anything even remotely uplifting. It is truly the most depressing book I have read this year. Some scenes are so violent and emotionally wrenching that they actually made my stomach turn. There is also an attempted rape scene that is very violent, so just a heads up.

Taylor over explains a lot of the characters emotions as well. It comes off as patronizing at points. As a reader we understand that the tears a character is shedding means they are sad; we don’t need the fact that they are sad spelled out in multiple sentences following the fact. There are a number of places in the book where I felt like things were over-explained and ended up rolling my eyes and thinking “okay I get it already. let’s get on with the story”.

The book ends on a cliffhanger, like the last one. Again I am not a fan of cliffhangers...I think books should have some sort of resolution so that readers come back to read a series because they enjoy the author’s writing and the story.

Overall I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as The Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I guess I didn’t realize how much I disliked this book until I sat down to write the review. I really don’t have much positive to say about it. I do think Taylor’s writing is beautiful at points and I think the world she has created is incredibly creative. I have problems with the bleakness of the story, the inactivity of the lead characters, and the way the multiple POVs and jumps in time fracture the story. By the end of the book I thought the whole thing was kind of a mess and really didn’t care at all what happened to these characters. Given all of my problems with this story I probably won’t read the final installment in this series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge

Review - Fated by Alyson Noel (2.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Size: 368 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: May 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-0312664855
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Fated series
Source: Audiobook from Publisher for Review
Rating: 2.5/5 stars

I got a copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for a honest review. It’s a pretty typical paranormal YA book; there’s teenage angst, insta-love, and dreamily beautiful boys. The story moves fairly slowly and isn’t all that interesting. The second book in the series, Echo, is scheduled for a November 2012 release. Previously I have read the first book in the Riley Bloom series by Noel and didn’t really enjoy that book; I was eager to try a more YA focused book by Noel to see if I enjoyed it more.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was well done. The narrator does an excellent job conveying emotion and distinguishing between characters’ voices. The narrator also sounds exactly like I imagine Daire would sound. The CDs stop at good stopping points and don’t leave you absolutely in the middle of something while switching disks.

Daire travels the world with her professional make-up artist mother. She is constantly brushing shoulders with the rich and beautiful. That is until she starts having hallucinations of glowing people and severed heads. After drugging Daire to the gills doesn’t help her mother is forced to seek help from Daire’s elusive grandmother who lives in the town of Enchantment and is about to introduce Daire to a world she never imagined existed.

Daire is a super brat, she gets better towards the end of the book, but remains selfish throughout. She is so mean, abrasive, and annoying that I had trouble engaging with her at all. She is incredibly mean to her mother and dismissive with the people around her. She does grow and change a little as the book goes on, but not much. She is still making selfish decisions and treating her mother like dirt.

Daire’s grandmother is more interesting, but her speech comes off as formal and stilted and her conversations with Daire always sound awkward.

Then of course there are the two absolutely gorgeous twin brothers that Daire meets in Enchantment. One is evil (Cade) and one is good (Dace); one is out to destroy Daire and one is deeply good and in love with Daire before they even meet. When Daire finally meets Dace she is drawn to him but constantly tries to push him away and get him to leave her alone. In their second or third meeting, despite Daire’s protests, Dace is kissing her and has his hands up her shirt. Is this really okay? Not only are they in insta-love but Dace (the good brother) starts making out with Daire even though she says no. Really? And he is the good one?

Okay enough of that let’s talk about the story and world. The premise of the story is a fairly simple one. The brothers are part of a family of Coyotes who are evil and out to take over the world and plunge it into darkness. Daire and her grandmother are from a family that is a long line of Seekers, they are out to save the world from the Coyote’s influence. The magic and background are strongly influenced by Native American myth and magic. It’s an interesting, if simple, idea and makes for a more interesting premise than a lot of paranormal YA out there. This idea and premise are one of the redeeming qualities of this book.

The writing style is simple and easy to read. The pacing was a bit slow and it took a long time for the story to really become exciting and engaging. The book wraps up nicely and leaves the reader with a little cliffhanger to wet their appetite for the next book in the series.

Overall not my favorite YA paranormal book, but okay. I did enjoy the Native American premise to the story, this is different and more interesting than some of the other YA paranormal out there. I did not enjoy the characters; Daire is a brat and the twins are over stereotyped male leads. Daire’s relationship with Dace is full of insta-love making it goofy and obnoxious...not to mention he makes out with her despite her protests. The pacing is a bit slow and the plot fairly simple. I would only recommend if you are interested in reading a paranormal YA story with Native American bent to it. Otherwise I would skip this, there are many other better YA books out there.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge

Early Review - Shadows (Ashes, Book 2) by Ilsa J. Bick (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic
Size: 528 pages
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release Date: September 25, 2012
ISBN: 978-1606841761
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Ashes series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 2/5 stars

This is the second book in the Ashes trilogy by Bick. I loved the first book in this series, it was so gritty and engaging. This book was a disappointment for me. The book is even more grisly than the first one and switches POVs many times. There is no recapping so you better remember the plethora of characters from Ashes or you will be totally lost.

Alex has been captured by Changed who are threatening to eat her and is doing her best to survive. Tom is doing his best to recover from his wounds in Ashes with an older couple. All the other characters are also doing their best to survive. Pretty much this is the continued story of the horror everyone lives through in an effort to live.

This book was not nearly as good as the first book, Ashes. It still was a fast paced and action packed story but you switch POV so often that you never know who you are reading about. Alex is probably the character you read the least about. You also hear from Peter, Chris, Tom, and others in Rule. The plethora of POVs really slowed the progression of the story and fractured it a lot.

Additionally there is no recapping at all, so all those characters you meet in Rule at the end of Ashes...well you better be prepared to remember them all. I couldn’t remember then all and struggled to remember who did what and was involved in what actions as the story went on. I got so frustrated at points I almost didn’t finish the book.

The story was even more grisly than the first one with the added bonus of strange orgies between the Changed; all in all a pretty stomach turning read. There are lots of detailed descriptions of Changed kids eating humans; no detail is left unexplored. Gory detail doesn’t usually bother me, but there were parts of this book that made me go “ugh, yuck!”

There are a couple of good things about this book. It is an intense read, and even though the scenes are fractured, they are incredibly engaging because someone is just about to die on every page. It makes the book hard to put down. Given that (as you might guess) there is a huge body count in this book...so just be prepared to watch lots of people die/be tortured/etc.

The other interesting thing was how Alex and others are developing Changed-like abilities and starting to struggle to remain human. I am super curious with how this all will play out.

Even with those points in the story’s favor I almost didn't finish this one. And in the end I am not sure if I am glad I did...nothing is resolved, this ends just like the first book did...right in the middle of everything.

Overall a very disappointing book for me. I loved Ashes and was incredibly disappointed by Shadows. Too many POVs fracture the story and the lack of recapping make it impossible to remember the multitude of characters. The level of goriness/torture/orginess was ratcheted up a level higher than Ashes and made this book even yuckier at points. The story still moves at a neck-breaking pace and is incredibly engaging. The developments around Alex’s changing powers are interesting too. Outside of that there wasn’t much here I enjoyed. I truly doubt I will be reading the final book in this series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Zombie Reading Challenge
- Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge