Review | Dark & Twisted Cinderelly

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Kindle Price: Free!

Synopsis:

“And you thought the stepsisters were wicked….

I’m not who they think I am. A docile girl who meekly obeys her stepmother and stepsisters. Some kind of sick angel who cheerfully bears their mistreatment. That’s what I WANT them to think. Because then they won’t suspect what I’m really up to.

The ball, the prince – it’s all part of my plan to come out on top. Stepmother and her demented daughters will pay for every floor I have scoured, every sneer I have borne. They don’t know about the white magic, how I use it to enhance myself. They can’t see that my heart is black as midnight, rotten as a poisoned apple.

They’re about to find out.”

My Review:

This book was…wow. It didn’t guess the ending at all and it was a crazy journey.

Cinderella? Gracious heavens above. She was perfect. Her personality, her wit, her actions, her thoughts, everything. Anita Valle wrote her incredibly well and I honestly have no complaints about her. The Stepmother and Stepsisters are excellent as well. They are realistic and full of personality.

Review | Where the Wild Things Are

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Kindle Price: $2.99

Synopsis:

“My name is Dahlia but I’m called a Plaguer, a person who survived the Bloody Death. When the virus first hit the world, it ravaged the human race. I thought I was lucky to survive it but survival comes at a cost. Ever since the sickness, I see things and I’m hunted for these visions.

Some seek me out because they want to keep their secrets safe. They don’t want the world to know the truth of what they are. Others, like Dax, want my knowledge. Dax has secrets of his own but as long as he helps me evade the Dark Walkers, he can keep them.

This book is for all the Plaguers, the truth sayers branded and marked as liars, often hunted and sometimes forgotten. This book is for the girl who was right.”

My Review:

This book….was nothing short of wild. It was crafted beautifully and I have to give Donna Augustine all due respect for having crafted it.

The plot was unbelievable. I guessed nothing correctly and that is always delicious. Every piece of dialogue, every word of description, every character held purpose. Nothing was wasted on mindless drivel that I didn’t care about. There was a twist I never expected and didn’t see coming until I was basically reading it. On top of that, the ending was wrapped up neatly so that it wasn’t an ugly cliffhanger. Augustine gave us a bunch of questions and “Will this happen and how will it go down?” scenarios and then answered them all. Then, of course, gave us one more question to ponder and left it up to us to decide if we wanted it answered.

Review| A Bird! No, a Plane! It’s a Dragon!

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Kindle Price: $2.99

Synopsis:

“A desperate Knight. An imprisoned dragon. What will crossing fates of the two bring about?

I have slain countless monsters as a Shirai Knight. I have gained great wealth and high status over many years. But so what? If I can’t even protect the one thing I truly care about, then it’s all meaningless.
However, I will not give up. That is not an option. Not when I have one last hope of making things right.
Dragon, I don’t know if you’re ready for me, but I’m coming for you.

“Dragon’s Avatar” is the first book of the “Crossing Fates” series, an action-fantasy story set in a medieval world of magic and monsters created by the author Marc Ingram.
The POV style of writing is inspired by Japanese Light Novels and Visual Novels, so it may seem unique, but western audiences should be able to enjoy themselves as well. This book is for anyone who likes well depicted characters and vivid fighting scenes with tension hanging in the air. ”

My Review:

I’m almost not even sure what I’m supposed to be reviewing, but, as always, I’ll give it my best shot.

I don’t know what or where the plot was? The book just seemed to continue on and on without a real “end result”. There was an end result, but you don’t know what the end result is until you almost finish the book. If I’m not making any sense, it’s kind of like this: In dystopian books, the end result is often a successful uprising and the government is taken down. In sci-fi war books, there’s a war and the good guys win. Even in TV shows and comic books, the Joker is wreaking havoc and we already know that Batman is going to take him down and win. We already know the end result of the plot, it’s getting to the end result that makes the plot so interesting.

Review | Defy the Stars: Lust ≠ Love

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Kindle Price: $0.99

Synopsis:

“I’d always wanted to leave small town Illinois, I just didn’t know I’d leave it for the stars. I needed to get into Columbia College. I’d do anything to get in. With no other choice, I had my dad help me get an internship at Circe Operations Center. Only it’s not an ordinary operations center. Getting attacked on my first day on the job wasn’t exactly stellar, but staring into the eyes of the dark eyed boy who saved me, made me re-think every single thought I’d ever had. But when things like war come up, I don’t know how far I’m willing to defy everything I’ve ever known for a future that is anything but normal.”

My Review:

Do you know why I finished this book? I can tell you, it’s alright. I finished this book for the sole purpose of being able to review it.

If you’re looking for:

• Action/Adventure
• Great Romance
• Realistic Characters
• Intelligent Adults
• Interesting Sci-Fi

Review | Spooky Love

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Kindle Price: $0.99

Synopsis:

“After Margot Green helps move her older sister into the University of Miami dorms, she just wants to go home to New Jersey where she can wallow in her loneliness. Unfortunately for Margot, her parents decide to extend their trip to the Florida Keys where they sign up for a kooky tour of historic Key West. Margot is horrified to have to traipse around hotter-than-Hades Old Town with her embarrassing parents until she meets Sam, an enigmatic local, who convinces her to embark on a spooky adventure that will inevitably lead to discovery and heartache.

ONE NIGHT IS ALL YOU NEED is a 5,000-word YA short story that will appeal to both romance and mystery fans. ”

My Review:

This is a short story so my review is going to be pretty short too. This book was actually really weird. I knew it was a short story, but I didn’t expect it to end as abruptly as it did. I’m still not really sure what I read.

There wasn’t really anything that “spoopy” (spooky) and I was able to see the “plot twist” a mile away. There wasn’t really that much heartache, romance, or mystery either.

Review | Guitar Kisses

 

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Kindle Price: $2.99

Synopsis:

“Shy, quiet Kirsten Nicholson’s life on the sprawling family ranch in Oklahoma has been one of serene predictability. In fact, her rancher father, Carter, detests change. But changes galore explode when seventeen-year-old Enrique Delaire arrives on the scene. Wearing his “Bronc Busting’s a Kicker” ballcap, his Nikes, and his surfer shirt, Enrique is ready to ride. And ride he does, not only into the hearts of this family, but into the hearts of this entire rural community. Enrique is the foster son of Kirsten’s aunt and uncle from Albuquerque. They sent Enrique to help out on the ranch while Kirsten’s fiance, Dan, is away at farrier school in Colorado. Kirsten has always been content to stay on the sidelines watching life go by, quietly writing her songs and playing her guitar alone in her room. Now all she hears is Enrique Delaire saying: “You won’t know if you don’t try.” In the wake of Enrique’s encouragement, she finds herself stepping into the limelight in ways she never dreamed. Suddenly doors open to Kirsten and difficult decisions must be made. Will she make the right decisions? Or slip back into her old life of sameness?”

My Review:

I’m familiar with Norma Jean’s writing, having read Flower in the Hills earlier. So I definitely was expecting to enjoy Lingering Dreams and I’m glad I did.

I loved the characters, but Kirsten’s mom was one of my favorites. She was hilarious and a quiet and fierce force. Here’s one of the scenes I loved the most:

“So I heard. I heard you been raising quite a stink in Clemetsville. I Been getting phone calls all evening.”

Kirsten glanced over at her mother who gently lifted two fingers, telling Kirsten there’d only been two calls.

Review | Segregated Proms & Fake Love

Kindle Price: $10.00

Official Rating: 1/5

Synopsis:

“‘It’s not like I never thought about being mixed race. I guess it was just that, in Brooklyn, everyone was competing to be unique or surprising. By comparison, I was boring, seriously. Really boring.’

Culture shock knocks city girl Agnes “Nes” Murphy-Pujols off-kilter when she’s transplanted mid–senior year from Brooklyn to a small Southern town after her mother’s relationship with a coworker self-destructs. On top of the move, Nes is nursing a broken heart and severe homesickness, so her plan is simple: keep her head down, graduate and get out. Too bad that flies out the window on day one, when she opens her smart mouth and pits herself against the school’s reigning belle and the principal.

Her rebellious streak attracts the attention of local golden boy Doyle Rahn, who teaches Nes the ropes at Ebenezer. As her friendship with Doyle sizzles into something more, Nes discovers the town she’s learning to like has an insidious undercurrent of racism. The color of her skin was never something she thought about in Brooklyn, but after a frightening traffic stop on an isolated road, Nes starts to see signs everywhere – including at her own high school where, she learns, they hold proms. Two of them. One black, one white.

Nes and Doyle band together with a ragtag team of classmates to plan an alternate prom. But when a lit cross is left burning in Nes’s yard, the alterna-prommers realize that bucking tradition comes at a price. Maybe, though, that makes taking a stand more important than anything.”

My Review:

I don’t think you all even know how difficult it was to write this review. There was just so much I wanted to rant about that I didn’t know where to start, what to include, what to leave out (for the sake of length), and gosh, this was just difficult.

If this book was two and a half pages, it would still be too long for all of the irrelevant and unnecessary discourse that Reinhardt put in Rebel Like Us. This is going to be a doozy everyone, protect your books, I’m about to rip some pages.

Review |Missouri Misery

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Kindle Price: Free!

Synopsis:

“Latina Harmen knew she was going to hate Missouri. “There’s nothing in Missouri!”
she had told her father when he announced they were to spend the summer there.

And now she knew she had been one hundred and ten percent right. Latina had taken for granted that she would be spending another happy summer
vacation with her friends at Periwinkle Cove on the East Coast.

After all, her family
had spent summers there as long as she could remember.  Now, in the summer before her senior year, she would be stuck in a hick town with
no one around but her boring parents and bratty younger brother.

How could she have guessed the beauty that lay waiting for her in those brooding
hills? How was she to know she would meet fascinating people, and that she would
learn more about herself than she’d ever known?

How was she to know she would meet a special someone whose friendship and
support would change her life forever?”

My Review:

****

I’d like to just publicly extend my utmost gratitude to Ms. Norma for her incredible patience and understanding as she waited for my review(s)! She was always very kind throughout our conversations and even encouraging, even though she waited quite some time for these reviews. Thank you again, Ms. Norma. (:

****

Flower in the Hills doesn’t have a dystopian government or an overwhelming need for rebellion. There are no heroines feeling heat in their stomachs when the male love interest turns their smoldering gaze onto them. This book is refreshingly simple and was entirely a 5/5 star book.

When I say this book was two steps short of a Godsend I mean it. Lutz had sent me an email asking if I could review Flower in the Hills while I was finishing up a book that was the book equivalent of quicksand.

Review | When Robots and Humans Collide

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Kindle Price: Unavailable*

Synopsis:

“Fifteen-year-old Akaela doesn’t know what fear is. She was built this way. But in a world where survival is no longer of the fittest, being fearless can become a deadly curse.

Proud and steeped in tradition, Akaela’s people, the Mayake, are dying. While they carry implanted nanobots and sophisticated chips to compensate for their crippled and diseased bodies, these enhancements come at a price. Aging technology and a lack of resources make the Mayakes vulnerable to their enemies and on the brink of extinction. As the elders cling blindly to the past, the only hope Akaela and her 16-year-old brother Athel have to save their own people is to challenge the system or die trying.”

My Review:

You know, this wasn’t so bad. Although, it doesn’t really end.

The synopsis drew me in after a friend suggested the book to me and I liked the cover too. It’s fascinating to think of people who are also partly cyborgs, with upgrades and nanobots for an immune system and so on.

I won’t say I’m disappointed by the book, because that isn’t true. Even so, I’m not quite thrilled.

The characters will realistic based on the world that the book is set in. I think there were at least two plot pushing characters but they didn’t really annoy me. I can’t say I really cared about the characters though. I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t form a solid reader-character relationship.

The plot was pretty good, but the ending frustrated me. It wasn’t then normal young adult ending that you would expect, but instead a “the ending is the beginning” kind of thing. There were some plot twists that I definitely wasn’t expecting, so those were great surprises. Giorgi writing is good and I don’t have any complaints.

Would I Recommend Akaela? I don’t NOT recommend it. I don’t have any real issues with it, I think this just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Official Rating: 3/5

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

*This book is currently unavailable in stores.

Review| Tears, Music, & Harmony

 

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Kindle Price: $2.99

Synopsis:

“Eleanor is a singer. Her songs keep nature in balance, but when they are stolen from her, a grey mist descends and her world fails to thrive. This timid orphan is thrust into a course of action she never asked for, nor envisioned. Set against a backdrop of abandonment, loss and betrayal, she must find her way through strange and dangerous landscapes in her desperate search for the Perfect Tear, a dark crystal which holds the future of her world. But, Eleanor is no savior. She is a simple girl with strong instincts and she must learn to trust them. Just like the notes of song must connect to create a melody, Eleanor must discover the connections needed to create the harmony required to truly save her world.”

My Review:

Ugh. Honestly.

Books like these just don’t help when you’re still reeling from some other book breaking your heart.

Lansberg has poured hand sanitizer in my paper cut and I can’t say I like that very much.

And yet, I ate it up, didn’t I?

(Not the hand sanitizer, the book)

Okay, truly? I was rooting for the villain when I started reading this. I didn’t know they were the villain, but I just wanted them to succeed, it seemed like it was the right thing, the cause, you know? So imagine my surprise when they become the villain and at one point, in my notes I said,

I don’t want Eleanor hurt! But I want [them] to win!!!