Month: April 2013

Tremble (Denazen #03) by Jus Accardo Review

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Loved it!!!

When I finished Toxic I nearly died because of the way it ended. Kale went back to Denazen to protect Dez and make sure that Aubrey healed her. I think it was fairly obvious that whatever they did to Kale would be horrible, but I didn’t quite expect what they did end up doing to him. It was so frustrating and devious that I have hand it to Jus Accardo for pulling it off.

When Tremble starts, a few months (I’m guessing) have passed since the events of Toxic. Dez is still looking for Kale and she finally sees him at a party with Kiernan of all people. And what’s even worse is that he doesn’t even seem to remember her anymore.  Spoiler (highlight to read) He thinks that he’s in love with Kiernan and that Dez tried to kill him.  He’s sucking face with Kiernan and apparently hates Dez. End of Spoiler Definitely not what I had been expecting. Dez finally realises that Denazen must have done something to him and decides to help him, even if it means getting hurt in the process. Meanwhile Ginger’s troupe are on the lookout for the remaining Supremacy Sixes. The ones on the verge of losing their minds and finally dying. Stakes rise when they realise that Denazen is also looking for these kids, but instead of wanting to help them out, they plan to ‘terminate’ all of them. Things got more frustrating for Dez  (and me) when Ginger decides that getting Kale back is not on the top of their priority list, getting the remaining Sixes back alive is more important (well, maybe that one time she did make sense.)

I really like Dez. I like heroines who are full spunk and spirit and Dez is brimming with both those qualities. She’s also independent and strong and very reckless. But that’s easy to overlook because she’s usually trying to help out someone else. This time around, the decline (which is the annoying and inconvenient side effect of the Supremacy experiment) is catching up with her. She’s starting to show signs and knows that it won’t be long before she loses her sanity and eventually her life. But I liked that she is resilient and didn’t give in.

For a large part of the book, the Kale we know and love was woefully missing.  He was more powerful and could even control his killer touch. It was immediately clear that something was wrong with him, Yet it was his personality that was the most jarring. He had none of the compassion and kindness that is quintessential Kale. Instead he became his own worst nightmare: a killing machine.

Needless to say that Dez decided to rescue Kale from Denazen and get him out of Kiernan’s clutches. But things in Dez’s universe rarely go as planned as it turns out that maybe Kale maybe doesn’t want to be saved (or worse, can’t be) Yet, she refused to let him bully or scare her (which at times may not have been the smartest thing to do)

Alex is still around and thankfully he wasn’t as annoying as he was in the previous two books. Kiernan very quickly became the most hateful person in the entire series, possibly even more than Marshall Cross. Jade was present but didn’t feature as prominently as she did in the last book and she wasn’t so annoying this time. Aubrey was around and he’s easily one of the best characters in the series. I hope we see more of him in the next few books. Tremble focused very strongly on Dez and Kale so the others kinda faded into the background.

The last few chapters were very high on intensity and there was a constant feeling that something was about to go wrong. In a way I’m glad that the series has been extended because there wasn’t nearly enough groundwork for Kale and Dez to take down Denazen, had it happened in book 3, I don’t know how plausible it would have been. Now that we have more books to look forward to, Jus Accardo has more time to flesh some other characters and also start building up to be big climax.

To conclude, Tremble lived up to my ridiculously high expectations and as always has left me dying for the next book. For those of you who are dreading yet another nail-biting cliffhanger you can rest assured that there isn’t a cliffhanger as such. Just a little something that Ms Accardo casually threw at us and then left it hanging (a very unexpected bit of info).

Happy reading!! 😀

Dare You To (Pushing The Limits #02) by Katie McGarry Review

 

urlLoved it! Loved it! Loved it!  What an amazingly well written book!! And I loved every minute of it! Pushing the Limits was awesome and Dare You To was just as awesome and so satisfying! Katie McGarry is fast becoming one of my favourite YA contemporary fiction authors.

We met Beth in the 1st book and while she seemed like an extremely difficult person, she was not unlikable and in Dare You To we find out why she is the way she is. We also meet Ryan, the jock with the perfect life and fast on his way to play pro baseball. They’re two people who could not be more different from each other and yet somehow, we know that circumstances will push them together and that’s exactly what happens. Beth has to move in with her uncle after she gets arrested and has move away from everything she has known her whole life: her old life, her mother, her friends and most importantly Isaiah. Things get difficult for her to deal with without her support system. Ryan’s seemingly perfect life is also taking a nose-dive making it difficult for him to keep up with the façade of perfection. (wow, I’ve used perfect way too many times in this paragraph)

 Despite all the attitude and tough talk I really liked Beth. She is a genuine person and with her what you see is exactly what you get. She doesn’t play games and while she can be cruel, its more a defense mechanism than some sadistic desire to cause pain to the other person. But what made her most endearing was her loyalty towards her people she cared about. She’s loyal to a fault. Sometimes, even when the other person doesn’t deserve it. And I love that she’s grown up to be a strong person despite everything she had thrown at her when she was growing up.

 Ryan’s a great guy. Seriously, he’s one of the sweetest popular guys in contemporary YA fiction and I love him. He’s a great guy. He’s smart and he’s got a passion for baseball and he is also a really good friend. Another amazing quality is that he refuses trash talk or even bitch about his ex-girlfriend even when she’s messing with him. One of the best things about this book was the banter between him and Beth while they both tried to get under each other’s skin. Ryan I think had a much easier time dealing with the relationship because while he did have baggage, his wasn’t nearly as heavy as Beth’s. He doesn’t let Beth bully or intimidate him and he manages to get past her defences. They’re one of the sweetest couples I’ve come across, one of the others being Noah and Echo.

 The old gang also made an appearance this time around, but that’s just what it was, an appearance. Isaiah features more prominently than the others but that was to be expected. Beth was closest to him and depended on him tremendously. I love Isaiah, if I didn’t know that he was getting his own book and then a happy ending I would’ve been very unhappy with what he went through in Dare You To.  He’s an awesome guy and the tattoos just him hotter! Noah and Echo also feature and I wish that we’d seen more of Echo. She was hardly in it. Yes, I get that she and Beth weren’t thick to begin with but its nice to come across old characters that we’ve fallen in love with. Beth is still pretty harsh with her opinion of Echo and while it is unfair, I can understand why feels like that. To her Echo is responsible for the changes in her ‘family’ and Beth doesn’t like changes. But I still wish that she’d cut Echo some slack, after all, she knows what Echo went through. So my only grouse: that we didn’t see nearly enough of Noah and (especially) Echo.

 We also meet some new characters like Beth’s uncle, Scott and his wife Allison. Ryan’s friends; Chris and his girlfriend Lacy and Logan. Then there’s Ryan’s ex: Gwen and Ryan’s parents and his brother Mark.. All great characters though I did not find myself as emotionally invested with them as I did with the characters from the 1st book. Of the new bunch I really liked Lacy and maybe Logan. Chris, I was a little iffy about. Where Gwen was concerned, she didn’t really make an impact at all. She wasn’t mean enough to be a mean girl and wasn’t nice, so I have no idea how to categorize her. Of the entire lot, she was the only character who seemed half-baked to me. But I’m just nit picking here. I also liked Scott quite a bit. It seemed like he was really making an effort to start afresh with Beth and also make up for what happened in the past. As far as the villain goes, this time it’s Trent. The same loser we met in the previous book. Yes, he’s still around and he’s just as despicable as he was before.

Another unrelated and irrelevant piece of opinion, there were parts in the book that seemed very similar to Touched by Corrine Jackson. Now, I’m not suggesting anything by saying that (really, I’m not) but the basic gist is a little similar. Except that that book is also a paranormal romance and this one has NO paranormal elements in it. And I loved both books. That’s it for my unrelated and irrelevant opinion. One of the best books of this year. This is the kind of book you could read again and still enjoy as much as you did, the first time around. And if you liked Pushing The Limits, you’ll love Dare You To, promise! 😀

Side note: I can’t wait for Isaiah’s book to come out. I read on Goodreads that it releases in November, thank god that it releases this year and not next year.

The Sweetest Dark (The Sweetest Dark #1) by Shana Abe Review

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This book was a very pleasant surprise. I have to admit, the main reason why I read this was because I read the short review posted by Amber Argyle and that made me very curious. So I did read this and I loved the book.

Its set in the early 20th century during the 1st World War and it follows the story of Eleanor Jones or Lora as she is more commonly called, an orphan and someone who knows from the very beginning that she is different from those around her. Due to the war getting too close to London, she is sent to an elite boarding school for girls, called Iverson. There she meets Jesse and Armand. They’re as different as sugar and salt and yet both play an important role in Eleanor learning more about herself and what she is.

The characters are so richly formed that it almost seems like I’ve known them longer than just through the course of the book. I love that Lora is brave and has spirit. At the new school, she is clearly out of her depth and yet she doesn’t let the other girls bully her, while she is intimidated by those around her, she doesn’t let that cow her down. Her journey to self-discovery is also very well crafted. A little more folklore about the Dragons would have been nice. But there’s always book 2 so maybe we can hope.

Jesse was so likeable, almost to the extent that I was wondering that there had to be something wrong with him, that he’d probably betray Lora at the end or something. But it was such a pleasant change from the usual when I learnt that that was not the case. He was just that, a very nice and sweet guy. He’s the only other person at this school that Lora can relate to. He’s like her and doesn’t treat her with scorn. The only thing that I found a little strange was his name, for some reason it didn’t seem to sit well with the period this book was based in. But that’s not even important.

Then there’s Armand, the darkness to Jesse’s light. He is an aristocrat and at the surface, he seems to be the typical spoilt brat, who looks down his nose at those less fortunate than him. But despite that first impression, there was something nice about him. His character drew me in even before I realised what was happening and I found that I quite liked him. Also his verbal tussles with Lora were fun to read. He was drawn to her because she did not pander to his ego or beat around the bush with him, she spoke to him plainly which I think he found very refreshing.

I generally HATE love triangles (for some reason I always end up liking the guy the girl will NOT land up with eventually, case in point Orion from Starcrossed by Josephine Angellini, Orion is the better guy but no, we’ll get Helen and Lucas in the end, but this a rant for another review/post) but for once that was not the case. Here I liked both guys equally and would not have minded one way or another who Lora fell in love with. This book doesn’t even have a love triangle, not really. But I’ll leave you to discover what I mean when you read the book.

As for the other characters, it was pretty thin on that front. The only people that we read about whose characters were slightly better developed than the rest were the Duke, Mrs. Westfield, Sophia and Chloe. In the beginning, even though Sophia was mean to Eleanor, as the book progressed, I also started liking her a bit. Too bad I can’t say the same for Chloe, there has to at least one person whose character is annoying and dislikeable on a colossal level, in this book, it was Chloe.

I like the writing style so much I might actually read some of the other stuff written by Ms. Abé.  In the meantime, can’t wait for the sequel!

P.S. – I think the cover is very beautiful.. Fell in love with it..