Review - The Darkest Craving - By: Gena Showalter

Title: The Darkest Craving
Author: Gena Showalter
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Release Date:July 30th, 2013
Series: Lords of the Underworld #10
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Synopsis via Goodreads

Having endured weeks of torture in the bowels of hell, Kane wants nothing to do with his beautiful rescuer, Josephina Aisling. The half-Fae female threatens to awaken the demon of Disaster inside him—a beast he’s determined to kill, no matter the price.

Josephina is hunted by a brutal enemy—her royal family—and Kane is her only source of protection. He’s also the only male to ever set her aflame, and even he succumbs to the heat. But as they navigate the treacherous world of the Fae, they are forced to make a choice: live apart…or die together.

My rating:

I never thought I’d see the day where I rated any Lords of the Underworld book less than five stars. Gena Showalter’s consistency up until The Darkest Craving has been nothing less than admirable. I kept expecting for one warrior’s story to slip up, or for her style to change so much that I couldn’t tolerate it anymore.

Unfortunately, that day has come. Let's have a moment of tear-stained silence for Kane's mediocre unfufilling ohnowhathashappened story, please.

You guys should’ve seen me on the release day. I let everybody know: the next LOTU book is out ohmyGAWD I have to have it NOWWWWWW. I’d been pimping those books out to anyone who would listen, whether they enjoyed paranormal romance or not.

So color me surprised when—and I really, really hate to say it—I was halfway through the book, and I realized…something was off. It was like watered down LOTU. Not as much action. Not as much passion between Kane or Josephina (aka Tink). Not as much humor. Not as much effortless style Showalter usually displayed that kept me coming back installment after installment.

In comparison to the other books, this was probably the most disappointing. And damn if I don’t feel like a traitor for just thinking that, let alone telling the world. But if I’m honest with myself, I have to admit: I just wasn’t feeling this one.

I’m not quite sure what it was. Or where, exactly, I begun to realize something was different. The beginning was nice. I liked Josephina immediately. She was a little quirky, but I enjoyed her interactions with Kane and Strider and Sabin. I thought she’d be a perfect match for a fresh-out-of-literal-hell Kane.

But then when she went back to her Fae family, she changed a little. She was still quirky, but there was helplessness to her, like she’d given up fighting and was just going to accept her lot in life. Which was a pretty shitty lot. She was like a half-Fae, half-human witty Cinderella. Her evil step-mother and Irresponsible (hehe, inside joke if you’ve read it) half-sister, lustful half-brother, and shockingly abusive father all commanded her life. Her initial acceptance of it all was unacceptable to me, the reader, so she lost a few cool points, but nothing I couldn’t get over. I still liked her by the end, so everything was fine.

And then there was Kane.

I didn’t know what to do with him, really. I wanted to like him, to get to know him and empathize with him like I’d done with every other character. But for some reason, he seemed to lack substance. As a Lord of the Underworld, you’d expect him to be beyond life. Strong. Ruthless. Dominant. Sexy. And then he’d have this softness inside him for his woman. Kane did possess those things, except…like I said, it lacked substance. I wasn’t able to totally feel what I should’ve for him. All I felt was this indifference towards him. Like, if he’d died I would’ve been like “Huh, well, that’s going to be an inconvenience in the future” instead of wanting to bawl because he didn’t get his HEA. And I was so shocked with my indifference, and I thought maybe it was me. Maybe I was reading it wrong somehow. Except, now I don’t think so. Kane just left much to be desired.

The main storyline was static to me. I’m sorry, but after a while, the washed out romance between the two combined with nothing much going on became a bore. Seriously, most of the conflict wasn’t even conflict at all. Easily solved. I can’t quite say what the conflict was, but just take my word for it. There was no urgency, nothing pressing that needed to be taken care of ASAP.

The ONLY saving grace was the subplots, which kept me more interested than the main plot. There’s some trouble for Cameo and Viola, and a character from the past (HINT: It’s someone they thought was dead) as well. And then there’s some trouble for Torin. Both subplots set into motion their HEAs so I’m glad that picked up, at least.

One thing that I must say, though: William had more presence than all of the Lords combined in this one. He was like Kane’s handy dandy frickin’ sidekick. So WHY OH WHY didn’t we get any of William the Ever Randy and Gilly? At this point, they’re who I want to know the most about in the series. (Second only to Legion and Galen, who didn’t have a single scene together. In fact, Legion was only mentioned, like, once.) William and Gilly had ONE SCENE together, and in that ONE SCENE they argued for like, a minute.

What. The. Hell.

They need more air time, damn it! I NEED to see them happen. I NEED to see Willy quit being such a hobag and admit that he wants her. And only her. It not only hurts Gilly’s feelings that he sleeps around, but mine too, because I KNOW that it’s only going to make things more difficult for them in the future. And I just want their HEA to happen.

Please. That’s all I want.

Review - Beautiful Disaster - By: Jamie McGuire

Title: Beautiful Disaster
Author: Jamie McGuire
Publisher: Jamie McGuire
Release Date: May 26th, 2011
Series: Beautiful #1
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Synopsis via Goodreads

INTENSE. DANGEROUS. ADDICTIVE.

Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

My rating:

Just so you know, this review is really 

long and kind of rant-y so read at your own risk.

I went into Beautiful Disaster thinking I was going to either hate it or love it. Looking at its many reviews, everyone seemed to rate it either 5 stars or 1 star (since zero wasn't an option). That said, from chapter one I was already rolling my eyes and snorting to myself when I thought: "You know what? I'll actually give it a try." So I cleared all of the my initial thoughts and got into the story. Now, let me start by saying that I didn't hate the book...I hated the relationship between the main characters, as well as some most of the decisions they made.

So, we have Abby & Travis aka the Wanna-Be-Good-Girl and the Incredible Hulk sans green skin. Oh, wait. Green stands for jealousy, right? Leave the green skin then, since Abby couldn't have sneezed in another guy's direction without Travis huffing and puffing and threatening to break someone's face.

If you haven't noticed by now, I HATE it when jealousy consumes a relationship. Hate it, I think there's no reason for you to feel like you need to beat anyone down for glancing at your partner. Yeah, we're all human, but guess what? There's this thing called self-control. Maybe they were glancing (and I'm talking to you, Travis) because it's freaking college and Abby's a decent looking girl. You ever think of that? Gawd, I spent the later half of the book wanting to throw my iPod (it was an audiobook) across the room because hey, I'm an impressionable teenager and since it's okay for Travis to wreck nice things, why can't I?

*takes deep breath* But I can't blame this ALL on Travis. It's Abby, too. Abby, as an individual, is pretty damn decent. She's in college, trying to forget her past, carve out a new life for herself and all that jazz. In the beginning, when she meets Travis after his fight, she resists him.

And, let me just say, I liked Travis in the beginning too. Tattoos, nice muscles, and he seemed to have a friendly, charming personality before he turned into a raging psychopath. But back to Abby...I thought she was a complete, unnecessary bitch after her meeting with Travis. She judged him immediately without knowing him as a person. That frustrated me relentlessly & was her first strike for me.

So after getting to know him a bit, they decide to be "friends". And why is friends in quotes, you ask? Because it was a bullshit excuse. Well into the book, when they were getting drunk and dirty dancing and cuddling in the same damn bed, Abby was still crying "we're still friends!" Really? Fucking REALLY? It got worse because after they've SLEPT TOGETHER, she had the gall to still date a different guy and spout the same bullshit line. WE'RE JUST FRIENDS. Were you, Abby? Because I can honestly say I've never done any of those things with any of my friends. The whole time I was just like open your fucking eyes.

That was the only point where I felt Travis's anger was well-deserved. At that point, he'd fallen in love with her and taken her signals as any guy would do only to have her date some other guy, all while telling them both "we're just friends." Shit, I'd probably lose my marbles too if some guy I loved was giving me the run-around (mind the phrase) like that. That was Abby's second strike.

The third and final strike was when she and Travis and her friends America and Shepley (Travis's cousin) go out, and two guys hit on Abby at separate occasions, yet on the same night. Travis goes ballistic, trying to pummel the guys each time, and on the second occurrence, hits the guy and ALMOST HITS ABBY!!!

Oh, hell no! Oh, HELL NO! I actually had to put my iPod down and think about this one. He almost PUNCHED HIS GIRLFRIEND IN THE FUCKING FACE. And all because he couldn't control himself. It was here where I was like "NO, Abby, you need to escape this relationship NOW!" I mean, there'd been SO MANY warning signs leading up to it. Travis telling her she made him psycho/crazy, telling her he'd never let her go, telling her that if she slept with someone else he'd go to jail. But HELL NO. This scene put things into perspective for me. Abby reacted accordingly, I give her props for that. She went off, saying she wouldn't be the first girl he ever hit. And for a moment, I thought their relationship was over. But nope! Eventually, what was an unforgivable almost-punch WAS forgivable after all by Abby's standards.

For that, I'd forsaken both Abby and Travis, leaving them to their not-so-beautiful-actually-abusive-are-you-stupid-oh-wait-of-course-you-are disaster of a relationship. (Yet somehow I still forced myself to read/listen to the whole thing.)

This review is already too long, so I'm just going to wrap it up with a few points. First, I give it three stars because, although the relationship disgusted me, the writing was great and easy to follow. The plot was gritty and realistic, as well as filled with captivating drama. It took me through emotional highs and lows, even though disbelief and anger and incredulity ruled over me as I read/listened.

Second, I actually LIKED the heroine as the story progressed, so her involvement with Travis made me more dissapointed than anything. Abby was likeable enough once I got over her initial judgmental tendencies. She seemed smart and straight-forward with a good head on her shoulders. She recognized her relationship with Travis for the obsession that it was. Except, she crossed out all of her good characteristics by choosing to be with him anyway.

And third, there was nothing "beautiful" about their relationship, its utterly misleading and promotes the idea that its OKAY to be treated this way by your overly aggressive, controlling but OMG-he-has-tattoos-and-is-so-irresistably-HAWT-I-KNOW-I-can-change-him boyfriend. (And that wasn't entirely Abby's P.O.V. after they fell in love, but that's still what I got out of it.) It's not okay.

All right. I'm done. I'm exhausted. And I hope I never have to go through that again because I've never wished for a relationship to end as much as I did with those two dysfunctional people.

Review - Daughter of Smoke & Bone - By: Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 27th, 2011
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1
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Synopsis via Goodreads

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

My rating:

WARNING: This review may contain spoilers, so keep reading at your own risk.

It's always a bit strange writing an average review about a book that everyone seems to love, but I just couldn't get into this story as much as I wanted to. The story's pretty prose and protagonist earned it a high rating initially, but its failure to execute all of the potential it had in the beginning lowered my rating down to 3 stars.

This book had been on my to-read list for months, so when I saw it at my local library I pounced, convinced it would be the greatest book ever, especially after reading the stellar reviews. Like I said, it had all the potential in the world. Laini Taylor's writing style is flawless. Not too flowery, not too plain, but capturing enough to keep you reading. From the first page, I was hooked:

"The falling snow and the early hour conspired to paint Prague ghostly, like a tintype photograph, all silver and haze."

It's hard to come by YA this well-written nowadays, and I loved how effortlessly it flowed. Plus, the setting. Prague. Not some small town that the protagonist is bitter about being sent to, not New York or L.A. or any other large American city. Freaking Prague, a place that I'd never imagine a YA novel taking place, yet loving it all the more for that reason.





I mean, look at that.

Aside from the setting, there's the protagonist, Karou. Can I just take a moment to say how much I love that name? From the first description of her, I knew she'd be unique:

"She held her coffee mug in one hand and clutched her coat closer with the other. An artist's portfolio was slung over her shoulder, and her hair--loose, long, and peacock blue--was gathering a lace of snowflakes."

Coffee, you say? An artist's portfolio? Blue hair? Check, check, and check, and just like that, I was on board. But it's not just that. Karou is the epitome of a relatable, smart, and funny heroine. Well, up until she meets the hero, but I'll get to that later. She's spent her whole life being raised by chimaera (part-human, part-animal creatures) and has no idea who her real parents are. She has no idea who she is or where she came from. All she knows is the chimaera, and running errands for them, yet still she manages to maintain some sense of normality in her life. There's her ex-boyfriend, Kaz, whom I found hilarious for some reason, and her best friend Zuzanna, who was as loyal as they come. Zuzanna accepted Karou's weirdness and random absences (due to Karou's errands) with stride up until Karou is attacked by an angel.

And this is where things start going downhill. Try to stick with me through this.

So, we already know that Karou has ties to the weird, supernatural creatures known as chimaera. Her foster father, Brimstone, is one and he's the specific person that she runs errands for. There's also the rest of her pseudo-family, consisting of Issa, Twiga, and Yasri, all chimaera. As if knowing that these creatures exist & being raised by them & loving them like family isn't enough, both Karou and the reader get introduced to angels, who are the enemies of chimaera. So when Karou is attacked by one, it's a huge deal.

Right around the time Karou is attacked, these burnt black handprints begin to appear on all of the portals from the human world to Elsewhere (as Karou calls it), which is where chimaera live. We find out that this is the work of angels (also known as seraphim) who want to end the long-lasting war between them and the chimaera. By marking the portals with the handprints and destroying them later, they close the bridge between the human world and Elsewhere.

This is where it begins to affect Karou. Without the portals, she loses all contact with her foster family, who are in Elsewhere. Or dead, for all Karou knows. So, when she is attacked and almost killed by the angel, she has nobody to turn to but her best friend Zuzanna. Thus, the quest to know who she is and where she came from is intensified.

This is where things start going from bad to worse.

The angel who attacked Karou's name is Akiva, and he apparently couldn't stop thinking about her after their fight. So he decides to stalk her life for a bit before facing her again. Karou reacts like anyone else would. She's wary, and then decides to fight him before he can try to kill her again. But guess what? Apparently Akiva is sorry for almost murdering her in a heartbeat, and so he surrenders.

And what does Karou do?

She takes him to her home, and questions him because, obviously, knowing who she is and where she came from is more important than finding her family and seeing if they're okay or even alive.

After getting her answers from Akiva, and letting him sleep in her home, the two spend the next day getting to know one another. Her reasoning? She feels a pull towards him, and can't seem to resist it. It's as if the universe rejects them being apart. 'Cause, you know, it's not like he tried to kill her without thinking. Or, it's not like she's aware of the fact that they're enemies. And after a single day of knowing him, Karou is certain she's in love. And, go figure, so is Akiva.

A day, I kid you not.



The rushed romance between them was my least favorite part of this book. Though Laini Taylor's writing made it slightly better, I still couldn't get past it. And when we finally find out who Karou is, and why she feels so connected to Akiva, the romance still fell flat.

By the end, I'd lost every sense of connection I felt for the characters. The lack of urgency from the time that Karou met Akiva made the potential die down. It began to drag, and even the best writing the world can't make up for that. Everything at the end wrapped up so quickly, and while it was a good ending, it didn't overcome the predictability of the middle. All in all, it was decent, but I sincerely hope the next book is better.