Review - The Immortal Rules - Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules
Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: April 24th, 2012
Series: Blood of Eden #1
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Synopsis via Goodreads

To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness….

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.

Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for… again.

My rating:

If someone asked me what I thought of this book, this would probably be my reaction:

Typically, when I see a book that I might want to read, I head straight over to Goodreads. I size up the synopsis and then read a few reviews from the people with similar tastes to mine. And maybe a few who don't have the same tastes, because it's always good to get multiple perspectives.

Anyway, that's what I did with The Immortal Rules. And everyone swore up and down that it was the best dystopian/vampire novel out there. (Or maybe the only dystopian/vampire novel out there, therefore making it the best. I don't know. I've yet to come across any others.) So, I gave it a chance and went in with high expectations.

That was my first mistake.

I expected way too much. I thought it'd have all of the aspects I generally love in a book--an intricate plot, relatable characters, a healthy dose of romance. But that wasn't what this book was about. In my haste to dive into it and make it a new favorite, I compared it to my other favorites.

That was my second mistake.

I enjoyed The Immortal Rules. I didn't love it. Maybe it just wasn't for me. After all, I tend to crave more wit and romance as opposed to the adventure and coming-into-oneself stuff. Still, I liked it enough.

The main character, Allison Sekemoto, was interesting to read about. I found myself wanting to know more about her life and why she lived the way she did and where she came from. She was tough and jaded. While the jaded part did get annoying a few times, her other characteristics made up for her flaws. I liked that she was strong-minded & opinionated & had her own morals, but still possessed that rebellious-with-a-cause flair. Except, something was missing. I could never pinpoint it, but something kept me from relating to her fully. I understood her motivations, but that was about as deep as it went.

I felt the same about the secondary characters, which consisted of a small group of wanderers. Well, I don't think they counted as wanderers since they had a destination in mind. That aside, I don't know if it was the sheer size of the group (11 people, not including Allison) that kept me from caring or what, but I found myself only giving a crap about whether they reached their destination out of curiosity. Zeke, the love interest and member of the group stood out a little bit more. He was heroic and determined and loyal and handsome--but boring. The same thing that happened with Allison happened with him. Something was missing. I didn't care enough about him.

The plot itself was basic. Easy to follow & predict. It balanced between Allison surviving and wandering around, and that was it. Nothing quite new, but the writing was decent enough to keep me reading. The beginning intrigued me but it got old quickly, so I was glad when things picked up during the later half. A few times, the setting was obscure, so I couldn't grasp what the characters were doing as the story progressed, especially when they went to the city that was partly underwater.

Despite being both paranormal and dystopian, the realism was astounding. Once I overlooked the lack of incessant humor or heart-wrenching drama and recognized the story for what it was (the struggle of a new vampire's acclimation to an unfamiliar lifestyle), I realized that I liked the jadedness. I liked that people died and it sucked. I liked that Allison struggled with both being a human and then a vampire. I liked that everything wasn't easy and required sacrifices.

The Immortal Rules is a book that I'm glad I read, but it will probably be a while before I read the next one--even with that slightly cliffhanger-y ending.

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.