Dead Heat (Alpha and Omega # 4) by Patricia Briggs

                               Arc provided by Ace /Penguin Group through Netgalley

                                                      Release Date: March 3rd

In a perfect world I would have had the time to re-read all the previous volumes, so I could fully compare all of them.
Not being able to do it, the best I could do was re-read my reviews of the previous books...and they weren't all that helpful. In fact, my previous reviews suck!
And this one, also isn't all that great.
-_-
Here's what I know for certain: With the exception of the third book, I have never been a big fan of Charles and Anna. Their relationship was just too quickly done having in mind what Anna had been gone through...
And since we're on the subject, what are the odds of having two series by a same author in which the main characters are raped?
Wasn't one enough? *sigh*
It changes the dynamics: Mercy went from a strong character to being the mate of Adam.
Anna is the mate of Charles, and what does she do?
She is an Omega, she's a walking Valium for weres.
And now she wants kids...
 At least Mercy is a mechanic...

But getting back on this book: It was slow. Painfully slow...
The characters _Anna and Charles _ came out even more dull than what they normally do.
There were way too many references about horses!
For the first thirty per cent of the story, one mainly has boring descriptions about horses.
I don't have anything against the animals, I just don't want to read a long book about them.

In the end, there were times I would forgot what the story's plot was supposed to be about _ Fae on the prowl for children _ because there wasn't a real sense of urgency conveyed on the pages.
Bottom line: as a urban fantasy series I found this story kind of week. There were coincidences, and things that weren't all that explained..
 That is not to say, that as a contemporary drama it doesn't work. It does, but this was supposed to be full urban fantasy.

Author Official Site

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Please Remain Calm ( This Is Not A Test #2) by Courtney Summers

This may be a novella, but it carries the emotional punch of a full length story. And just like the first volume, this ends up being brutal.

Maybe I need to "gather my thoughts" a little longer, because despite having finishing it hours ago, I am still a emotional wreck...well done!

And I have absolutely no idea what to say besides: "go read this..even though it is going to break your heart into tiny little pieces."

Here on author Courtney Summers' world, there's no lucky breaks, no second chances, and definitely no happy endings.

"Please Remain Calm" picks up immediately after "This is not a Test" and we follow Rhys and Sloane on the run for survival.
Isa has already mentioned it, Read her review Here! but while the first volume ends up being more of a psychological thriller, this is definitely a zombie book, so get ready for a lot of blood, nail biting suspense....and heartbreak.
There is a lot of heartbreak in this story..in fact, OMG!! -_-
I couldn't even believe it when that happened!
And then the story ended! o_O
And now I need more!:/

Author's Official Site

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Finding Mr. Brightside by Jay Clark

Arc provided by Mcmillan's Children Publishing Group

Release Date: March 24th

Well....I'll be... darn :/

You see, I find myself in a bit of a predicament, mainly because everything I feel like saying about this story... would not be polite, which in some sort of cosmic response would be more than appropriate, because this isn't a polite book.

This is more like a f****d up one, where the characters are supposed to be deep and intense, and because of that who cares if one of the main characters uses words like, "retarded", "that Asian", "the Asian "..that rare breed of slutty Asian (..), "slut" and "whore"

_________

Wait, I care!

 Its offensive, and it makes me wonder how in HELL did this managed to be published?!
I understand that even idiots deserve love, and as so, Juliette and Abram are pretty much perfect for one another.
Juliette may be more _lets say _ active in the offensive comments department, but Abram doesn't seem to have a compunction to what she says, and also goes along with the "that Asian" remarks.

The thing is, Abram could be interested in Julliette _ I don't know why in fact...apparently they had never talked to one another prior to their parents death _ and point out to her, that she was being a jerk with all that racists comments..but he doesn't, and later on, to make matters even worse ends up falling into a slut shaming situation.
(just because he doesn't say it aloud, it still counts)

As if all of this still wasn't enough, what had me practically screaming is that _unless I'm mistaken_, this book's target audience are teenage girls... who will be reading a book full of crap about women... when instead this should be directed at boys who don't know shit about them.

Amongst the many off-hand remarks casually thrown that made me want to gag _trying to keep up with the book's mentality, yay! _ are:

The comment that Juliette does, on how could Abram have been so patient for their make out session, when her body isn't you know? Perfect, because there's so many available sluts around!

Oh, and the one in which she asks herself why can't she be a whore for two seconds?

Oh, and the one in which she says she's on the pill purely due to some health issues, not because she's a whore!

Is this some kind of unspoken rule?

Does every single female leading character written by a guy have to be made into a mental case?

Yes?

Does it feed the White Knight syndrome?

Oh... I see... in that case, mission accomplished.

Misogynistic BS 
When one reaches the end of book and starts evaluating  characters and behaviours, one thing pops out. And that is the fact, that with the exception of Abram's mother and "facebook" aunt, the other female characters with bigger roles "aren't nice people" according to our troubled teens :

There's Juliette's mother who was a conniving bitch who cheated on her father poor indolent bastard who apparently didn't care about anything while his wife was alive, and as if that wasn't enough she also got her daughter addicted to pills, because nothing says "I love you honey" as: Here, take one of my Adderall's !
Apparently the mother had no problem in sharing what was hers with her daughter: clothes, shoes, belts, pills :/
Bad mother.
____

Then there's the ASIAN slutty girl"_ARGH! REALLY? You don't see nothing wrong with this?
This girl,_we are told_ apparently  lets Abram copy on classes _which makes her stupid_, also according to him she's a sex freak because she wanted his penis _which makes her naive_...but he succeeded in resisting her wiles! Because that's what teenage boys do..they save themselves for the LOVE of their lives at the age of seventeen ( I guess this is some sort of Christian fiction?)
In fact I can totally see Abram saying something along the lines of this to "that Asian girl":

*No, you shall not have my dick! I am saving my dick for Juliette!* ~sarcasm~

And here's slut shaming... directed at a "character" that never makes an appearance. We never see the girl as anything more than a recipient for Juliette's offences.

Finally there's Juliette and her mental basket popping pills and checking guys _well one guy...because if she checked more asses that would probably make her you know, slutty_ asses... case, because let's face it girls, there's nothing more appealing than this!!
(We get a lot of references to Abram's "fashion statement"...oh and in the case that that wasn't the idea, there's this wonderful thing called BELTS.)

 HOT, right ladies?

:/

______

So, yes, the only woman worth of anything in this book is Abram's mother, which leads me to this very important point...

Guy's mothers are sacred.

Everyone else... isn't... except, if you're a mental pixie girl case, in which case guys will be falling hard for you!;)

Why?
R: No idea. I guess it was in the script.

The writing is meh.

The plot... where was it?

The character development is missing in action.

The changing pov's are annoying because both characters sound the same!

A basic story on how the love of a good man boy will redeem a lost woman girl featuring a bat-shit load of crap, prejudices, and many other YA nonsenses.

p.s- I am very much aware that after this review, I'll probably never EVER be approved for any other arc provided by this publisher.

This is my honest review/rant.

@Author's Official Site

The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales by Franz Xaver Von Schonwerth

Arc provided by Penguin Classics through Netgalley

Release Date: February 24 th

 

"The newly discovered Fairy Tales" part in the title, was what made me request this...since I am a fairy tale addict.
Unfortunately, what I discovered was a confusing mishmash of other well known fairy-tales_ at least the first twenty that I read...
My mistake: I thought I would be reading original fairy tales and not adaptations of Perrault's and The Grimm Brothers' tales. Only these have male characters in the leading roles.

I could keep on reading this, but life is too short, and I am already familiar with most of them...

Bottom Line: Nothing wrong with it _ I wasn't crazy about the dispassionate writing style _ it's German, so most tales are bloody and gory, so better read it yourself and grab some other book for the kids.

What the Guardian says about it

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Nightbird by Alice Hoffman

                                   Arc provided by Random House Children's through Netgalley

                                                            Release Date: March 10 th


First of all...I usually inhale Alice Hoffman's novels
I love her writing style. I am crazy about it.

Of course I normally read her adult fiction stories which have a whole different depth _ although I do love her YA story Green Heart _, that I felt was missing here.

I don't know if the middle grade audience will appreciate this novel: From time to time it has Alice Hoffman's trademark writing style _ which for younger readers probably won't make all that much sense _ but which I love!
However during most of the novel, I found that there were one too many short and clipped sentences. Something that I am not crazy about. I found myself occasionally wondering if the author thought she would "lose" her readers, going full ~I am Queen of Metaphors~ style.

Then the character development is practically zero....which is something that the author normally does..to an extent, but in this case, with this story, and these characters, I didn't found that that worked.

Once again I am left with the feeling that the author may have underestimate her readers.
I have read complex and marvellous middle grade stories, and if I were to compare this book to those, I am afraid Nightbird would come out lacking.

Also that magical/ fairy tale vibe that Alice Hoffman uses to describes first love, is here, and its very "insta"..once again, something with which the author normally works, but in this case we're talking of a middle grade book.
 Of course I have to mention that that part is not heavily handed, and that the characters in question are about seventeen years old. But even so, I wasn't crazy about it.

So why three stars?
The writing _ despite my complaints _is above average.
The concept of this story was really good, despite the fact that it ends being developed in a somewhat simplistic manner.
Finally and most importantly because this novel is very adamant about friendship. Especially girls friendship. And we don't have enough stories of those.


Author's Official Site

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Prepare Your Senses...

..for something amazing.

Behold:

The book cover for "The Immortal Heights", the third volume in Sherry Thomas' acclaimed series "Elemental Trilogy"!

Isn't it Epic? *.*

Wow..
And a double Wow!

Author's FB page

This reminds me, that it is about time, for me to start re-reading the first one, so I can start with the second book "The Perilous Sea".
I love not having to wait years for long awaited sequels, so I just postpone reading them. That way I can read them all in a row! ;)

Cobweb Forest (Cobweb Bride #3) by Vera Nazarian

Cobweb Bride, the first in this series, was one of my 2013 favourite reads.
In fact, it probably was my "favourite read of them all".
I fell head over heels about everything in it: The characters _especially the beginning of the relationship between Percy and the Black Knight _, the setting, the plot, and finally the writing.
It was serious fangirl material for someone like me, someone who loves Patricia A. Mckillip's and Juliet Marillier's stories.

With the second one, Cobweb Empire, stars were still shinning in my eyes, but something begun sounding a little off.
Its magnificence was unquestionable, but the seeds of something that I particularly dislike reading, were planted there. You see, towards the end of the second one, and most especially with this third volume, the relationship between the characters, and even the tone of the book, starts sounding as something out of minstrel stories: the ones that exalt love and friendship (not my favourite literary subject  I admit).

And even the writing shows a significant change. More opulent and heavy handed, it didn't however capture my interest as the writing style of the first book did.
I admit that I am very picky with writing styles these days: I like beautiful prose...but I am not a big fan of purple one, nor I am a fan of what I perceive as a high dose of pointless adjectives.
That way, what is supposed to come out as deep and insightful, for me ends up sounding cheesy and boring.

I am afraid that's what I feel happened here.
The characters feel as if all of them have lost their personality. The plot became too convoluted and I honestly found myself forcing me to finish it.
The thing is, I wanted to read about Percy, Claere, Beltain, and the likes. I couldn't care less about all the Gods and Goddesses _as well as other people...such as Jack Frost...Jack Frost?? _that end up high-jacking the book...and turning it into something completely dissonant from the first book.

As it is, the romances end up being downplayed _ which makes this feel slightly YA _ and certain characters end up behaving "out of tone".
Yes, I am talking about the two spoiled aristocrats. That behaviour is SO not them!
o_O????
This rating doesn't reflect however the author's writing capacity. Much on the contrary.
The thing is, in most cases, less is more, and this had one too many balls up in the air...at least it had for me.

But who knows?
Maybe you will love it! :)

Author's Official Page

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Death Marked ( Death Sworn #2) by Leah Cypess

                                  

                                   Arc provided by Harper Collins Children through Edelweiss

                                                             Release Date: March 3rd

I am just going to come out and say this, a little like pulling a band aid, fast and clean:
I did not enjoy reading this story, and since I am not a fifteen year old girl, no, that reason doesn't have anything to do with what ends up happening in the end (don't worry, no one dies..at least no one that relevant to the story).

The main reason that made me at numerous times consider to DNF this, has something to do that, once again the world building is practically non existent. But this time on a bigger scale. Because if in the first volume, the story took place inside some caves, now Ileni has been captured by the Empire..and I was thinking big, you know?
But no such luck.

Death Sworn ends, and three days later, Death Marked starts....for me this feels lazy.
Once again too much tell, not enough show..
The story starts with Ileni being held captive by the Empire ( a very small Empire who only has a Jack /Jane of all trades to all important leading roles in the story..very disappointing), and then being conveniently contacted by Sorin...though you'll have to hold on until the last pages to figure out this apparently whimsical activity, as well as many, many others.

I am sorry to say this, but this time Ileni is severely lacking in all the things that made her praise worthy in the first book, and if on one hand, I could be led into believing that what she goes through is believable due to her age: the indecision, the not knowing in whom to trust, on the other, no one wants to read the story of someone who is constantly considering changing sides.
 As a consequence she sounds weak and pathetic.

Thing is, for about 85 or even 90 percent of this narrative, I would give this a one star/one and half star rating:
This was just boring with apparent tstl actions and characters. It really was too much to ask of its readers to keep reading something so basic and undeveloped.
However, the last part reveals part of the motives behind what appeared to be tstl actions.

Also the way in which the author chooses to follow a "less travelled" road for the the way the story ends, could be seen from two different angles:
The innovative one, in the sense that the author pulls the rug under our feet, giving us instead a completely different story. One told on a definite smaller scale.

On the other hand, and having already read the author's other series, I am afraid that I am finding a pattern here:
When things get tough, the author seems to follows the less troublesome road, and that isn't good, because these are fantasy books, not coming of age realistic stories.

In fact I started this review with the intention of giving this _ grudgingly _ a 2.5 star rating, but now on second thought I can't help feeling that I was pulled a fast one.
Also, the romances in Leah Cypess's world continue to be treated in a severely lacking way. Especially in the latest instalments of both series, and although I am a big fan of the "boys with the bread" type of character, I was not a fan of what happened here. Or of what may happen..

Bottom Line: I cannot in good conscience recommend this book.
This doesn't have anything to do with HEA in the story's, it has to do with feeling that the characters made the effort.
And the thing is, I read and enjoyed Death Sworn because of two characters not because of one, and Sorin never pretended to be something he wasn't...

I understand what the author tried to do. She tried to create layers and more layers to the story, but not having enough world building to support them, by not being able of creating strong relationships between the characters _ what happens in the end is another proof _, and having girl on girl hate, made it impossible for me to enjoy this.


Author's Official Site

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Please Remain Calm (This Is Not A Test # 2 ) by Courtney Summers

Unlike This Is Not A Test, which I absolutely love and is one of my all time favourites, Please Remain Calm is more of a straightforward zombie book.

First of all, it's told from Rhys' point of view, therefore less bleak and suicidal, and more focused on surviving and making sure Sloane survives with him.

I really, REALLY liked Rhys!

I never thought I'd get to say this about anything taking place in these books' universe, but I laughed quite a few times, what with one of Rhys' more pressing concerns being his desperate need to pee while zombies were afoot, but an absurd, yet realistically understandable fear of becoming a zombie mid stream and spending the rest of the apocalypse as a zombie with his dick out.

We still get a lot of Sloane, and while she isn't much better (how could she, poor girl) she seems more willing to go on with her life.

Of course, this wouldn't be a novella in the This Is Not A Test universe without completely breaking the readers' heart...

Regardless, if you liked This Is Not A Test (and who didn't?), this is an absolute must read!

Author's Official Page

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This Shattered World (Starbound #2) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

These Broken Stars was, hands down, my favourite book of 2014. I loved everything about it: the relatable characters, the creepy plot, the mystery, the way my heart was ripped out of my chest, but mostly what I loved the most was the very sloooooow build of the relationship between Violet and Tarver.

And while This Shattered World was wonderful: great plot, amazing characters, etc. It lacked that slow build. 

It wasn't insta-love by any means, but it was insta-lust. 

And while it can be argued that Jubilee and Flynn were in a different situation, more open to this than the one in The Broken Stars which was one of fighting for survival among dangerous flora, fauna and a super creepy entity which inhabited the planet in which they crashed, it still felt... rushed.

It seemed too much tell not enough show when it came to Jubilee's and Flynn's relationship. For instance, Flynn takes Jubilee as his prisoner and we are told he visited her several times which, among other things, lead to a greater attachment between the two.
I would have liked to have been shown that, not told.

Also, the greatest mystery wasn't much of a mystery to anyone who'd read the first book. And the identity of the rebel instigating the war wad no mystery at all...

This whole book, with its 390 pages, felt... rushed.

That's not to say it wasn't a great read, Spooner and Kaufman are a magic team when it comes to writing!

So go read it :)

Amie Kaufman's Official Page 

Meagan Spooner's Official Page 

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