Review: Hooked by Liz Fichera

Title: Hooked

Author: Liz Fichera

Series: Hooked #1

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication date: Jan 29 2013

Format: ebook | Netgalley

Genre: YA | Contemporary

Goodreads

When Native American Fredricka ‘Fred’ Oday is invited to become the only girl on the school’s golf team, she can’t say no. This is an opportunity to shine, win a scholarship and go to university, something no one in her family has done. 

But Fred’s presence on the team isn’t exactly welcome — especially not to rich golden boy Ryan Berenger, whose best friend was kicked off the team to make a spot for Fred.

But there’s no denying that things are happening between the girl with the killer swing and the boy with the killer smile...

 

 

My thoughts:

When I first started this read I really enjoyed it. It started off really different to anything I've read before with its talk of Native American culture and blessings. I thought it had so much potential when the characters were introduced and the story really got going. Even though, I have to admit, it took me a really long time to even get into this story.

When the characters were introduced I thought Fed was a really sweet girl who was struggling to be true to who she is in a place that doesn't allow her to be. I thought her Dad was a wonderful supporting character with the stories he tells his daughter and how he encouraged her to do what she loves. 

Ryan, however, came across as a real idiot at the start of the book but it was obvious why. He was one of those characters that has to redeem himself to the girl after he makes loads of stupid mistakes and realises he was in the wrong the whole time and needs to turn his life around. So I liked him from the beginning in the sense that I knew he was going to change and so I looked deeper than the stupid stuff he did.

 

That's pretty much all I liked about it though. After just under a hundred pages in I got really tired of the characters and the story. It was one of those stories that you can predict everything that happens to an unbelievable extent. Sometimes I felt that it was so bad that there was no point in reading on.

 

The characters got really tiresome too. I think the author waited a little too long for Ryan to change and to redeem himself. It was after the 90% mark in the read that he only started to actually fully apologise verbally and with his actions. I think if it was done gradually I would have found it more believable but this way I started to really dislike Ryan. 

 

Fred just got annoying. I know it's harsh, but she was so timid. At some points I questioned whether or not she was ashamed of who she is because that was how she was coming across half the time. I think the problem was that Ryan changed but it doesn't mean that Fred shouldn't too. I was urging her in my head to stand up for herself just a little more instead of having some kind of bodyguard with her all the time. 

 

My rating: 4/10

 

 

Liz Fichera:

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Review: The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Title: The Sea of Tranquility

Author: Katja Millay

Publisher: Atria Books

Publication date: Jun 4 2013

Format: ebook | Netgalley

Genre: NA | Contemporary

Goodreads

I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.

All Josh Bennett wants is to be left alone, and everyone allows it because they all know his story: each person he loved was taken from his life until at seventeen years old there was no one left. When your name is synonymous with death, people tend to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, a new girl in town who won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of a mystery she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.

 

 

My thoughts

You know you're enjoying a read when you stay up until four in the morning to finish it. This was a beautiful story that I really couldn't bring myself to put down.

From the very first page I was just captivated. Nastya drew me in and had me hooked straight away.I loved everything about her. The way she kept just enough to herself that I desperately wanted to find out her deepest secrets and the way she revealed just enough that I began to understand why she is the way she is. She was one of those characters that I cared enough about to be encouraging her on in my head to make the right decisions and when she didn't, to urge her to make up for her mistakes. 

Josh, on the other hand, was something else entirely. He said things that made my heart break and caused tears to immediately start collecting in my eyes. I wanted to give Josh a huge hug every time he appeared in the story. Both he and Nastya were beautifully written characters.

The supporting characters were just as great. I think the story did revolve around Josh and Nastya more than anything but characters like Drew and Nastya's aunt just made it all the better. Drew was incredibly flawed but he knew it and Margot was the kind of no-nonsense aunt Nastya needed. Both Josh and Nastya seemed to depend on them to tell them where they're going wrong and to give them that all needed support.

The plot itself was marvellous. It was the kind of book that readers can learn whatever lessons they want to take from it. It was the kind of plot that was completely geared towards the end - the intensity of the read towards the end of the book takes on a whole new light and I was just itching to find out what happens. To find out if I would be happy with it or if it would break my heart in the painful way not the sweet moment way. 

The ending was just heart melting even until the very last line. For me, this book reinforced my beliefs of never giving up when life knocks you down. It's not so much about starting again and having a fresh start because that means forgetting everything that's happened. It's more about learning from whatever you went through so that it makes you a better, stronger and healthier person. Turn it around so that you're made better for it. It's definitely not easy, but the alternative is even harder. 

My rating: 10/10

Katja Millay:

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Review: Black Feathers by Joseph D'Lacey

Title: Black Feathers

Author: Joseph D'Lacey

Series: Black Dawn #1

Publisher: Angry Robot

Publication date: 4th April 2013

Format: ebook | Netgalley

Genre: Fantasy | Horror

Goodreads

 

Black Feathers is a modern fantasy set in two epochs: the Black Dawn, a time of environmental apocalypse, and generations into the future in its aftermath, the Bright Day.

In each era, a child undertakes a perilous journey to find a dark messiah known as The Crowman. In their hands lies the fate of the planet as they attempt to discover whether The Crowman is our saviour… or the final incarnation of evil.

 

 

My thoughts

This is probably going to be a really short review since I found it really hard to like this book.

This is usually my kind of book. The creepy kind of read that is full of suspense and weird happenings. I was actually really excited to read it without having any sort of high hopes or big expectations.

I just couldn't get into it. I found it incredibly difficult to connect to any of the characters for some reason. I thought they were lacking personality and substance that would make me care about what happened to them and the journey they were beginning to undertake. 

However, I thought the story itself was pretty good. The idea behind it and what actually happens was great. It just didn't work for me when I didn't like the characters.

I have to say though, I know a lot of people will love this book. It has the right settings and happenings for a really creepy story. I would recommend you at least try it and hopefully you'll enjoy it even if I didn't.

My rating:  4/10

Joseph D'Lacey:

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Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Author: John Green | David Levithan

Publisher: Penguin

Publication date: 10 May 2012

Format: Paperback - 352 pages

Genre: YA | Contemporary

Goodreads

Will Grayson,

Meet Will Grayson.

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers cross paths. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, culminating in heroic turns-of-heart and the most epic musical ever to grace the high-school stage.

My thoughts:

I'm having such trouble writing this review without being a huge fan girl. I always have this problem when I read a really good book - I can't wait to tell everybody about it, get really excited and then start gushing everywhere about how amazing this book is without actually saying anything of significance. This review probably won't make any sense…

Above all I adored the characters in this book. Every single one of them. They were all different, they all played their part in the story and they all developed in some way or another by the end of the book. They were really well rounded characters that I felt I grew to knew over the course of the book. I loved how relatable they were and how they all had their individual flaws from not being confident enough to speak out to defend others to pushing people away because they feel they don't deserve them. They didn't stand still long enough for me to ever get bored of them and for those characters who did something wrong, it was always acknowledged which I loved.

The plot was perfect for characters still in high school. It was all about identity and growing up like everyone does during those years. Everybody can relate to this story and learn from it in some way or another.

I also loved how depression was explained in this book. For someone who has experience with it, I loved reading what comes after diagnosis and not just dealing with the start. A lot of people have to live with it for a long time so to have one of the main characters mention it quite a bit here and there was really refreshing.

As usual I thought John Green's writing was amazing. It was the first time I had read something by David Levithan though and I thought he made another amazing Will Grayson. I loved the differences in the writing and how it reflected the personalities of the actual characters. 

Overall I love this book and it's definitely one I want to come back and read again and again. If you haven't read anything by John Green please give one of his books a go because you won't regret it. As for David Levithan, I can't wait to pick up another one of his books. The two authors complemented each other really well.

My rating: 10/10

John Green:

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David Levithan:

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Lunar Love Giveaway Hop 2013

 

2nd Annual
Lunar Love Giveaway Hop

March 8th to 13th

Hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & Bookworm Lisa

This hop features books with paranormal, supernatural, science fiction or space travel element or books that have something to do with the moon or have a moon on their cover.

I'm going to keep this simple yet again and give you the chance to win any book worth £10 or under from The Book Depository.

Most of you will know, that means this giveaway is INTERNATIONAL as long as the Book Depository ships to your country for free. You can find a list of places here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Moonset by Scott Tracey

Title: Moonset

Author: Scott Tracey

Series: Legacy of Moonset #1

Publisher: Flux

Publication date: Apr 8 2013

Genre: YA | Paranormal

 

Justin Daggett, his trouble-making sister, and their three orphan-witch friends have gotten themselves kicked out of high school. Again. Now they’ve ended up in Carrow Mills, New York, the town where their parents—members of the terrorist witch organisation known as Moonset—began their evil experiments with the dark arts one generation ago.

When the siblings are accused of unleashing black magic on the town, Justin fights to prove their innocence. But tracking down the true culprit leads him to a terrifying discovery about Moonset’s past . . . and its deadly future.

My thoughts:

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I was expecting something a little different when I read the summary - maybe your average teenage drama with a paranormal edge to it, but it went a lot deeper than that and I found myself enjoying the plot.

What I most liked about this read was the backstory of the main character. Justin and his family are the children of terrorists who just happen to be witches too. They abused their power and summoned dark forces and were killed because of it. Justin and his Coven still suffer for what his parents did, even though they had nothing to do with it. All the witchy stuff aside, I think  a lot of people can relate to the injustice of that kind of situation - I know I for one have been blamed for something just because someone in my family happened to do the same thing. I know blood is thicker than water and all that, but to what extent?

I also really loved reading a male's p.o.v. It was such a nice change since I haven't read a male narrative in what feels like such a long time so I really enjoyed the subtle differences. I thought Justin was a really well developed character that completely changed by the end of the book. I could notice him growing up slightly and taking charge when and where he needed to which I think every book with a strong protagonist should have.

The supporting characters, namely Justin's family, Ash and Quinn were really well rounded characters too. I just really wish they played a bigger part in the plot. I didn't feel that I got to know them well enough for me to care about whatever may happen to them by the end of the book. I thought Quinn played the part really well but Justin's siblings were cut out of the story quite a bit which I think is disappointing.

The plot itself seemed to me like a big introduction to the series. There was a huge emphasis on Moonset's past, especially with Justin's father, and the events that occurred felt like a precursor to what is going to happen in the next book. I did enjoy the plot more towards the end where things got very interesting, but I think it has even greater potential in the next book of the series. I definitely want to find out how Tracey takes it from here.

Overall I would recommend this read for fans of the paranormal genre. It's not a quick read and it gets a lot more interesting towards the end, but I enjoyed it.

My rating: 7/10

Scott Tracey:

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Review: Tamed by Douglas R. Brown

Title: Tamed

Author: Douglas R. Brown

Publisher: Rhemelda 

Publication date: Jan 26th 2012

Format: ebook | Netgalley

Genre: Paranormal | Horror

Goodreads

Werewolves are real.

And they make excellent pets.

Owning one of the legendary creatures is the latest fad. The WereHouse insists their werepets are loyal, docile, and 100% safe, but what happens when these gentle giants turn on their masters?

While on a routine EMS call, paramedic Christine Alt is attacked by a rogue werepet. She escapes with her life, but the encounter leaves her with more than just scars. As her body begins to change, she discovers the WereHouse is hiding a terrible secret, and they will stop at nothing to keep her from exposing them.

My thoughts:

When I read the summary of this book I just had to read it. Pet werewolves that turn on their masters? The chance to read a book where werewolves are the horrific, gruesome creatures they were first portrayed as before they became cuddly, romantic beasts? Yes please. 

I really liked the different take on werewolves in this book. I do enjoy the occasional mysterious, hot guy turned werewolf love story as much as anyone but there's a bit too much of it out there nowadays. I thought this version was refreshing and it kind of made me love werewolves again. 

What surprised me was the level of horror. I thought there would be some but what I found was nothing like I was expecting. There were little moments in the story that actually made me wince and for me ( I've read a lot of horror) that's unusual. They were few and far between but when they came around it surprised me which was great. 

What I found annoying with this read though was how the characters were introduced. The first part of the book is all to do with introducing individual characters in a one character per chapter kind of way. At first it was a little overwhelming because there were quite a few and then they would just disappear so it felt a little like there was no point to them. After a while, when all of the characters had their say, the story changed completely. When it did change, I found it really predictable. It was pretty obvious what was going to happen half the time so I ended up getting a little frustrated. 

That being said, Brown really did a great job of keeping the read exciting. There was loads of suspense and chair gripping moments. I couldn't take my eyes off the pages and I stayed up well into the morning to finish it.

My rating: 7/10

Douglas R. Brown:

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