Monday, May 21, 2012

Die For Me Review


Title: Die For Me
Die for Me (Revenants, #1)
(Beautiful Cover! One of my favorites!)

Author: Amy Plum

Release Date: May 10th 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.”
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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.
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 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.

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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.
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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)
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:
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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



 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!

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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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