Die For Me Review

Title: Die For Me

(Beautiful Cover! One of my favorites!)

Author: Amy Plum

Release Date: May 10^th 2011

Pages: 341 pages (Hardback)

Description from Goodreads:

In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.

When Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life--and memories--behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent.

Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate's guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he's a revenant--an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.

Review:

This was so blah.

Die for Me started off on a good foot. The cover was beautiful, the setting was in Paris (how cool is that), and it had a unique supernatural aspect to it. It was great for all of about 12 pages. It only took twelve pages for the love interest to be introduced and for my mind to explode. It only took about 20 pages for main protagonist to be completely smitten. Plum tried to give Kate a mind of her own by making her one of those rare girls who doesn’t go gaga over a guy because he’s hot and lets her ignore is asinine behavior, but that doesn’t last long. Very shortly after they meet it becomes one of the worst insta love books I have read since Twilight. Kate of course falls head over heels for Vincent and I have no idea why, he is so unremarkable it’s comical.

What really got me was that other than the main characters, the rest of the people in the book seemed to just serve as plot devices. Her parents were dead and her grandparents basically let her do as she pleased. Thank god the school setting was not used in this book; that would have pushed it over the edge, but if she was going to be given so much free reign Plum should have just made her an adult. Kate’s sister was used in the book as well. She was shown often, but overall she never grew as a character and was just used so that she could be used as a damsel in distress against Kate by the antagonist at the end. It was just sad.

The insta love in this book was sickening. At one point when Kate and her sister were out walking they saw Vincent and his friend trying to save a person attempting suicide. They pretended they were cops and lied to her. Throw in a random sword fight (Kate thought it was gang action ha wow) and you have the weirdest situation ever. How did she react? Freaked at first, but later when forced to be with him she didn’t care. Even after he lies to her, impersonates being a cop, admits to stalking her, and calmly watches his friend die she feels “completely safe” with him. Wow.

I was cringing so much at the so called “romance” in this book. At one point Kate thinks “however bad a person he is, he cares about me.”

How stupid is that? If the guy that I had a crush on was that creepy, I would run as far away as I could and never look back.

For some reason everyone in this book is freaking insane, and it’s seen as completely normal. Everyone, not just Vincent, has the creepy Edward stalker issue. Vincent watches her every night. He admits to knowing where she lives, and what she likes to do. There is one point in the book where Kate wonders how he knows her number, and he admits to stealing her phone while she was in the bathroom and calling himself so he would have it.

 When he’s not doing it everyone else is. They all follow her around, and take turns allowing themselves to be seen. At one point Jean-Baptiste even shows up at her house to spy on her. Le Creepy. They all have this weird obsession with watching the people they save, which makes since in a way, but Plum makes it out to be like a creepy compulsion they can’t help but giving in to.

Beware everyone if someone helps you cross the street and saves you from a runaway bus they might be behind every corner watching your every move. It makes a little since why they do this but the way they stalk Kate is just creepy. And she acts like it’s no big thing.
When the action finally kicks in and we are reminded there IS actually a plot and an antagonist it’s like a big shock. It was so out of the blue it was almost as if it was an afterthought. The author was like: Romance, romance, romance, mention of supernatural beings, romance, death, romance, break up, brooding, romance, romance, sexytime, oh yeah it’s probably time for some action BAM! Bet you didn’t see that one coming.

Where was the antagonist hiding the whole book? The whole story he just shows up once (with the sister of course) is mentioned a few times, and then randomly out of the blue comes into the story and is actually kind of creepy. He just takes over the book and I was excited.
At the end of the story after everyone has been chased around by the antagonist, someone’s head gets chopped off and Kate’s sister is exposed to the fact that there are supernatural beings; everything goes back to normal like nothing ever happened. Yay, lets ignore the room full of blood and the smell of burning flesh and dance around and make out and have a party. And everyone can live happily ever after in a house full of creepy stalkerish people while Kate and Vincent make goo goo eyes at each other 24/7.

The only good thing, besides the setting was the supernatural aspect. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to find out what they really were. The idea behind the revenants was very unique and kinda creepy-cool. I applaud that, but overall Die for Me was just not for me, and I really wanted this one to be good.

Pro’s
Paris (awesome)
Cool Zombies
Pretty cover

Cons
Stalkers
Insta love
Plot
Missing adults
Basically everything

I give this book 2 stars for originality and setting, but that’s being nice.

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I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1) Review

Title: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1)

Author: Ally Carter

Release Date: March 20th 2007

Publisher: Hyperion             

Pages: 284pages (Paperback)

Description: From Goodreads:

The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is a fairly typical all-girls school, that is, if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE, the latest in chemical warfare in science; and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes computer class. So in truth, Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses, but its really a school for spies. Cammie Morgan is a second generation Gallagher Girl, and by her sophomore year she's already fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways (three of which involve a piece of uncooked spaghetti.) But the one thing the Gallagher Academy hasn't prepared her for is what to do when she falls for an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl. Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, and track him through a mall without his ever being the wiser, but can she have a regular relationship with a regular boy who can never know the truth about her? Cammie may be an elite spy in training, but in her sophomore year, shes beginning her most dangerous mission; she's falling in love.

Review:

Love Love Loved this.

Cammie Morgan is your average girl except for one fact; she goes to an all exclusive boarding school for spies in training. I loved this book. If you want a light fluffy read this is your book. Beware there is a lot of mooning over boys (that’s basically what this whole book is about) but it’s done in a cute way and by the time it gets annoying action begins. Cammie and her friends have to learn how to break out of their little protective bubble Gallagher Academy has given them and experience the real world. This year there is a new teacher (who I loved by the way) that is making school much harder. He is cute, a well known spy, and has hilarious missions for the girls to go on. There are a lot of silly and cute missions in this book that by the time the action kicks in you're like "Woah what just happened?"

The writing itself was at times great and others fairly weak but the majority of the time it had me bursting out laughing. I love Ally Carter’s Uncommon Criminals series, and this one while not as mature and thought out was just as good. I loved the way the results of spying on Josh (the main love interest) were given to you in spy reports. Amount of bubble gum chewed, what flavor, what brand of toilet paper he uses etc. It was so cute and fluffy that I couldn’t pass it up.

This basically sums up the plot:

So basically, if you can get around the fact that the whole plot is surrounded around the idea that Cammie has to pretend to be someone else to date Josh, and the hilarity that ensues, I think you would enjoy reading this. Give it a try. I for one am giving it four out of five stars for all of the times that I giggled and shrieked like a little girl.

This was just a quick little review for a quick and cute little book. To check out more follow my reviews and then check me out on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6118682-princess-kayla

Harbinger Review

Harbinger

 

Title: Harbinger

Author: Sara Wilson Etienne

Release Date: February 2nd 2012

Pages: 309 pages (Hardback)

Description from Goodreads:

Girl, Interrupted meets Beautiful Creatures in this fast-paced thriller

When sixteen-year-old Faye arrives at Holbrook Academy, she doesn't expect to find herself exactly where she needs to be. After years of strange waking visions and nightmares, her only comfort the bones of dead animals, Faye is afraid she's going crazy. Fast.

But her first night at Holbrook, she feels strangely connected to the school and the island it sits on, like she's come home. She's even made her first real friends, but odd things keep happening to them. Every morning they wake on the floors of their dorm rooms with their hands stained red.

Faye knows she's the reason, but what does it all mean? The handsome Kel tries to help her unravel the mystery, but Faye is certain she can't trust him; in fact, he may be trying to kill her - and the rest of the world too.

Rich, compelling writing will keep the pages turning in this riveting and tautly told psychological thriller

 

Review:

Ok so it took me a bit of time to sort through my thoughts on this book and I have finally decided... I think.  Anyway, ignoring my inner turmoiI,  had a hard time deciding whether I loved or loathed this book. I think I settled on loved because this book was just filled with awesomeness. So I came into this thinking it was another one of those camp for people with powers where a girl will fall in love with some guy and she will be different from all other girls and he will be different from all other guys and they will have drama blah blah blah and she will make all kinds of friends blah blah type of books. I was half right, all of the above happens but in a completely rare and exciting way. So yes Faye falls in love with some guy right away, yes she is made of awesome and makes friends semi-quickly and the world focuses on her (literally) but she isn’t like a witch and the people at the camp are actually there for making trouble.

 I was at the edge of my seat trying to find out why Faye and her fellow campers were waking up in blood symbols and why it was only happening to them. I had all kinds of theories but none were even near close to the truth. I mean what the heck is a Harbinger? I had never heard of it, and after reading this I LOVE the idea. I love that we finally have some Native American lore in a YA book. A lot of the book lures you into an easy repetitive lull and then snaps you at the end with a WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON realization.

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I don’t want to give too much away but I think that this was a really clever and creepy book and other than the so-so romance and predictable back-story I loved this book.  I would recommend reading this one in a secluded room at night preferably during a storm. Seriously I was reading it late one night and when my dad came home from work I hid under my bed. And I’m almost 20. I was a little freaked; I mean who knows he could have been a Murdering old man!

But on a slightly more serious note…

 It was nowhere near perfect, far from it, but it was definitely a nice change from the traditional story.

The things that really threw off my ability to rate this was the slow pace, repetitive style of days at camp, and an underdeveloped of the dystopian? society going on outside of the camp. I couldn’t really tell exactly what was happening but I knew it wasn’t present time and there was some kind of big war going on. While this book was really weird and out there and a bit on the short/slow side it was definitely interesting and surprising so give it a try! :P

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Supernaturally

Title: Supernaturally
Author: Kiersten White
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: July 26th 2011
Pages: 336 pages (Hardback)




Review:
Let me start off by saying I loved the first book in this series, Paranormalcy. It was laced with Evie’s awesome snarky attitude, and awesome action scenes. This book however fell a little short for me. This one begins with a bit of a slow start, basically explaining Evie’s boredom in the way her life has been without International Paranormal Containment Agency and her depression from being without Lend. It didn’t take long for me to ask myself “Where's the magic and spark of the first book?” The majority of Supernaturally was centered around Evie’s love life and pining over Lend. It was a bit overdramatic and angsty for me. However, after about 200 pages in the action picks up and the show gets on the road again.

The positive: I really loved the new character Jack. He was bouncy and happy like a little kid, and kind of reminded me of Dolby the house elf. He popped in and out of existence and caused a lot of mayhem.
Once the action picked up it got really good. We learn a little about Evie’s past, and actually get to go into the Fairy Realm. Also, there were a lot of twists and turns towards the end that I was not prepared for.

And don’t forget Reth. Oh Reth how I love thee. Reth is really the star of the show in this book. He just seemed to pop up at random intervals to shake things up and glare at Evie, but in the cool creepy way not the omg Edward way. He was extremely creepy in this book, more so than normal, and I loved him. Although Evie has her awesome snarky attitude, he has that cool creepiness thing working for him and it played out really well here. I just kept imagining him as the Black Butler, which just made him even cooler.



The negative: Evie spent a good deal of the book whining and angsting, which got old real quick. She threw her friends to the curb, and was instantly forgiven at the end (that really bugged me). Also, where was lend most of the book? I began to forget what he looked like and if I liked him because I never saw his character. And when I did I had to read about how hot he was, and how bad it is that Evie had to keep lying to him. Evie refused to tell Lend about his being immortal. She figured it wouldn’t really matter and she could hold it off. How could you expect to hold information like that from someone you are supposedly dating without expecting the fallout?

Overall I had a hard time getting into Supernaturally, but I eventually allowed myself to enjoy it a bit. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t as good as the first. If you are looking for a tide me over in this series until the next you will enjoy this, but if you were hoping for it to be just like Paranormalcy I’m afraid you will be disappointed, at least I was. I will give this 3.5 stars and hope that it picks back up in the next installment.

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Nostalgia Review- The Face on the Milk Carton

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney


Title: The Face on the Milk Carton
Author: Cynthia Hand
Publisher: HarperCollins/HarperTeen
Release Date: April 13th 1996
Pages: 192 pages (Paperback)




















This is a nostalgia book. I read it a while back and am now reviewing it.

This was one of my favorite books when I was in Junior High. Janie Johnson is sitting in the cafeteria at school one day when she decides to drink milk (a rarity for her because she is allergic) and realizes her face is on the cover saying that she is missing. This launches into an epic adventure of finding out who she truly is and what happened all those years ago. Janie must realize that her life isn't at all what she thought it was and come to terms with who she really is. I loved this story,...moreThis was one of my favorite books when I was in Junior High. Janie Johnson is sitting in the cafeteria at school one day when she decides to drink milk (a rarity for her because she is allergic) and realizes her face is on the cover saying that she is missing. This launches into an epic adventure of finding out who she truly is and what happened all those years ago. Janie must realize that her life isn't at all what she thought it was and come to terms with who she really is. I loved this story, it was a dramatic mystery and coming of age story. I recommend reading this one and continuing on to the sequels.

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: February 1st 2011
Pages: 441 pages (Hardback)

Review:

I really don’t understand the hype.

This was just your typical YA dystopian novel: girl likes boy at first glance and of course the guy likes the girl too, and they fall in love despite the world around them being against it. Ick. This was just too slow and boring for me. The idea behind love being a disease that the government needs to “cure” you for is just so bizarre. I read this thinking it could be either awesome and unique or just a big boring mess. About 100 pages in I realized it was the latter. It was just extremely slow and dragged on forever; it was like trudging through a big muddy hole. You would think that with how slow it was there would be some kind of slow but sweet development in their romance, but of course there wasn’t. I just couldn’t understand the attraction.

I had a hard time reading this one, I found myself taking frequent breaks and getting frustrated at the pace and lack of character development. It was predictable and did I mention boring? The first half of the book built you up on understanding Lena. I get that she’s afraid to fall in love because of what happened to her mom, but the whole idea of having an operation to remove love is just a bit too farfetched for me. Lena was boring and I had a hard time connecting to her. I felt like most of the characters in this book were never really developed and were mostly just flat. I really like Oliver’s writing style but the pacing was awful, and I never really understood the love interest. I got tired of the constant make-out and lovey dovey scenes with them and just wanted to skip the romance and go back to some butt kicking action. Lena and Alex spend most of the book making out, and lying to their families. I just couldn’t really see the interest in Alex. The characters were just a bit to angsty and flat for me.

Despite all of the negative, there were a few good aspects to the book as well. Lauren Oliver is a master of description. I really loved the openers at the beginning of each chapter. Oliver quotes books, songs, and essays that she made up to give you an understanding of the way the people in her world thought. I felt like that really added to the story and loved that she did that.

Overall I didn’t hate this book but I didn’t like it either. It just didn’t hit it for me. If you like your dystopia with a whole lot of romance and only a teeny bit of action then this is the book for you. It just wasn’t really my cup of tea. I rate this book 1 star!

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Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Title: Unearthly
Author: Cynthia Hand
Publisher: HarperCollins/HarperTeen
Release Date: January 4, 2011
Pages: 435 pages (Hardback)

Review:

All I can say is wow!

This was a beautiful surprise; I could not put it down. A friend of mine lent it to me for the weekend and told me to read it. I have to say that when it comes to angel books, I am a bit weary. I have had bad luck with angel books and was not sure I could handle another one. After much nagging, my friend finally convinced me to read it, and my God, am I glad she did.

The story starts of at a very slow pace with Clara explaining the whole angel thing, thankfully without info dumping, and allowing the readers to get to know her and her family. The story is written in present tense, which threw me off a bit because I prefer past, but I adjusted after a few chapters and really grew to like Clara’s “voice.” Although it was a fairly slow book, I felt that Cynthia Hand did such an amazing job with her descriptions and characterization. I was able to really connect with Clara and her family on a personal level. Lately, most heroines are whiny and can’t take care of themselves, but they are also perfect and receive the attention of every boy around them, Clara was quite the opposite. She was strong and independent, and life sucked a lot of the time for her (thus the orange hair.) She was believable and I really liked her character.

The romance in this novel was extremely complicated and interesting. I had a feeling there would be a love triangle, but I soon realized it was much bigger than teen indecisiveness and all around stupidity that usually comes from teen novels with love triangles and supernatural beings. The friendships and romances were highly believable and had me wanting to meet a few of these characters in real life. I also really liked Clara’s friends. They were not just your run-of-the-mill vanilla characters used as plot devices; they were interesting and had purpose. I was surprised at how the romance was handled. In most books the girl protagonist meets a hot guy whom she is destined to be with, then they fall in love for no reason, and some insanely awesome other guy gets screwed. This book was the opposite. She never really leads anyone on, and I was rooting for Tucker the whole time.

THANK YOU CYNTHIA HAND!



Wendy was sweet and reminded me a lot of my friends. She actually cared about the well being of her best friend, and wasn’t annoying or whiny. Angela was my favorite. People seemed to fear but respect her at the same time. As far as Tucker and Christian, I am torn. I loved Tucker’s whole country boy look, and sarcastic attitude towards Clara. You want to hate him at the beginning, but then I found myself just begging for scenes with him to come up. As far a Christian goes, I feel like I barely know him. I was appreciative that although she felt herself instantly attracted to him (bleh), she had good reason. The characters in this book were awesome, and I felt like I really knew them by the book’s finish.

Unearthly is one of those rare books that has a beautiful cover, angsty blurb, and major hype but is still surprisingly amazing. I was shocked, and that doesn’t happen very often to me anymore. I loved this book and definitely plan on getting my own copy and reading the rest of the series! I give this book 4 stars!

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