Review: The Iron Daughter By Julie Kagawa

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her. Worse, Meghan's own fey powers have been cut off. She's stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

Ash kept his end of the deal so Meghan now has to keep hers. Although they defeated the Iron King and rescued Ethan she is now stuck in the winter court as prisoner. And even though she defeated the Iron King the iron fey are still causing mayhem amongst the other fey and the winter and summer courts are close to going head to head in war. Her faery powers no longer seem to work either so she stuck amongst the cruel winter fey with little more than human strength to get her by and without Ash by her side she not even sure if she'll ever get out of the winter courts. The Iron Daughter is the fabulous sequel to Julie Kagawa's Iron King book. It has action, adventure, romance, heartbreak, and humore that keep you from putting the book down until it is finished, and then you still might not.

I really liked that in this book we got to see the winter courts. While they are all faeries there is a major difference between winter and summer just like the seasons themselves. While the summer faeries could be cruel, the winter faeries take it to a whole new level, especially Queen Mab and her icy sons. Ash becomes a whole new person while amongst the winter courts. He is much more how I pictured he would be before the happenings of the Iron King. 

Grim, my favorite character, stole the show for me. Although I am NOT a cat person at all, they freak me out, I love Grim. There’s an air of smart assness while still being completely serious that I find hilarious. Between his know it all attitude and always showing up an exactly the right moment in a lot of ways he is the hero of these books. Also, he reminds of the chesser cat in Alice and Wonderland.

I like that we get introduced to a few new characters in this book. Lea, in particular, is one of my favorites. She is powerful as all get out and for that reason she has been cast out of NeverNever to life in exile by the summer Queen. But even so she still helps Meghan a great deal in this book and although she is a complete pain in the butt I really like her. You also get to meet Mab, who I love to hate, and her other two winter sons Sage and Rowan. I didn’t mind Sage so much but Rowan is not my favorite winter guy.

The Iron Fey in this book intrigue me as well.  I would have thought that after there king had been defeated that they would have went back into hiding and minding there own business.  I guess if they had then there wouldn't be a second book but I like that there motives are a complete mystery.  I also like that some of the iron fey look like some of the regular fey.

I loved the ending to this book as well. But I obviously can’t tell you about it ;] So you’ll just have to read it.

The Iron Fey series is written by Julie Kagawa. She lives in Louisville, Ky with her husband, two dogs, and two cats. She participates in kung fu. Her other works are The Immortal Rule, which came out this past spring, Iron Fey mini books, and coming soon a new Iron Fey series.

Review: Dreamless by Josephine Angelini

Can true love be forgotten?

As the only scion who can descend into the Underworld, Helen Hamilton has been given a nearly impossible task. By night she wanders through Hades, trying to stop the endless cycle of revenge that has cursed her family. By day she struggles to overcome the fatigue that is rapidly eroding her sanity. Without Lucas by her side, Helen is not sure she has the strength to go on.

Just as Helen is pushed to her breaking point, a mysterious new Scion comes to her rescue. Funny and brave, Orion shields her from the dangers of the Underworld. But time is running out—a ruthless foe plots against them, and the Furies' cry for blood is growing louder.

As the ancient Greek world collides with the mortal one, Helen's sheltered life on Nantucket descends into chaos. But the hardest task of all will be forgetting Lucas Delos.

Josephine Angelini's compelling saga becomes ever more intricate and spellbinding as an unforgettable love triangle emerges and the eternal cycle of revenge intensifies. Eagerly awaited, this sequel to the internationally bestselling Starcrossed delivers a gritty, action-packed love story that exceeds all expectations.

Dreamless, the second of three from the Starcrossed trilogy, debuted just a few days ago and oh my god was it amazing.  It picks up just a few days after the events that occurred at the end of Starcrossed.  Helen now must face even greater challenges than before.  She must descend, alone into the Underworld every night with the quest of finding the furies and freeing the scions of their curse.  In doing this not only will she be helping all of the houses, but the rogues and outcasts, including Hector, as well.  Descending has become her personal live nightmare and Helen feels that she is no closer to finishing her task than she was before she began.  Now, she has to do all of this without the comfort of Lucas.  She tries to avoid him and forget her feelings for him but the fates seem to have a different plan, constantly drawling them together.  Just when she thinks that she can’t do this anymore a mysterious guy saves her in the underworld but she is thrown back to her room before she can see him.  Dreamless is full of light, darkness, love, family, friendship, fantasy, and war the most supreme levels.  I could not put this book down and literally read it in less than fifteen hours and just a little more than twenty four hours of its release.

  I really liked the new side of Lucas in this book.  In Starcrossed, he was so in control of himself, light, and so good.  In Dreamless, while his character is still all of the things that make him Lucas, he is now broken and becoming something darker.  Josie really did a fantastic job of showing the reader just how dark and broken Lucas had, and can still, become.  What can I say, I love characters that are broken and beautiful.

The Underworld really transformed for me in this book.  In Starcrossed I didn’t really get it.  It seemed to me that anytime Helen descended she was walking in circles never really making any progress.  I didn’t understand why anyone would be able to or want to go there and by the time I got to the end of the book and you learn that the only way to free the scion of the furies is for Helen to go to the Underworld and find them I really had no idea where Josie was going with story. 

I absolutely loved some of the new characters introduced in this book.  Orion may have surpassed all of my previous book character crushes.  He is the descendent of Adonis, Aphrodites favorite lover and “the pinnacle of male beauty” with that, his awesome talents, and sexy wit what’s not to love?  Morpheus, the god of dreams, Hades, god of the underworld, Persephone, Hades queen, Ares, the god of war, and a few other mythological beings make an appearance as well.

Lastly, I really loved how it ended.  It was so “shit hit the fan” that I have no clue what is going to happen next.  The ending was so mind blowing and I didn’t even see it coming at all.  I’m already dying for the third and final book to come out!!!!

Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

Insurgent, the sequel to Divergent by Veronica Roth, picked up shortly after where the first one had left off.  Tris has made it to Amity where she, Four, and several others are staying as hidden refuges.  But they are now being hunted by Dauntless traders and are forced to turn to others for safety, even those that seem the most untrustworthy.  Tris is being swallowed with the grief of her parents dying and the guilt of killing her friend, Will and she and Four/Tobias can’t seem to keep on the same page with all the things that have taken place.  Insurgent is that fabulous sequel to the dystopian Divergent.  It has love, betrayal, excitement, fear, and unexpected events that will leave you dying for more.

I was very excited for this book to come out ever since I read the first one last summer and it didn’t disappoint.  I loved that you really get a feel for Four/Tobias.  In the first book you know him as Four, the hard dauntless trainer with only four fears.  Later in the book you know him as Tobias the guy who saves Tris and was a transfer from abnegation who had a nightmare for a childhood and fellow divergent.  In Insurgent you really see what he’s made of.  You also see the dynamics of Tris and his relationship change which was interesting because frankly who wants to read about perfection especially when it comes to love.

I love that you get to know Caleb, Tris’s brother, who is only introduced in the first book.  In Insurgent, he is now the only family she has left and she seems to hold on to that.  I really can’t talk more about him though without giving away some major stuff so you’ll just have to read it :]

The only thing that made this not the best think I've ever read is that it had the typical feel of the second book in a dystopian trilogy. The main character has been through hell and back and you really feel that in the second book of a lot of dystopian books; a bit doom and gloom with a glimmer of hope at the end.  I hope that that glimmer of hope is to lead to a happy ending unlike The Hunger Games ending that was so very bitter sweet.

Have you all read this book?  Or the first one?  What do you think about these books being up for a movie?  I think they’ll be pretty good myself.

Review: Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

"'Breaking Dawn, the final book in the #1 bestselling Twilight Saga, will take your breath away.'
Twilight tempted the imagination. New Moon made readers thirsty for more. Eclipse turned the saga into a worldwide phenomenon. And now, the book that everyone has been waiting for... "

Bella Swan is marrying Edward Cullen, the [not so] man of her dreams.  She will soon become a vampire and leave the life and people that she loves behind her to spend an eternity with him.  The wedding, although a little outrageous for her taste and Jacob having wolf rages, was perfect.  The honeymoon was equally fabulous, she finally did the deed for the first time with someone that she loves and was going to be with forever.  She and Edward on a secluded Island with tons of things to do, but what Bella really wants to do is have sex with Edward, who refuses, again.  Other than that their honey moon is perfect as well.  That is until the impossible happens.  Bella misses her period and starts having strange cravings.  But that’s impossible, Edward is a vampire, and vampires do not reproduce that way.  Edward and Bella’s lives are about to be turned upside down and the forever that they thought that they would have together might be caught sort by a disaster.

My rating for this book:

[Spoiler Alert for those who haven’t read the book.]
When Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final installment of the Twilight series came out I was so excited I went to Walmart to get it at midnight.  Although it started out really good, it was my least favorite of the series.  I’m not really sure how I would have went about doing to story myself if I was Stephenie but I feel like a happy ending for everyone was way too forced with Bella ending up with the best of both worlds.  Although I myself usually enjoy books with weird aspects, this one was a little too weird for me.  But then again that’s what’s so great about the supernatural genre: anything goes.  

I did like how the book starts and ends with Bella’s perspective but in the middle it’s Jaocb’s point of view.  I also liked how all of the character’s finally come together and there are no more secrets which is the way I feel books are supposed to end.

Stephenie Meyer lives in Arizona with her sons and husband.  The Twilight series was her first and then she followed with a second book called  The Host, which is now be casted to become a major motion picture.

So are you guys going to see the movie tomorrow?  Tonight at midnight?  Are you bigger fans of the movies or the books?  Let’s get some discussion going!!!

Review: Nine Lives of Chloe King by Liz Braswell

“Chloe King is a normal girl. She goes to class (most of the time), fights with her mom, and crushes on a boy…or two. But around her sixteenth birthday, Chloe finds that perhaps she isn’t so normal after all. There’s the heightened night vision, the super fast reflexes – oh, and the claws.

As she discovers who she is – and where she comes from – it is clear she is not alone. And someone is trying to get her. Chloe has nine lives. But will nine be enough?”

When the Nine Lives of Chloe King started up on ABC Family this summer I fell in love with yet another series.  The show was captivating.  Shortly after I heard that it was a book and had to read it.  Needless to say I was quite disappointed, which is unusual because I normally love the books of TV shows or movies that I watch.  I found the Chloe in the book annoying and the relationship between her and her mother strained in comparison to the fine balance of single mom parent and friend routine that they have on the show.  Not to mention the fact that the role that Brian, Chloe’s friend/crush, was completely flipped from the show.  Chloe’s friendship with Paul and Amy is on the rocks half the time and she only seems to like Alec for his sex appeal and seems to think he has rocks for a brain.  Basically, the relationships within the novel were a bit not only different, but not as well put together as what I found to like on the show.

The writer’s style was catered to my tastes though.  She wrote the different point of views of different characters in the book which I like because sometimes I want to know what going on in the heads of the other characters.  Another high note is that the story all flowed evenly.  I think the idea behind the story was great and the world seemed to agree a bit at least because the TV show is doing quite well.

My rating for this book:

Liz Braswell was born in Birmingham, England but grew up in a New England town.  She majored in Egyptology at Brown University and produced video games in New York for about ten years. To learn more about her visit Lizbraswell.com

Review: Virtue by Amanda Hocking

“In a world filled with magic, love might be the final answer in the eternal battle between good and evil. When Lux is tasked with retrieving the virtuous Lily for his master, his entire world is put in jeopardy. Lux must battle goblins, demon dogs, and sea dragons to rescue the one he loves, and that's only the beginning of what he must face...”

  

I was beyond excited when I heard Amanda Hocking was coming out with a new book. When she said that she had posted it to Amazon, I was checking my phone and my Kindle every half hour to see if the book had uploaded yet. But after I began reading the book, I have to say I was a bit disappointed. The idea for the plot was fantastic! How she had selected people being a certain virtue, the idea of finding your opposite (such as lust and purity falling in love) and the classic idea of good and evil fighting for victory was brought about in an all new way. But the way she went about writing everything was just something I wasn’t a fan of. The characters weren’t personal, a bit too much insta-love and oblivious characters that made the story difficult to believe and get into- yes, even for a faerie tale.

For me, the book was difficult to finish reading, and the ending wasn’t one that had me excited that I forced myself through it. But I could see the book being great for a young teen audience vs. the young adult world.

My rating for this book:

Amanda Hocking lives in Minnesota with her best friend Eric. She is the author of the My Blood Approves series as well as the Trylle Trilogy. Hocking was recently signed by St. Martin’s Press and You can follow her at:

 Twitter        Facebook        Goodreads         E-mail        Blog