My Soul To Lose - Rachel Vincent

My Soul To Lose by Rachel Vincent
Series: Soul Screamers #0.5
Published on July 1, 2009 by Harlequin Teen

It was supposed to be a fun day, shopping at the mall with her best friend. Then the panic attack started and Kaylee Cavanaugh finds herself screaming, unable to stop. Her secret fears are exposed and it's the worst day of her life.

Until she wakes up in the psychiatric unit.

She tries to convince everyone she's fine--despite the shadows she sees forming around another patient and the urge to scream which comes burbling up again and again. Everyone thinks she's crazy. Everyone except Lydia, that is. Another patient with some special abilities....

"An eBook exclusive prequel to Rachel Vincent's SOUL SCREAMERS series."

I've been wanting to read something from Rachel Vincent ever since I discovered her books, but I never seemed to find the time to do it, so I prioritized started her first (I think) YA series, Soul Screamers, I was a bit wary because it's paranormal and it was published right on the fever of Twilight, so it could go very wrong but a lot of people enjoyed this series.

I'm impressed by this short novella, it doesn't fall into YA paranormal cliches and it didn't read like anything I ever read before. For starters a lot of it passes on a psychiatric ward, where Kaylee is because of what the doctor believe to be a psychotic break-down, I have to say that the way the whole experience is treated is a bit worrisome because it doesn't shine a very positive light on psychiatrists and/or seeking treatments but also I understand why it's portrait this way, since we, readers, know that what Kaylee is passing isn't a break-down but a paranormal experience.

That being said, the atmosphere on this short story is pretty on point with what I would want from paranormal reads, it starts of quite a normal thing, with regular girls shopping but it turns into a kind of nightmare when Kaylee has the vision, gets interned and everyone is claiming she has a mental health problem, it gets even more interesting when a girl from the hospital seems to be really interested on Kaylee too. 

Overall it was a really nice introduction of this series and it definitely made me pick up the first book right after finishing it, it doesn't show any signs of cliched paranormal stories, has a great atmosphere similar to suspenseful movies and I want to know more about Kaylee and her gift (or curse, who knows, not me). Recommended to lovers of YA paranormal that haven't still tried to read this series.

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!