Sep 21, 2013

Stacking the Shelves #6

Stacking the Shelves is a  weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews where we share books we're adding to our shelves, be they physical or e-copies.


BOUGHT/BORROWED

VIA NETGALLEY
Okay. It's official. I have no self-control. I actually should be doing my homework right this second, because I hate putting it off until Sunday--BAHAHAHA! Ah, okay, I tried! The beauty of the internet is that if you knew me in real life you'd realize: That's a total lie. I procrastinate like nobody's business. I NEVER do my homework on Saturdays. That's my bookish time. Somehow I still manage to get shit done. Not sure how, but that's how it usually goes. (Don't be like me!)

Back to bizniz: there's twelve books this week. Count 'em, TWELVE. Not the one or two I thought I'd end up buying or dragging my lazy ass to the library for. Where'd my self-control go, then? Welp, that's an easy question!

Probably the same place my hopes and dreams went. LOL. No. I kid, I kid.

The real answer is that I'm not entirely sure. All I know is, I was checking goodreads, realized a bunch of stuff I'd been waiting months for was coming out, and suddenly I was purchasing it all. I have a problem, guys. Seriously. No credit or debit card is safe with me. The only good thing to come out of this situation is the fact that I'll be comforted by my lack of money with new awesome books.

Totally worth it.

Anywho, enough about me. Did you do a Stacking the Shelves post? Leave me a link in the comments, and I'll stop on by!

Sep 14, 2013

Review - Ten Tiny Breaths - K.A. Tucker


Title: Ten Tiny Breaths
Author: K.A. Tucker
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: December 9th, 2012
Series: Ten Tiny Breaths #1
Add to Goodreads | Purchase

Synopsis via Goodreads


Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But when Uncle Raymond slides into bed next to Livie one night, Kacey decides it’s time to run. Armed with two bus tickets and dreams of living near the coast, Kacey and Livie start their new lives in a Miami apartment complex, complete with a grumpy landlord, a pervert upstairs, and a neighbor with a stage name perfectly matched to her chosen “profession.” But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle all of them. What she can’t handle is Trent Emerson in apartment 1D.

Kacey doesn’t want to feel. She doesn’t. It’s safer that way. For everyone. But sexy Trent finds a way into her numb heart, reigniting her ability to love again. She starts to believe that maybe she can leave the past where it belongs and start over. Maybe she’s not beyond repair.

But Kacey isn’t the only one who’s broken. Seemingly perfect Trent has an unforgiveable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey’s newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.

My rating:

4.5 Stars

Someone please slap me silly for putting this book on the backburner for so long. For real. How did I manage to skip over this book in favor of all the lesser ones that made me want to cry murderous tears? (You ever get that feeling? Where you hate a character so much—who isn’t the villain—that you wish you could just strangle them?)

Ten Tiny Breaths gives the phrase “beautifully broken” a whole new meaning for me. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a good tortured heroine book in a long time. But that’s exactly what this was, and it was all so perfectly executed. Not once did I wish for the protagonist, Kacey, to get hit by a car and have the story *cough*mercifully*cough* end. And man am I making myself sound like a crazy for willing sudden death upon fictional characters, but it’s been a bad week in terms of finding half-decent books for me, all right?

I think it’s been a year since I’ve found a character that I love this much. Kacey Cleary is one sarcastic, hilarious, all around badass chick. The catch, then? She's got some issues. Some emotionally repressive issiues. When she was 16, she was involved in a car accident. An accident that killed her parents, her best friend, and her boyfriend. Not to mention two of the three drunken guys that caused the accident. Her sister, Livie, is all that she has left. And that accident caused more devastation than anyone thought. It left her numb.

Broke and in a new city, Kacey and Livie find a home in this dingy apartment complex and simply try to survive. There they meet their neighbors. A single mom and her daughter. And a super hot guy who goes by the name of Trent.

Trent and Kacey’s attraction happens fast. Like, really fast. By their second time meeting, before I even really get a sense of who Trent was beyond the fact that he was sexy, had dimples, and blue eyes, he was already up close and personal with Kacey. Despite that, though, it was easy to like him. He played the savior role flawlessly, even though Kacey didn’t really need it. Have I mentioned that she's badass?

One of the best parts about Kacey was how she carried herself. Confident, even though a lot of it was bravado. On the inside, she’d be anxious, and you’d never know it by the strange and amusing things that came out of her mouth. You could tell that she had issues, but the way she dealt with them was all apart of her charm. (Not that I’m saying it was particularly healthy.) She effortlessly pulled off the snarky, tough-chick vibe without being annoying at all.

I came to love the rest of the side characters as much as I did the main ones. There’s little more than half a dozen. Livie. Storm. Mia. Dan. Ben. Tanner. Cain. Nate. If you haven’t read the book, then they’re just names. But if you have, then you know that each character has their own voice and serve as more than plot devices. And damn if I didn’t enjoy the fact that none of them seemed to embrace the stereotypes surrounding them. Storm was smarter and more talented than anyone gave her credit for. Cain wasn’t as sleazy as I—and Kacey—thought he’d be with the type of business he was in. Each of them was unique and interesting, and they all became vital parts of Kacey’s life as she learned to heal from her past.

Another vital part of Kacey’s healing process was her actual romantic relationship with Trent. Or, well, it was more like the catalyst. She fought tooth and nail to not fall for him. Which, I guess, it was pretty hard to do since that man made it his life’s mission to make her happy. To make her laugh and smile. Sounds pretty sappy, but when you learn the real reason behind why…wow. I literally put my Nook down and said into the empty air: “I cannot believe this shit!” Shout out to K.A. Tucker for delivering the best spinning-kick-plot-twist I’ve read in a while.

Their HEA happened so close to the end, I never thought it’d happen. But when it did, there were tears in my eyes. And I learned a very, very valuable lesson: For the love of chocolate sauce and steaming hot coffee, the next time I put a book this good off for more than a week, someone reach through their computer screen and give me a good shaking!

Or just send me an email recommending it. That works, too. ;)

**ARC received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Sep 8, 2013

Review - No One's Angel - By: Kelly Walker


Title: No One's Angel
Author: Kelly Walker
Publisher: All Night Reads
Release Date: September 6th, 2013
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Synopsis via Goodreads


Tess used to spend more hours than she’d care to admit playing her favorite computer game, using the nickname Angel. She could pretend her life was different, and she could pretend Arion was just a friend. But a girl needs more to keep her warm at night than pixels and she traded her virtual heaven for a real life hell. Now she’s on the run from a past she won’t talk about, and the only place she has to go is the doorstep of the friend she’s never actually met.

When Angel disappeared from their nightly games, it nearly destroyed Arion. He threw himself into work and women, but he can’t help knowing the one night stands will never compare to the angel who haunts his dreams. At first, when she shows up soaking wet and scared-shitless on his doorstep, he thinks his prayers have been answered.

But the more Arion tries to keep Angel close, the more her fear drives her away. If they are ever going to have a chance for a future, they’ll first have to deal with the past that hasn’t forgotten her any more than she’s forgotten it, and Arion will have to learn how to let her go.

My rating:

Damn. Fooled by the synopsis again. Be careful, guys. It sounds way better than it actually is. When I requested it, I thought I’d be getting an exciting, original story with complex characters and a heart-swelling romance.

Exciting, it ain’t. Original? Not quite.

Wanna know what sucks the most? I thought it was going to be a 5 star-er. It started off so strong. Kelly Walker pulled me into the story from page one with her fluid, angsty pace. The first chapter opens with Angel (Tess) in the rain, broke and shivering, and looking for a specific place. When she gets there, we learn it was not the place exactly that she was searching for, but a guy named Arion. A guy she’d never met, but had forged an online connection with in a game.

So, yeah, it seemed like it’d be all kinds of unique. Except it fell flat. Really, really flat. The uniqueness wore off in about four chapters when all Angel and Arion did was lay around his home and sleep and have a bunch of meaningless conversation. I kept waiting for something to happen, something to spice up the monotony.

I waited a long time.

I think there was supposed to be a plot, but I didn’t find one. Seriously. This book flipflopped between Arion and Angel doing absolutely nothing with their lives, him trying to get her to open up about why she sought him out in the first damn place, and Angel trying to figure that out for herself.

Angel had been in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Nick. When she decided she’d had enough, she ran to Arion. (It’s not a spoiler; you figure it out pretty quickly.) From Arion’s preconceptions of her, she was supposed to be this feisty, sarcastic, smart girl. I didn’t see that at all. I mean, I get it. She was vulnerable and trying to put herself together after being in such an abusive environment, so I didn’t expect for her to be those things for a while. The thing was…they never showed up. And all the while Arion was thinking ‘Gosh, she’s so strong and beautiful and stunning and awesome and spunky and blah blah blah.’ I got HOW they fell in love. I just couldn’t understand WHY. Maybe I just didn’t see it, but the only character traits I got from her were annoying, indecisive, and unnecessarily stubborn the few times that she stood up for herself.

As for Arion…he was mediocre. That’s all that comes to mind when I think of him. He had a bit more substance than Angel, but not much. The occasional funny line thrown here and there. A few times, he showed traits of being this sexy, charming guy. But the way his internal monologues went on and on and on about how Angel had wrecked him on the inside made him seem less like a tortured hero and more like a desperate, weak man with controlling impulses. For example, when he destroyed his house in a tantrum because he thought (with no proof) that Angel had left after the first night of him ever seeing her in real life. He could’ve handled that so much better. By, say, actually searching for her instead of being immature. Seriously, she ended up being in the next room. You can’t justify that.

Their romance was dead to me. It lacked everything. Trust. Steam. Emotion. Angel was much too concerned with getting away from Arion and then wanting to jump his bones and then running scared again for me to even consider it love. And Arion was too hung up on his mommy issues to ever let Angel be independent like she needed to be in the aftermath of her abusive relationship.

The side characters were actually, surprisingly, well done. There was Chelsea, Arion’s step-sister and Lexi, a girl who worked with his family that stood out the most. Their portrayals actually did ambitious, intelligent women justice. Chelsea came off as this stupid blond bimbo initially, but then we realize that that’s not entirely true. And Lexi was this bright, horse-loving girl with a dream to study Equine Science. They were both equally supportive of each other and Angel. There was none of that petty drama and slut-bashing that you see so prominently nowadays.

The end was unbelievably predictable and awfully anticlimactic, much like the entire book. The bad guy went down, and Arion and Angel lived happily ever after. Congrats to them, but I just could not muster a single crap to give at their HEA.

Why did I give it two stars instead of one, then? Simple. It made me cry.

Angel’s recounts of Nick’s abuse brought tears to my eyes like nothing else. Each snippet was heartbreaking:

“Nick took my innocence, and my hopes for the future, and my chance at college and everything I’d wanted for myself the first time he held me down and told me I could either agree to let him fuck me, or he’d dope me with ecstasy until I did.” 
__________________***___________________
“My fingers absentmindedly trace the scar behind my elbow, one of the few outward ones I have. Most of the time, Nick was careful not to leave visible evidence; he liked to believe people were fooled into thinking he was a good, upstanding guy and a bruised-up girlfriend might complicate that. Maybe they were fooled. I sure was. I don’t remember what I said that made him send me crashing through the glass coffee table, but I’ll never forget the bite of glass as it seared my flesh.”
__________________***___________________
“Last night, I dreamed Nick killed my mom. I found her lying on the cold tile floor of her kitchen, the words ‘come back’ pained into the pool of her blood beside her.”

The bottom line is, while I didn’t like the characters or the plot, the meaning stuck with me. It touched upon some very serious topics, and didn’t make light of them by overshadowing/ignoring the issues with the romance. I can respect that.

“I know I’m no one’s angel, because if I had wings I’d fly away, and I wouldn’t stop until I eventually soared above the pain.”

**ARC received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Sep 7, 2013

Stacking the Shelves #5

Stacking the Shelves is a  weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews where we share books we're adding to our shelves, be they physical or e-copies.


BOUGHT/BORROWED

VIA NETGALLEY
I thought it'd be a while before I did another Stacking the Shelves post. Two weeks in, I'd still been adjusting to school. Blogging had been put on the backburner. But I just couldn't resist. These lovelies were calling to me.

I'd like to think I was super duper selective this week. At least, that's what I told myself I'd try to be. I thought I'd stick to only getting the books on my most-anticipated shelf. Things I'd waited months for and would die to read. Alas, that was not the case. While I was more selective than usual, all those pretty covers still managed to reel me in.

Anywho, enough about me. Did you do a Stacking the Shelves post? Leave me a link in the comments, and I'll stop on by!

Sep 1, 2013

Review - Origin - Jennifer L. Armentrout


Title: Origin
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Release Date:August 27th, 2013
Series: Lux #4
Add to Goodreads | Purchase

Synopsis via Goodreads


Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything.

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on?

And will they even be together?

My rating:

WARNING: Possible spoilers ahead, depending on what you count as spoilers. Also contains multiple, annoying uses of the word “badass” and “badassery”, a bunch of unnecessary totally necessary exclamations, and some angsty gifs.
Jennifer L. Armentrout has reached a whole new level of awesome epicness. I’m 100% sure epicness isn’t even a word, but that’s the only thing that describes this fast-paced, swoony, hilarious, action-freaking-packed installment of the Lux series. She’s outdone herself. No book in the series has ever compared. Origin was good. Foam at the mouth good. Fangirl like there's no tomorrow good.
Everything about it was badass. Katy was badass. In the previous book, Opal, it ended abruptly with her being captured by Daedalus. And I was all “Oh noooooooooo!” But then Origin came out and we see that Katy handled things like a pro. And by “like a pro” I mean, after the initial suckiness of her situation wore off, she was all enraged and determined and righteous. She endured ass-kickings and threats and faced the possibility that she’d never be free of Daedalus’s evil little clutches.

“The words that came out of my mouth were my own. I felt them. I believed them.
        ‘I’m going to kill you one day,’ I promised.”

See? Badassery!

Daemon was, like always, rocking his own kind of constant badassery. Like anyone could guess, he goes after Katy. He turns himself in to Daedalus (Not exactly a spoiler. If you hadn’t inferred what he’d do from the beginning, it lets on pretty quickly.) Mother of alpha males, Daemon’s unrelenting resolve to get Katy back was out of this world! (Hehe, it’s funny ‘cause he’s an alien!) He didn’t care who he had to mow down or steal from or lie to in order to get to her. And he did it all with his usual sarcastic, cocky flair that I just love so much! (Shout out to JLA for doing dual perspectives!)
“Going down on one knee, they leveled a dozen or so semiautomatic rifles on me. Stopping so many bullets would prove tricky.
      People were going to die.
     That sucked, but it wouldn’t stop me.” 
                                                                          ***
“’I’ve been waiting a long time to run tests on someone like you,’ he said to Daemon, voice high-pitched.
      Daemon arched a brow. ‘Another fanboy. I have them everywhere.’”

Swoony batches of badassery!

Also, the romance! Despite Kat & Daemon’s circumstances, their romance was the fiercest it’s ever been! Gah, their love jumped off the page and squeezed my heart to pieces! Plus something very, very big with their relationship happens towards the later half that you would not believe! So if you haven’t read this book yet, do it!
“I caught the tear with a kiss. ‘And I’m not going to let you do this by yourself. You’re my—you’re my everything, Kat.’ At the sound of her soft inhale, I smiled again. ‘Come on, Kitten, did you really expect anything less from me? I love you.” 
And Kat was all like:
  
 Oh, yeah, and there’s a bunch of sexytimes, too!
“Daemon squared his shoulders and cracked the door open. I couldn’t see anything beyond his bare back, which, if I had to be stuck staring at something, at least it was that.”
Like I’ve been coming to expect from any JLA book nowadays, the ending was…was…badass! OMG was it all kinds of badass! There was a huuuuuuuuge awesome, catastrophic, unbelievable, devastating battle of epic proportions that fully displayed the amounts of badassery that Luxen can bring to the table! And not only was it was filled with the Luxen but also the hybrids and some other types of things that I can’t really give away, but the title “Origin” had something to do with it! There’s a ton of new players entering the game now! There are also a few plot twists at the end, some I did see coming and some I didn’t. And holy freaking cow, the one at the end with the conversation between Dawson and Daemon about Beth!! And also the betrayal by someone important!!!! (For once, it isn’t Blake, but there’s a reason for that.)
I can’t! I just can’t anymore! I’m about to explode with the feels that this book has brought. Plus, I feel like if I use the word badass one more time, I’ll have irritated the hell out of everyone, including myself. So just suffice it to say that this book was a big game-changer. The best book in the series yet. And it didn’t end with a gigantic cliffhanger, so I’m good with that.

Anywho, let’s end things with a quote from the book that actually had me laughing out loud at the imagery:
“Man, it was so quiet you could hear a grasshopper karate chop a fly.”
Read this book! The karate-chopping grasshopper demands it!