Reading Diary | January 2016

These will be an update of all the books that I read on January of 2016, with links to reviews already posted on the blog or a small impression on the story.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Published on July 1, 2012 by Random House Books for Young Children 

If you can read in Portuguese I suggest you read my full review here. If you don't, which is more possible, then I will try to convey the same feelings, in less words.

I bought Seraphina around 2013 but only got around to reading it this year, mostly because I was intimidated by it - its a fantasy novel and everyone seems to love it, what if I didn't loved it. Well, I didn't loved it but I enjoyed it quite a lot. I was surprised by the plot, which relies much more revile on the mystery. than the fantasy aspects, coming closer to a detective novel and I liked that, it was fun to keep reading and trying to figure out where every piece of the puzzle came together. The fantasy aspects where pretty low key, since the dragons in here are contained in their human forms.

We do have a lot of politics, but it wasn't confusing as I was expecting to be, it was closer to European  feudalism than nowadays politics. And of course the characters completed the story really well, Seraphina was a strong and intelligent main character and I loved being in her head, her relationship with her uncle was amazing and touched my heart so many times <3 One thing that I didn't enjoyed was the romance, it was completely devoid of chemistry for me and the circumstances turn it kind of cheating, like emotional cheating and I don't see it ending well.

Overall it was a good read and I definitely recommend to fans of fantasy and mystery too.

Lady Renegades by Rachel Hawkins
Series: Rebel Belle #3
Published on April 5, 2016 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
[This book was given to me by the Publisher. This in no way affected my opinion.]

Oh boy, we reached the ending of this series and unfortunately I have to say I'm quite disappointed with it, the first book was so funny and bantery but the other two never lived up to it. This one was better than the second one but it just felt so anti-climatic and unnecessary, this series should probably just have been a one book kind of thing, maybe a longer one book.

This time around we have much less of the ship together, so less ship feels, it's understandable with the end of book 2 but also disappointing. The adventure was okay and the road trip gave room to a great female squad, we surpassed the girl hate and got a pretty weird friendship which is always a win. With that we also got less romance drama in general, not only from the ship, which is also an improvement to book 2.

Overall I don't know to who recommend this series, maybe just read the first book and stop there, because that one is pretty good.

First & Then by Emma Mills
Published on October 13, 2015 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

If you like contemporary fluffy books you need this one in your life. I really liked this one, it has a super cute romance, that I wish got together before the very last page because I wanted more of the swoons and I think that the change from friendship to romance was a bit quickly and in the veins of "I always wanted you but couldn't see before", so it wasn't 100% perfect but it was like 99% perfect.

The set of characters and the relationship between then is amazing, seriously if you like books that bring on the family feelings this one will be your heaven. So yeah, basically if you like good books, that are more on the light side this one should be your next read. And if you think it isn't, then I urge you to give it a shot anyway.

Scan by Sarah Fine, Walter Jury
Series: Scan #1
Published on May 1, 2014 by Putnam Children's

I was trying to recall what Scan's plot was and I couldn't for the life on me remember it, so that is a bad point, this wasn't a very memorable story.

What I do recall is that there was a mystery surrounding our main character and its father, that in some way relates to the sci-fi aspects of the story, this made the book really fast paced and it goes along the lines of an adventure movie. There was a romance, which wasn't really my favorite part since it was pretty devoid of chemistry and the character were really one dimensional, so there wasn't any feelings or connection.

I would recommend this one to readers looking for a fast paced adventure, but that is basically it.

I also read two short stories of The Raven Cycle series, A Minor Raven Boys Holiday Drabble and 300 Fox Way Holiday Piece, both were posted by Stiefvater on tumblr and were very short and sweet, great to keep the saudade of these characters at bay. The two other books that I read I actually wrote reviews too (yes, I'm shocked too): Symptoms of Being Human and Unhooked.

Onyx - Jennifer L. Armentrout

Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: Lux #2
Published on August 14, 2012 by Entangled Teen

Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems.

Something worse than the Arum has come to town…

The Department of Defense are here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who’s got a secret of his own. He knows what’s happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.

But then everything changes…

I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies...

When I read Obsidian I was really happy because it was such a fun and brain candy kind of read, so I few days after finishing it I jumped right into Onyx but that didn't go so well, it took me almost a year (YES, A YEAR) to finish this one, most of it was because this drama was so filled with unnecessary drama that each time I would pick up to try to read I would be trow out of the story.

So, we start with Katy and Daemon trying to figure out what the hell happened with her at the end of last book and what are the consequences for her body. One of those consequences seems to be a connection between her and Daemon and god, this part annoyed me, they still have their great chemistry and Daemon is ready to admit that he wants to be with Katy BUT she keeps thinking that he only wants that because of their weird alien connection, even thought they already had some pretty hot make out scenes before that like seriously girl. So yeah, a lot of the fun romantic scenes that we get from Katy and Daemon are gone in this installment.

Another reason for the romance between them to go cold is a freaking love triangle, this Blake guy comes out of nowhere and suddenly is super interested in Katy, of course she thinks it's a great idea to start something with him even thought she is clearly in love with Daemon.This made Daemon act like a total stalker a few too many times, for a lot of their interactions being just fighting over Blake and to have a lot of useless scenes between Katy and Blake that I think are supposed to be romantic, but I mean, we all know how this is gonna play out in the end so why bother with this.

Though I did liked the part of Blake on the story on the last half on the story, when Katy grows up and is ready to admit that she doesn't have feelings for him because of Daemon, and they only stay... Friends, let's call them that for the time being. He was definitely a creeper and there was so many hints for Katy to RUN AWAY FROM THIS FREAKING GUY, but for the sake of the plot we have to deal with him and boy, things get really interesting with some twists towards the end.

Another drama that bothered me is between Katy and Dee, for some reason Katy thinks it's best for her to stop talking with Dee to protect her and of course she doesn't tell her why she stops altogether talking and hanging out with her, so drama ensues. I really didn't see the reasoning for this, I mean Dee lives in the same house as Daemon and Katy talks with him everyday, he goes to her house, they are seem together in public places, so Dee is already a target because everyone knows she is Daemon's sister, which will make Daemon and Katy care about her, friendship or not, and not talking with her, keeping her out of the loop of what is happening can only result in shit happening.

The plot, as in the first book, isn't very clear right from the start and it only starts taking shape towards the middle/end of the story, I have to say that from them on the story is much better and it gets to the fun way that I remembered of this series but it took so many pages, patience and time to get there that I really don't know how I managed to finish reading this one.

Overall I was pretty disappointed with this installment on the series, I continued reading because of that ending which was "WHOA" but I seriously hope the other books have a more clear plot and much less drama. Only recommended to fans of the first book, because honestly if you're not already, at least a bit, invested in this story it will probably be hard to keep going.

Obsidian - Jennifer L. Armentrout

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: Lux #1
Published on May 8, 2012 by Entangled Teen

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don't kill him first, that is.

When it was first released, back in 2012 this one got all the rave reviews about how it was new take in Twilight, but done better. Well, at that time I probably didn't even knew what a book blog was so it took me quite a few years to catch up and last year I finally read this, I have to say that it was overall enjoyable despite the problems that I had with it although I still think it would have worked so much better if I had discovered this one in 2012.

The Twilight reference is pretty on point, at least for the first half or so of this story we have a lot of parallels with it - Katy is the new girl in school, that is drawn by this group of people that is super hot and stays apart from the rest of the school, Dee is basically Alice and Daemon is Edward being all emo and weird, giving all these signs that Katy should stay away from them, there is also a scene were Katy is close to finding out they are aliens that is practically exactly the car scene of Twilight, were Edward saves Bella.

But what sets this book apart, and makes it better, is Katy's voice, the book is narrated in first person from her POV and it was refreshing to have a voice so full of sarcasm and funny remarks in a paranormal romance story. Katy is also a book blogger which definitely makes me relate to her even more, it was nice reading about her new books, planning on blogging things and writing/filming posts, it also creates a life for her outside of this whole paranormal stuff which is somewhat disregarded in most of these stories.

Expect from Katy, the other characters weren't really that developed and I never cared much about them. Her mother is almost always absent because of her job as a nurse, which conveniently gives Katy a lot of time without any parent supervision; Dee is a ball of energy, always happy and if I had to describe her personality in one word it would be jump-y, but she and Katy pretty much instafriendshiped (I don't think this is a thing, but I'm making it a thing), I know that she doesn't get to hang out with much people because of her secrets and overprotective brother but still, I didn't really get a sense of their friendship as something genuine.

Daemon is a bit better developed I think, he starts of as the hot neighbor, that doesn't ever much shirts and that seems to hate Katy right from his first sight of her, but as we get to know him we see that behind his faced there is a overprotective alien that just really cares about his family. The romance between him and Katy is hot, not in the meaning that there is steaming scenes but that they are always in each others throats, having fights of snarky comebacks, and their chemistry is over the roof, they both are still in a denial phase at this point of the series but we know where this is going. 

What makes this book only average really is its plot, it's pretty weak and only becomes more clear towards the end of it since a good part is devoted to discovering the aliens, what they are, why they are where, all that stuff but still it doesn't give enough story for this book, it was around 300+ pages and I was pretty bored around the middle, without a sense of where the hell this was going. There was some parts of this alien power and stuff that I didn't understood too, because the descriptions of the scenes were confusing (like that ending), so the fun of the narrative didn't save the book from it.

This isn't the a very long review because I read this book almost a year ago, so it's actually quite remarkable how much I do remember about it. I don't regret reading and am continuing with the series, mostly because I like paranormal stories and since Twilight I'm in a search to find good ones, this one has a voice that is sassy, a romance full of chemistry but the plot weighted it down. Recommended to other reads like me, that still enjoy paranormal romance and don't mind a few cliches in exchange to a fun read. 

Remembrance - Meg Cabot

Remembrance by Meg Cabot
Series: The Mediator #7
Published on February 2, 2016 by William Morrow
[This book was given to me by the Publisher, this in no way affected my opinion.]

In REMEMBRANCE, the seventh installment of the Mediator series, all Susannah Simon wants is to make a good impression at her first job since graduating from college (and becoming engaged to Dr. Jesse de Silva).

But when she stumbles across an ancient murder, old ghosts—and ex-boyfriends—aren’t all that come back to haunt her.

REMEMBRANCE will be the first ever adult installment of the Mediator, published by William Morrow, the adult division of HarperCollins, the company that brought you the YA books in the series.

Remembrance was lots of fun for one side but on other points it kind of just reminded me of the weak spots of this series. I think I'll be better doing a list about this one:

• The mystery was pretty good on this one, it wasn't easy to guess how everything would fit together at first but the more the story progressed more you could see pieces fitting together and things getting pretty real, like dangerous real as it usually does with Susannah.
• But it did took a while for the mystery to take the front seat of this story and until there it was kind of hard to stick for more than a chapter or two, since my interested kept wavering.
• Also the resolution of this mystery is pretty unbelievable, like I said above things get pretty dangerous at one point and in real life there would be an investigation and probably some digital prints of Susannah would be all over evidence so I think is very unlikely things got resolved so neatly as it was on the book.
• But if this was included on the story it probably would be like 600 pages long and yeah, I can see why it wasn't for fiction purposes. 
• Other thing in the mystery that left me unsettled was the way Susannah dealt with a girl, Becca, that was cutting herself. It's pretty obvious since scene one that this girl is passing through some hard shit, but Susannah is completely clueless on how to deal with her, she was harsh and covered it up from any figure of authority what was happening with Becca and didn't even forwarded  her to a counselor, sure she suggest the idea for Becca's father at one scene on the end but she never clarifies why she thinks Becca needs help. I was chocked and angry with this, mental health isn't a side problem that can be dealt so easily as this made it look, a teenager cutting herself is room for hospitalization or at least a serious therapy treatment - with or without ghosts.
• So yeah, Susannah really disappointed me on this book, I was expecting you know an adult but she still has the same voice, the same impulsiveness that put her on so much trouble while a teenager, she kept hiding things from Jesse and trying to deal all on her own even thought it was clearly not the best idea I just, I expected more.
• Jesse too continues to be kind of the same, he still has some 19 century costumes and ideals which obvs comes in the way between him and Susannah, I also was hoping he changed a little bit more because I'm so not into this whole male alfa thing - even thought his is pretty down played close to others on characters on literature. 
• What was up with that whole mean girls show Kelly and Debbie are still putting on, like for real, you're like 25 years-old grow up. 
• Honestly the ones that more grew where Susannah's step brothers. 
• And how cute where the triplets right.
• I could have done this book without Paul, I honestly don't know why he was here except to cause the main couple some troubles, but like seriously each page this guy was I wanted to kick his ass so badly, he DEFINITELY didn't grew one little bit since high school, actually I would say he regressed even more on his terrible sexist ways. 

Overall thinking about this one it seems to have more negative than positive feels but that isn't true, this was a fun read and I'm glad Cabot is revisiting her series, I definitely wouldn't complain if this Mediator revival would last and bring us more books about this gang but I could have done with a bit more changes from these characters. This is a book that fans of the series can't pass out.

Life and Death - Stephenie Meyer

Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer
Series: Twilight #5 
Published on October 6, 2015 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 

Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, Life and Death, by Stephenie Meyer.

Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover “flip book,” this edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as exquisite new back cover art. Readers will relish experiencing the deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful love story of Bella and Edward through fresh eyes.

Twilight has enraptured millions of readers since its first publication in 2005 and has become a modern classic, redefining genres within young adult literature and inspiring a phenomenon that has had readers yearning for more. The novel was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 USA Today bestseller, a Time magazine Best Young Adult Book of All Time, an NPR Best-Ever Teen Novel, and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. The Twilight Saga, which also includes New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella, and The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, has sold nearly 155 million copies worldwide.

I was extremely surprised when I heard about this book, I thought Twilight was over and buried we already got the series completed, a short story from a secondary character and all those movies but them, on the tenth anniversary Meyer completely surprised me with this announcement and it was a non brainier that I was going to read this. Back on 2008 I was a hard core Twilight fan, defending it from all the bad critics it got when the movies came out and reading these books over and over, they were my comfort when I was between 14-16, Edward was my dream boyfriend and this was series responsible to open the amazing world of YA for me.

So yeah, I had to read this book but it didn't really lived up to my expectations. Before I started reading it I already had see and read some bad reviews but I was expecting to love it anyway, mostly due to nostalgic feelings than by the story itself, I mean I knew I wasn't gonna be blow away by it since it was mostly the same story but still, I was hoping to relieve the attachment that I had created to this world so many years before, unfortunately this didn't happened.

My first problem with it was the fact that this is basically 99.9% of the same book, so yeah I knew it was the same story but OH MY GOD COULD YOU JUST AT LEAST TRY TO NOT CONTROL+C CONTROL+V SO MUCH???????? It was REALLY, REALLY hard to picture Beau and Edythe on my head when I could hear was the same lines from Bella and Edward, you can totally take the same bases to create a new story but you CAN'T just change the pronouns in a story and say these are new characters, because they weren't! They're the same fucking thing, on the same fucking story, passing through the same fucking situations and saying the same fucking sentences, this isn't reimagining anything. Maybe I went into this expecting to much, because I mean it's said that it was the same story but only switched genders, I read that on the letter/thing Meyer wrote at the start of the story but still in my head I was expecting a little bit more of changes, not in the story and facts itself but on the personality of those involved on it.

And I'm really pissed thinking about it you know, because if Meyer wanted to wrote something "new" on the Twilight world showing that Bella wasn't a damsel in distress as she said but a human in distress them why not write a short story them about Beau and Edythe? Or take a secondary female vampire of the series and create a romantic story for her? Or even take that female werewolf from the pack of Jacob and create a boy for her? Like seriously, 100 pages of a new work and this could have gone much better in showing what she wanted, without having copied 400+ pages of Twilight and just switching pronouns, it would have been so much more satisfying, she showed that on The Short Second Live of Bree Tanner, it was short and it still was a good read that made me care for Bree while reading it.

Also, she totally failed on her task to show that her books weren't sexist when she took the scene of attempted rape on Bella/Beau and when she totally changed the rape scene from Rosalie/Royal, breaking news guys are raped and sexual assaulted too, so there wasn't a good enough reason to make these changes. The writing continues the same, since it's basically the same narrative, still full of unnecessary information about Beau and Charlie diet and full of chopped sentences. The only big change is the ending, which it was changed to make this only one book and not a series, but I really didn't get what she tried to accomplish with the info dumping about the vampire and werewolf mythology, I mean I'm pretty sure that if you're gonna read this one you already read the rest of the series or at least saw the movies, it was completely unnecessary to have that part since it only showed how rushed this was done and it didn't really added to anything in the story.

Overall this was a disappointment, can't say I wasn't warned before but as a Twilight fan I just had to read this one and see for myself. I'm sad to say it didn't added anything to the world of vampires and werewolves that we already knew, it something it only took some of my enjoyment when thinking about this beloved series and made me agree with some hatters about the problems these books portrait. Honestly, if you're a fan of the series you will probably want to read this anyway but my recommendation is: just re-read your favorite book of the original series or watch your favorite movie of it and be happy with the nostalgic feels.

Jackaby series by William Ritter

Jackaby by William Ritter
Series: Jackaby #1
Published on September 16, 2014 by Algonquin Young Readers

Newly arrived in New Fiddleham, New England, 1892, and in need of a job, Abigail Rook meets R. F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with a keen eye for the extraordinary--including the ability to see supernatural beings. Abigail has a gift for noticing ordinary but important details, which makes her perfect for the position of Jackaby’s assistant. On her first day, Abigail finds herself in the midst of a thrilling case: A serial killer is on the loose. The police are convinced it’s an ordinary villain, but Jackaby is certain it’s a nonhuman creature, whose existence the police--with the exception of a handsome young detective named Charlie Cane--deny.

Doctor Who meets Sherlock in William Ritter’s debut novel, which features a detective of the paranormal as seen through the eyes of his adventurous and intelligent assistant in a tale brimming with cheeky humor and a dose of the macabre.

My overall feeling with this book was "meh", it wasn't a bad book in any way but it also never really blew my mind as I was expecting. I tried to keep away from the hype and not compare it too much with DW and Sherlock (both of which are favorites of mine) but still it took me forever to read this one and I kept being distracted by other books to read or series to watch.

But on to the better stuff. I really enjoyed the narrative overall since I laughed a lot of times while reading and I always enjoy when a story can make me laugh. I was a little afraid of the misture of paranormal with a detective novel and at first I wasn't sure it would work for me, but things ended up falling into place and I got used to the weirdness of this world. What did surprised me was the fact that, so far, my favorite character isn't Jackaby but Abigail.

Beastly Bones by William Ritter
Series: Jackaby #2 
Published on September 22, 2015 by Algonquin Young Readers

In 1892, New Fiddleham, New England, things are never quite what they seem, especially when Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer R. F. Jackaby are called upon to investigate the supernatural.

First, a vicious species of shape-shifters disguise themselves as a litter of kittens, and a day later, their owner is found murdered with a single mysterious puncture wound. Then in nearby Gad’s Valley, now home to the exiled New Fiddleham police detective Charlie Cane, dinosaur bones from a recent dig mysteriously go missing, and an unidentifiable beast starts attacking animals and people, leaving their mangled bodies behind. Charlie calls on Abigail for help, and soon Abigail and Jackaby are on the hunt for a thief, a monster, and a murderer.

I'm pleased to say that I enjoyed Beastly Bones a whole lot more than Jackaby! I think one of the main factors for that was the fact that I was already used to all the weirdness of this world Ritter created, we have all kinds of fantastical creatures and at first it can be a lot to digest but once you get used to it, is a very fun ride. As usual this one made me laugh out loud a lot of times and I read it overnight.

The mystery on this is much more weirder than on the first book, at least it was for me and I really liked to see that we are having an overarching plot - I don't know if this series is supposed to be a trilogy or if doesn't have a set number yet, so it was nice seeing that there is yes a connecting between all these cases and that we will probably be finding out more about it soon. Also the way this one ended was mean, it isn't a cliffhanger exactly but we already have the mystery for next volume set and oh my god I need the next book now!

Abigail remains to be my favorite character of the series, this time around even more so - she is determined to not bow to her time costumes and go after the job that she wants to practice despite what the society says, it was great to see her growth through this book and to see her finding herself. But I did enjoyed Jackaby a whole lot more on this one, he shows a more soft side this time around and we can get to see that he does care about other things than his mysteries.

I recommend this series to everyone that loves fantasy and detective novels that were dying to see something with the two genders together.

The Holders - Julianna Scott

The Holders by Julianna Scott
Series: Holders #1
Published on March 5, 2013 by Strange Chemistry

17-year-old Becca spent her whole life protecting her brother from, well, everything. The abandonment of their father, the so called 'experts' who insist that voices in his head are unnatural and must be dealt with, and the constant threat of being taken away to some hospital and studied like an animal. When two representatives appear claiming to have the answers to Ryland's perceived problem, Becca doesn't buy it for one second. That is until they seem to know things about Ryland and about Becca and Ryland's family, that forces Becca to concede that there may be more to these people than meets the eye. Though still highly skeptical, Becca agrees to do what's best for Ryland.

What they find at St. Brigid's is a world beyond their imagination. Little by little they piece together the information of their family's heritage, their estranged Father, and the legend of the Holder race that decrees Ryland is the one they've been waiting for. However, they are all--especially Becca--in for a surprise that will change what they thought they knew about themselves and their kind.

She meets Alex, a Holder who is fiercely loyal to their race, and for some reason, Becca and Ryland. There's an attraction between Becca and Alex that can't be denied, but her true nature seems destined to keep them apart. However, certain destinies may not be as clear cut as everyone has always believed them to be.

Becca is lost, but found at the same time. Can she bring herself to leave Ryland now that he's settled and can clearly see his future? Will she be able to put the the feelings she has for Alex aside and head back to the US? And can Becca and Ryland ever forgive their father for what he's done?

Okay, so sometimes I watch series or read books out of order that is supposed to be (like with "Chuck" that I started by the last season and worked my way till the first one) I did that with this series, I read "The Seers" back when it was released and only now got back to read the first one. Despite this not having compromised my enjoyment of the second book it did had it's effect on my reading experience with this one.

For start I already knew what was gonna be the major plot twist and what was gonna go down because of that, so it was kind of... Not boring, but I felt like I already knew the plot of this book so at times was like unnecessary - of course that if you're a normal person and is reading them on order it will NOT be because it will basically the whole plot of the book so yeah.

What didn't had to do with me reading the second book first was the time that it took to the actual plot to get going, this book isn't exactly slow paced because since the very first scene we have things happening but is mostly world building of the Holders and their school and stuff like that so it can be really slow at times.

But what made me come back to this series was it's characters and getting to know them, since their first interactions was worthed, Becca continues to be as kick butt and no taking shit as I remembered, Alex is still one of the sweetest guys and these two together where the most sweet thing - it was really fun to see they getting to realise their feelings on this book, since I had only read about them as a couple. Becca and Ryland's relationship too was amazing, I really liked to see how much she cared about him and how important he was to her. But basically Becca and everything is really cool to read about.

I super recommend this book if you're into X-Men, people with powers in general, fantasy/urban fantasy or even paranormal (this one really reads like paranormal to me).

Miss Mayhem - Rachel Hawkins

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins
Series: Rebel Belle #2
Published by Putnam Juvenile on April 7, 2015 
Pages: 352
Genres: Paranormal, Mythology
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss

Amazon • The Book Depository • Goodreads 

Life is almost back to normal for Harper Price. The Ephors have been silent after their deadly attack at Cotillion months ago, and best friend Bee has returned after a mysterious disappearance. Now Harper can return her focus to the important things in life: school, canoodling with David, her nemesis-turned-ward-slash-boyfie, and even competing in the Miss Pine Grove pageant.

Unfortunately, supernatural chores are never done. The Ephors have decided they’d rather train David than kill him. The catch: Harper has to come along for the ride, but she can’t stay David’s Paladin unless she undergoes an ancient trial that will either kill her . . . or connect her to David for life.

Characters & Relationships: In this second installment all the characters, not exactly grow, but they are given more layers you know? The first book read a lot like just fluffy cute stuff but in this one things get more dangerous really fast so the characters start to having to deal with the fact that things aren't doing great for them, like Harper that is always saying that everything is okay, that she can do everything she did before the paladin thing start to realize that maybe she can't do everything - I really liked this being show, how tense things are and how difficult it actually is to manage high school + paranormal things (which is something The Vampire Diaries totally forgets all the time). With this changes on the characters we also have more complicated relationships, there is much more high school drama in this book, even I found most of the drama unnecessary it didn't bothered me but it was the kind of stuff that if everyone just sit down and talked could have been resolved. Also, not easy times for our favorite couple, Harper & David are passing through a hard time since they have different ideas of what's best for the oracle part of David, so prepare for the feels.

Paranormal aspects & pace: the paranormal aspects continue to be unique in this book, now Harper has to pass this ancient trial or die, so yeah we have action/emotional sequences but also there is always that edgy feeling while reading the book that anything could happen at any time, which gave the story a turning page factor, this time around I didn't get bored - actually I couldn't stop reading at any free time that I could get!

Overall I fell like this book is an amazing sequence to "Rebel Belle", it took the stakes higher, created a more complex world & characters for this paranormal world and gave me a lot of feels - like painful ones, that took this series from my "fluffy" shelf.

Recommended to: readers who enjoyed "Rebel Belle", readers who like their paranormal that will rip your heart out with all the damn feels, readers looking for something unique & fast paced.

That Time When I Got Too Lazy to Write Actual Reviews #1

Hey guys, so lately I had not had the time to write actual reviews and when I do have the time I just want to watch Netflix and be lazy, so now I'm gonna be lazy here too! Mini reviews is something very common among book blogs and I'm sure you already know the drill - I review some books that I didn't had that much to talk about but that I did had some opinions on. This time around it will be all about the paranormal gender, so if you like this gender be sure to check out these two reads:

Missing You by Meg Cabot
Series: 1-800-Where-R-You #5
Published by HarperTempest on December 26, 2006

Okay, so for those who don't know 1-800-Where-R-You is a series about Jess, who was a normal girl until she got hit by a lighting and started finding people and this is the last book of the series.

The first thing that put me off on this book was the fact that it had passed so much time since the last one! On the fourth one Jess isn't even finished with high school or old enough to officially date Rob but them we start this one and years had passed, Jess had went to the army (!!) and was all messed up and I didn't even knew why she was messed up (I mean, in theory I knew, but I would have liked to read about that time too).

Taking that away I had a great time with this book, as I always have with the books on this series (or just Meg Cabot books in general, really). We have a new case and Jess has a lot of things to over but most important, SHE IS FINALLY OLD ENOUGH TO DATE ROB!!! So yeah, lots of interesting things, super recommended to lovers of this series or of Meg Cabot books.

White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: The Dark Elements #1
Published by Harlequin Teen on February 25, 2014

Layla is a normal seventeen-years-old except for the fact that she lives with Wardens since she was a little girl, and also she is half a demon, half a gargoyle who can  "mark" demons to make them easier for the Wardens to hunt them. So yeah, not normal at all actually.

This was my first Armentrout book but I'm for sure reading her other stuff because damn this was a fun read! Layla is sorta of a snowflake character but she also isn't at all - she struggles and has a lot to go from the beginning till the ending, also the boys and the whole love triangle - it was kind of unnecessary for me (and weird), Layla and Zayne where raised together since kids I just can't help but feel that their feelings should be more brother-sister like than romantic, Roth was okay, he was totally the bad boy type that turns into not so bad after all but yeah, at least he was funny.

As much as I liked the paranormal aspects I did get a bit bugged by the fact that everyone knows that the Wardens exist but no one seems to question why, suddenly a bunch of gargoyles came to life, no one even suspects the existence of demons, I mean like seriously?? Everyone just accept that gargoyles are real and moved on?? I just don't buy it. There is one religious group that does question the existence of the Wardens but it was such a small part of the plot overall.

Other thing that I didn't enjoyed was the fact that the regular friends of Layla only showed up when plot necessary, I mean I know this is a book but it was so not done on a subtle way, they would go chapters and chapters without showing up and them Layla needed something and BOOM! There they were. But I did said that I enjoyed this one, and it's true, despite these nitpicks this was a fun paranormal romance read and I do love some paranormal romance from time to time, there was some action scenes that let me very anxious and I think the overall plot was well done. so if this is one of your favorites genders don't go without picking this one up!

The Lynburn Legacy - Sarah Rees Brennan

Unspoken, Untold & Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan
Series: The Lynburn Legacy 
Published by Random House for Young Readers on September 11, 2012 | August 29, 2013 | September 23, 2014
Pages: 384 | 336 | 384
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Format: eBook | eBook | eARC
Source: Purchased | Purchased | Netgalley 

Summary from Unspoken: 

Kami Glass loves someone she's never met... a boy she's talked to in her head ever since she was born. Having an imaginary friend has made fitting in hard - but that's never bothered Kami. She has her best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is just the way she likes it.
But all that changes when the mysterious Lynburn family return to Kami's village, along with teenagers, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami...
As life as she knows it begins to unravel, Kami is determined to get to the bottom of every mystery. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him?
And can she trust him?

Book 1 -  5 stars: 
THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD GUYS! I still think it was the best of this trilogy because it was banter-fluffy and snarky and funny all the way through and it was glorious. The characters in here are the kind of people I want to be friends in real life: Angela & Rusty  with their laziness and ferously loyalty to Kami, Holly with her bright positivity, Jared with his emo way of living, but especially Kami -- she was the star of this book, this girl doesn't wait around to things to fall over her lap which is such a relieve and chance from the usual heroines on the paranormal gender, she has a Nancy Drew/Veronica Mars spirit and goes find the answers for herself.

Book 2 - 4.5 stars:
This book was a tensy bit worse than the first one. The plot on this book thickens and things go to a much higher stake, the tension was palpable and it was so hard to put this book down BUT at the same time the characters infuriated me at times. Jared and Kami are so full of angst (which is something that I do not appreciate on my romances) with their I-can't-live-without-each-other but at the same time can't-touch-each-other and can't-accept-love, ugh just make out and have your HEA already I'm tired of waiting! On a more happy side we got a little bit of Holly's POV and I have to say that I loved her even more on this book and wish there was more of her POV's.

Book 3 - 4 stars:
This is hard to put on words but I had the same problems that in book 2. In this book there was even more angst and Jared was still full on emo and Kami still didn't get him and ugh, it just frustrated me because I really thought we had got over this on book 2 and them it felt like it was backtracked again just so that the couple would suffer 'till the very ending just not okay. Also there was a scene when Ash did something that I was just like WTF IS HAPPENING? Because I thought we had gotten over that too. But the plot really saves this since there was a lot of heartbreak and oh-my-gosh and holly-crap-how-are-they-going-to-survive-this, the stakes are so high and Brennan really doesn't care to torture our hearts, so yeah painfully worth the read.

Summing up:
If you like the paranormal gender I think you're gonna love this series! (despite the fact that it's actually fantasy it reads A LOT like paranormal books, except better than most that is out there). It's full of funny moments and the characters have such a banter together that is just gold, despite some frustrating moments this quickly became one of my ultimate favorite series of all times and I'm sure that in a few years I will have the need to revisit Sorry-in-the-Vale and Kami and her group.

Rebel Belle - Rachel Hawkins

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins
Series: Rebel Belle #1
Published by Putnam Juvenile on April 8, 2014 
Pages: 352
Genres: Paranormal, Mythology, Romance
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher

Amazon • The Book Depository • Goodreads 

Harper Price, peerless Southern belle, was born ready for a Homecoming tiara. But after a strange run-in at the dance imbues her with incredible abilities, Harper's destiny takes a turn for the seriously weird. She becomes a Paladin, one of an ancient line of guardians with agility, super strength and lethal fighting instincts. 

Just when life can't get any more disastrously crazy, Harper finds out who she's charged to protect: David Stark, school reporter, subject of a mysterious prophecy and possibly Harper's least favorite person. But things get complicated when Harper starts falling for him--and discovers that David's own fate could very well be to destroy Earth. 

With snappy banter, cotillion dresses, non-stop action and a touch of magic, this new young adult series from bestseller Rachel Hawkins is going to make y'all beg for more.

Characters & Relationships: Harper is an amazing female lead that knows very well how to kick ass while keeping her appearance perfect and being the top of her class - can I just say an amen to female characters that have it all? Amen. Also she had me cracking up at so many times, plus her interactions with her nemesis, David - another character that I loved with his always sarcastic tone. But one thing that bothered me was that the "love triangle" was so completely and utterly unnecessary, it was clear since the first chapter what the ship was and still this situation dragged until the last part of the story. 

Paranormal aspects & pace: the whole paranormal set on this one is really good and completely unique (for me), it started in a way that right from the first chapter it got me thinking "what the heck is going on" which keep me reading and reading but towards the middle it kind of hit a wall - there wasn't anything really happening, except from training and love triangle stuff, it just seemed like some things could have been cut out to make the pace more quickly for impatient readers like me. 

Recommended to: readers that love the paranormal gender looking for something fresh, unique & light, readers that aren't that into paranormal but would like to give the gender a try, readers looking for something fun, fast & cute.