Book Review: Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

AUTHOR: Anne Blankman
PUBLISHER: Egmont

SERIES/STANDALONE: Series
PAGES: 401

SOURCE:  Edeleiss

Outline:

In 1930s Munich, danger lurks behind dark corners, and secrets are buried deep within the city. But Gretchen Müller, who grew up in the National Socialist Party under the wing of her "uncle" Dolf, has been shielded from that side of society ever since her father traded his life for Dolf's, and Gretchen is his favorite, his pet.

Uncle Dolf is none other than Adolf Hitler. And Gretchen follows his every command.

Until she meets a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter named Daniel Cohen. Gretchen should despise Daniel, yet she can't stop herself from listening to his story: that her father, the adored Nazi martyr, was actually murdered by an unknown comrade. She also can't help the fierce attraction brewing between them, despite everything she's been taught to believe about Jews.

As Gretchen investigates the very people she's always considered friends, she must decide where her loyalties lie. Will she choose the safety of her former life as a Nazi darling, or will she dare to dig up the truth—even if it could get her and Daniel killed?

Quick Thought (or not)

It's interesting that I would request any type of book that's referenced with any history. It's not because I'm against it, but I remember history being boring in school. It's facts that I could care less about. Maybe, that seems a bit harsh, but I'm more of the creative type. I want to make up my own things. I don't care about what's happened. I should because that's how we learn from mistakes. -shrugs- So for me to read Prisoner of Night and Fog and enjoy it shocked me. 

Book Review: Pawn by Aimee Carter

AUTHOR: Aimee Carter
PUBLISHER: HarlequinTeen
SERIES/STANDALONE: I'm not sure
PAGES: 346

SOURCE: Netgalley via publisher

Outline:
YOU CAN BE A VII. IF YOU GIVE UP EVERYTHING. 

For Kitty Doe, it seems like an easy choice. She can either spend her life as a III in misery, looked down upon by the higher ranks and forced to leave the people she loves, or she can become a VII and join the most powerful family in the country. 

If she says yes, Kitty will be Masked—surgically transformed into Lila Hart, the Prime Minister's niece, who died under mysterious circumstances. As a member of the Hart family, she will be famous. She will be adored. And for the first time, she will matter. 

There's only one catch. She must also stop the rebellion that Lila secretly fostered, the same one that got her killed …and one Kitty believes in. Faced with threats, conspiracies and a life that's not her own, she must decide which path to choose—and learn how to become more than a pawn in a twisted game she's only beginning to understand.

Quick Thought (or not)

I'm going to admit I don't know what prompted me to really read this, maybe it was seeing a blog tour invite for Captive the second book, but whatever the case I'm glad I did. I read the first two books in her Goddess Test series, and I enjoyed both of them. I will say that I loved Pawn more then her Goddess Test series.
There were times when Pawn had me confused with the number system, but once I was farther into the story I began to understand it.
I really enjoyed Kitty/Lila as the MC because she knew what she had to do in order to keep the people she loved safe. She may have let some people walk over her, but underneath she really was a strong character. She was determined to keep her shit together in order to save others.
Knox was also a character I enjoyed even though he was Lila's fiance he seemed to genuinely care for Kitty. He tried to keep her from messing things up, and helped her learn her new role as Lila. There was always that little part of him that said "I'm hiding something though."
Benjy was Kitty's boyfriend from the home, and I liked the way their love story was (if you want to call it that) It was real. It wasn't this I just met you now let's hook up crap. They grew up together in the foster system. They were friends before. I love when characters can be friends, and then couples it makes the relationships mean something. It makes you believe that love can bloom from something more. Yes?

The twists and turns that happened I wouldn't have guessed it just makes for a better second book.

Quotes

"You know, once upon a time, everyone could walk into a market and buy anything they wanted." I snorted. "Fairy tales start with 'Once upon a time,' Nina."

Book Review: Lailah by Nikki Kelly

AUTHOR: Nikki Kelly
PUBLISHER: Fewiel and Friends

SERIES/STANDALONE: Series
PAGES: 352

SOURCE: Netgalley via publisher

Outline:
The girl knows she’s different. She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel.

On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely ally – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel.

In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom?

Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is

Quick Thought (or not)

I'm going to start off by saying that while this review may not be long and in depth that does not take away from how much I loved it. It's occurred to me recently (or maybe I've known all along) that the books I love the most are pretty much the ones that I absolutely have no words for. I have been trying to write this review for about a week or two, and I feel like I won't be able to do it justice. So with that being said if it sounds ridiculous and like I'm just rambling remember that it's because I love it that much!

If you've read one vampire book, you've read them all right? My answer would usually be a yes, but Lailah is different in my eyes. The thought surrounding the story was built and crafted just right for my taste. The imagery and words that the author used to build this first dimension is one of the many things I fell in love with.

I can't complain either way about the pacing of the story. At times it did feel a bit slow, but it wasn't that stand in one place, move in one motion kinda slow. Does that even make sense? It felt like they were constantly on the go, moving from one safe house to another yet, the story took it's time to show us who these characters really were, and who they were becoming

.Cessie/Lailah as stubborn as you were girl I could understand you completely because for someone who was on their own for a while I would have a hard time with someone telling me what to do and where I'm going. I definitely don't envy you having to choose between Jonah and Gabriel since they appeal to both sides of you. As Nikki said I'm on the fence on which side I want. :)

I will admit at times I wanted to slap Gabriel in the face. (You know like the girls do in movies to guys when they've been a jackass) but in the end he was trying to help her. He was trying to figure out who/what she was.

I kinda loved this vampire. No sparkles here, but he was all vampire, and though he liked his humans his was on the wagon to being good-ish.

Brooke reminded me of Rosalie in a way, being that she cared about her appearance. I think I enjoyed Brooke more than Rosalie though because while she didn't care for Lailah all that much she put up with her, and she took her shopping and acted decent towards her. 

Sidenote:
I got to meet Nikki at the Fierce Reads Tour in Irving this past Wed, and she was adorable. This was her first time being on tour, and I think she did an awesome job. She's from England so she has the accent which just made it that much better. Oh and she remembered the name of my site from the tour I did. Nikki if you read this You did a fantastic job Wed. :)

Quotes

"He wrapped me up tightly inside and I turned my back to him, hurt. He nestled in next to me, under the quilt, and placed his sturdy arms around my body, nudging his nose into the dip of my neck. Pushing my tangled hair from my face, he grazed his fingers over the lacerations scratched into my cheeks. I curled in embarrassment; I was a mess."

"You loved me once before..." I sniffed. "Yes." His answer was swift. "I'm not the same person you knew," I said. "I have changed; I haven't even the slightest clue who Lailah is. She's a stranger to me. I don't know who I am, I never have." He didn't reply immediately but pulled me closer, kissing the top of my forehead. "You're wrong. When I look at you, I'm met with the same person. Your smile may have weakened and your eyes may have grown weary, but you are no different from the beautiful girl I fell in live with. And somehow, if it is even possible, I feel more connected to you now than ever before."

"It's an extraordinary, inexplicable yet inevitable force that I can't deny. I may not know what I am, but one thing I am certain of is that whatever it is I may be and whatever it is I may want, none of it matter without you."

Book Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

AUTHOR: Lauren Kate
PUBLISHER: Delcorte Press

SERIES/STANDALONE: Series (Torment,Fallen in Love, Passion, Rapture)
PAGES: 452

SOURCE: Bought

Outline:
What if the person you were meant to be with could never be yours?

17-year-old Lucinda falls in love with a gorgeous, intelligent boy, Daniel, at her new school, the grim, foreboding Sword & Cross . . . only to find out that Daniel is a fallen angel, and that they have spent lifetimes finding and losing one another as good & evil forces plot to keep them apart. 

Get ready to fall . . .

Quick Thought (or not)

I'm pretty sure this has been said many times before but the cover is what drew me into this book. I'm sorry I don't care how many times they use a girl in a fancy dress as a book cover, I will forever and always love them especially if the colors are right like Shatter Me (before they did the awful cover change), Teardrop (before they went and changed it as well), The Selection Series.

I realize I'm just getting around to reading this series actually it's the first book by this author I've read granted I have Teardrop and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove. I guess it wasn't until now that I felt compelled to read it. Maybe, seeing the book being turned into a movie also helped.

Going back and reading some reviews, I believe a lot of them had it right saying that it was a bit slow to begin with, and honestly not much of a plot. I don't know if the plot just isn't there because it's a first book (which would be my guess), or if it is there, but I just didn't pick up on it. Fallen was more of a character story. It was Luce getting sent to this boarding school, and meeting these two hot, mysterious guys, one whose bound to be good, and one bound to be bad it's typical. It followed Luce through her stalkerish ways to find out more about this Daniel who would be hot and cold with her.  As she was doing this she also had the attention of the other guy Cam, who I'm going to admit I kinda fell for in the beginning. Boy was I stupid to do that. The story really didn't pick up and get past this love triangle until almost the end when the climax of the story took place. Which wasn't really that great of one because what could have been an awesome scene was skipped over to go back to Luce who was of course the damsel in distress...-hangs head- ... although the little part that was put into that scene was sad.#RIPcharacter

Lucinda or Luce is a MC in the story, and in the beginning I really kind of felt bad for her. I couldn't deal with switching schools. I had a hard time transitioning from elementary to middle and then middle to high school so a completely different school where you don't know anyone would be hard. She seemed like she did okay finding a few off the wall characters to be friendsy with. (Why yes I did just say friendsy!)(Friendsy- to engage in somewhat of a friend like manner) I felt bad that she had to go through whatever she went through with that Trevor boy, but I don't know as the story progressed I felt less and less sorry for her. I hope later on in the series I grow to like her more.

Going into the story already knowing what Daniel was kinda sucked a bit, but I guess if you think about it....it would have been pretty obvious had the synopsis not stated it. The details that Luce gave about what she saw in her dreams, and during other times was pretty much saying look at me I'M AN ANGEL!. I will say at the start of the story he was a complete jackass, and his on again/off again bs was getting to be a bit much. As the story went on I started leaning towards Daniel though more then Cam for obvious reasons later on. So I forgive Luce a bit for feeling the same.

Cam was a bit harder to figure out at the beginning of the story because he genuinely seems to like Luce, and I'm sure he still does, but for them not being together he sure seemed possessive and jealous. If the girl is not your girlfriend calm the F down man.

Then there was tiny Pennyweather "Penn" Van Syckle Lockwood. I loved her just for her odd name :) but really she was a sincere friend that Luce made, who pretty much had the run of the school, and along with Luce she helped find out more about Daniel.

As for the ending to Fallen...-bangs head- 

Book Review: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

AUTHOR: Alexandra BrackenPUBLISHER: Disney Hyperion
PAGES: 488
STAND ALONE/SERIES: Series
SOURCE: bought
OUTLINE:
When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living

MY THOUGHTS:
Have you ever seen the movie PUSH? If not then what I'm saying probably will make no sense to you, but if so then you'll get my drift. When we started learning more about the characters and what they could do I immediately thought of this movie because the main character they're trying to protect from this agency has the ability to control human minds. I say much more then I kind of give away stuff, but let's just say similar.

I am such a POWERS person. By this I mean I love the idea of people having these powers, or unique abilities that defy everything. Mind control, ability to control just about anything. So needless to say when I read the synopsis for this book I was immediately drawn to it. At first it seemed to start off slow, but for the sake of understanding the story I suppose that's ok. I think I really started loving it the moment Ruby and Liam started opening up to each other. I'm such a character reader,and when you can love just about every character in the story that's saying a lot. Liam, Chubs, Zu, Ruby each one of them have that personality that you could grow to love, and I did. Liam for his nurturing and caring ways with the others, Chubs for his love of literature and being that person who all though seems like a complete ass is really just a gooey sweet marshmellow on the inside. Ruby for being that strong, lovable heroine we've come to love from our YA books. Zu for just being that sweet innocent child who believes the world can still be a good place, and that the people in it are seemingly goodhearted.

OMFG!!!! Why? Why Ms. Bracken did you do this to me? Endings like this one bring out so many emotions in me. Sadness, Pissiness (Is that a word?), and more sadness. A few things happened that I really didn't see happening and then some that I figured might, but still I'm not the least be happy about it. Now I'm having to read the second one right now, and usually I'm horrible about reading the second one right after the first, but I wanna see a happy ending for somebody. :(

Quotes:
I had the strangest feeling--like I had lost something without ever really having lost it in the first place---that I wasn't what I once was, and wasn't at all what I was meant to be. -Ruby (pg 203)

We wanted you yesterday, we want you today, and we'll want you tomorrow. There's nothing you can do to change that. -Liam (pg 304)

Ruby, give me one reason why we can't be together, and I'll give you a hundred why we can. -Liam (pg 438)

Vegas Dazzle Book Trailer

Envision your world being turned upside down in a place that changes your life forever. A place where anything is possible … Where you find a love for only your heart’s desire, your perfect other half, your soul’s mate. Together you are whisped away on an adventure of immaculate love, danger, and intrisity that alters your world forever. 

Taylor has been forced to leave behind her life in England when her father takes a job as an executive pilot for one of the largest Hotels & Casinos in fabulous Las Vegas, leaving all that she knows behind. She must start over in a city full of lights that sits in the middle of the desert. There everything is beautiful, exhilarating and very lucrative.

People say Las Vegas is absolutely positively the most exciting place on earth! Being corrupt, getting away with murder and having tons of money seems to be a way of life, and oddly enough accepted.

At first Taylor is devastated leaving England, but she is pleasantly surprised when she finds that Las Vegas offers her new dreams that she never knew could exist or even possibly come true.

Meeting the mysterious, attractive Dario Mancini aka prince of the mob, forces her life to take a dangerous, exotic, thrilling turn. Their souls bound together gives them powers beyond the forces of nature altering them forevermore.

But keep in mind everything has its price…

The new book trailer for Vegas Dazzle. :)