Flawed - A Review

Flawed by Kate Aveynn 

Read: May 30, 2014

Find it on Goodreads

Rating: 5/5 stars



Sarah O’Brien is alive because of the pact she and her brother made twelve years ago — James will protect her from their violent father if she promises to never leave him. For years, she’s watched James destroy his life to save hers. If all he asks for in return is her affection, she’ll give it freely.

Until with a tiny kiss and a broken mind, he asks for more than she can give.

Sam Donavon has been James’ best friend — and the boy Sarah’s had a crush on — for as long as she can remember. As their forbidden relationship deepens, Sarah knows she’s in trouble. Quiet, serious Sam has decided he’s going to save her. Neither of them realizes James is far more unstable than her father ever was, or that he’s not about to let Sarah forget her half of the pact . . .




My Review:

All those times I've said a book is depressing? I lied. Nothing I've ever read can even compete with the level of sadness this book made me feel.

Pain.
Pain.
Pain.


major spoilers ahead
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Flawed is one of those books where you can easily find yourself in a situation where you don't know want to think of the main characters. They were all so very messed up, but this made them seem almost beautiful at the same time.

Sarah has had to watch her brother protect her for years to a point that she has some difficulty making choices that will make her happy. She's all too worried about James to think of herself. Especially with a father as psychopathic as her's.

James has suffered more than Sarah should or will ever understand. His mentality is a bit screwy, presumably caused by his childhood of abuse and suffering. This shows up most obviously in his sick obsession with his younger sister. She seems to remind him of who his mother used to be before their father ruined her and of who she could have become before she begged James to kill her. His unrequited love for Sarah has caused the two of them great pain, as she loves him as a brother and has no desire to take their relationship past that while she still at the same time doesn't want to hurt him in anyway.

When James and Sam died, I wasn't as surprised as I wish I had been. I wanted them to live more than anything, but the story couldn't have ended properly in any other way.

I may speak on the subject of Sam more later, but for now I can't handle thinking about this book in that depth anymore. It was sad enough in the first place.

Review - The Child of Two Worlds

The Child of Two Worlds by M.E. Megahee 

Read: April 15, 2014

Find it on Goodreads

Rating: 4/5 stars

Schuyler Chase appears to be a beautiful eighteen-year-old girl in suburban Atlanta. In reality, she is an immortal being caught in an epic war between vampires and werewolves. As a half-vampire, half-werewolf hybrid, Skye is an abomination to both--hated, feared and hunted because of her superior supernatural powers. Skye hides from her relentless enemies by pretending to be a high school senior, each year switching schools to keep up the ruse. In her newest school she quickly makes friends, only to discover that they too are immortals--werewolves from the same pack that had killed her parents sixty years earlier. One of them is the devilishly handsome Zac, whose blood calls to her like a siren's song. Skye fears that her new friends will kill her the moment they discover what she is, despite their opinions about the pointless blood feud. Time and again they stand by her and protect her. But will they be able to stop themselves when their free will is taken from them? Will Skye be forced to kill them to survive?

My Review

*I received a copy of The Child of Two Worlds on Goodreads Firstreads in exchange for a review. In no way has this effected my rating/review of the book.*

Schuyler Chase is the kind of protagonist I love. She thinks through her actions and is intelligent at a reasonable level, she's not smart enough to seem like a know at all and makes good decisions most of the time. Another thing I loved about her was her way of handling her loneliness. She didn't think of herself as better or worse than everyone else, her lack of attachment to others was just a part of her life. This made her sudden friendship with Sarah and the others much more believable. She unconsciously craved companionship but didn't know how to form relationships outside of the one with her aunt without ending up hurt when she had to leave or betrayed by the person she desired to be friends with. She was scared. So very scared, here's a girl whose spent her entire life running and doesn't know what 'normal' really means. It was real bravery on her part to open up to Zac, Caleb, and Sarah but she did it anyway and I think that's one of the bravest things you can do when your afraid. 

I see great potential in M.E Megahee as a writer and I hope that she continues to write this series. I look forward to reading more of her novels in the future

Review - Seraphina

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Read: July 15, 2013

Find it on Goodreads 

Rating: 5/5 stars

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.
Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.
In her exquisitely written fantasy debut, Rachel Hartman creates a rich, complex, and utterly original world. Seraphina's tortuous journey to self-acceptance is one readers will remember long after they've turned the final page.


My Review:

Possible Spoilers

Seraphina is the unique story of a girl cursed, or is it blessed, with the blood and scales of her mother's dragon form. It is a curse because of the uneasy alliance between the dragons and the humans and a blessing because her unique talents could help her to save the two races from going to war.I really liked this book as it is different from every dragon story I have read to date. Although I have read books with dragons with the ability to take on the shape of a human before the stories were nowhere near as compelling.compelling. Seraphina was one of my favorite aspects of the story. She felt more real than most female YA protagonists tend to today. She was not overly brave, had flaws that made sense, and her sob story was sob worthy. I appreciated how she didn't complain about nonexistent flaws throughout the entire book, her scales were the only things she didn't like about herself and that seems to only be because they could easily reveal the secret of her heritage. She was a very likable and I felt connected with her character.

Now stop reading this review and go read it.

It's awesome...

Review - Erin the Fire Goddess: The Beginning

Erin the Fire Goddess: The Beginning by Lavinia Urban

Read: February 31 2014

Find it on Goodreads

Rating: 1/5 stars




Erin Tait is a 15 year old girl, who thinks of herself as a freak. She's moves to her parents home town of Galladale, where all is not what it seems On her first day at school, she meets Sean Jackson. Instantly she is besotted with him. But this results in her being targeted by a girl called Jessica Watson. She has one warning. Stay away from Sean! But he is everywhere she goes, even in her dreams. Which are soon taken over by Jessica's threats and actions against Erin are taken in school. Erin is scared, lonely and confused. Who can she turn to? Will Jessica stop this hate campaign? and can Erin control the fire within?


My Review:


Minor spoilers



It was my own fault for trying to read this book again. I was smarter the first time when I didn't bother getting past the first page.

Usually I don't bother with books that get on my nerves like this one, but I got complaints about how I received it to be negative after reading so little. So I figured that if they were going to be so passionate about it I should probably give it a chance - I really should know better by now. I mean it's usually a bad sign when the author names her characters after her kids. They'll most likely turn out unrealistically perfect or, I imagine, the actual children will be insulted by their character's faults.

Let me begin with the characters:

Erin Tait - She's the main character and the ugly duckling in the family because of her "hideous" birthmark. Despite her insecurities she manages to get the hottest guy around drooling after her. My main issue with her is her has to do mostly with Sean and her poorly explained powers. They had something to do with a rock...

Sean Jackson - The love interest.  His entire life revolves around his 'fire goddess,' Erin, who he decided he was in love with after an incredibly short period of time. He calls her beautiful even though she has the birthmark insecurities going on and doesn't seem to believe him (it really bugged me how she never got over this).

UNREALISTIC

UNREALISTIC

BLAHHH!!!

Review - Evan Burl and the Falling

Evan Burl and the Falling by Justin Blaney

Read: October the 2nd 2013

Find it on Goodreads

Rating: 5/5 stars

My father abandoned me when I was an infant.
My friends have turned against me. 
My uncle beats me.
The most powerful people in the world want me dead.
They all have one thing in common.
They think I’m turning into a monster.

I’m starting to worry they’re right.

My Review:

Note to the author

I have not yet finished this book, I am only on Chapter Four so there is no need to take me seriously. But the "Note from the author on this Advanced Reader Copy," made me a bit sad. Mr. Justin Blaney there are so many different people in this world, no one is exactly the same and thus not everyone enjoys the same types of things. No one book will please everyone some people hate Twilight some people love it, the same goes for Shakespeare and his works. So not everyone will be pleased with cliffhanger endings like you have said your book has. Personally I would hate it if everyone loved every book, how would you know good books from bad ones if the world was like that? If you change things in your book to make the angry people happy there will still be others who will remain unsatisfied. So I think you should write Evan Burl and the Falling the way you envisioned it, not the way others do, I imagine it would make you happier in the long run. So far your book is reading like a masterpiece to me, I can easily see why some people might find themselves upset that it ends with questions unanswered since they love it so much and can't imagine waiting for the second book to be published.

After Reading

I loved this book. No seriously it was great. I liked Evan's confusion about the future and himself in general, not often do characters in YA novels feel uncertain in that way. He was brave in an honest kind of way, not because he wanted to prove anything to anyone but because he put others above himself. A lot of the main characters of books I read are brave to prove they can be, not that that's bad but its a nice change to find a book with a character who doesn't need to. Evan Burl and the Falling was an amazing book and I will probably end up pulling out some of my hair from having to wait for its sequel.

Review - Every Day

Every Day by David Levithan

Read: September 21 2013

Find it on Goodreads 

Rating: 5/5 stars






Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.


 My Review:


I loved this book. It seems to me that authors often use similar personalities for multiple characters because its easier to create a lot of them that way. David Levithan did not do this at all, for that I am grateful. Although the main character, A, kept the same personality no matter what body he was in, every body he inhabited had a clear and distinct personality. It amazed me how well this was done and I enjoyed watching A struggle to not lose himself/herself/itself(?) to the personalities of those people. I really wish more about A could have been revealed, the story intrigued me so much and I was incredibly sad to see it go. Does
Levithan want me to suffer? I really wish there were more books about A, but I guess that could take away from the magic of it.

Review - Twilight

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Read: 2011

Find it on Goodreads

Rating: 2/5 stars




Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. When she meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen--a vampire--her life takes a thrilling and terrifying romantic turn.



 My Review:



Since everyone was raving about this book by the time I read it I was expecting it to be pretty good.

IT WASN'T

I know that some people did enjoy reading it but I wasn't one of them. So if you are the type of person who doesn't think that Bella Swan was a shallow, boring and unnecessary characters you might not want to read this review.

This book would have been better without the love story. A couple of vegetarian vampires living in a world where only they don't drink human blood. A story like that has great potential, although this one did to until it was written. It got two stars because it wasn't the worst book I have ever read but I most definitely didn't enjoy it.

It wasn't for me but don't let that discourage you from reading it if you don't mind the fact that it is poorly written and has an amazingly stupid main character. I will spare you all from a long drawn out rant about Bella's love interest. He got on my nerves just about as much as Bella did, and honestly I'm not in the mood to relive this book.