In My Mailbox (54)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over The Story Siren that tells people what new books we've gotten over the week. All the links in this go to the book's Amazon page if you want more info.

Downloaded to Kindle:
Miss Marple Book 1: The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie-Can you believe I've never read Christie before even though I love all the Perot and Marple tv stuff? This is me trying to rectify that mistake.
Bright Young Things Book 1 by Anna Godbersen-I'll be honest I'm not sure when I'll get to this because honestly I'm not a huge fan of Luxe which to me was basically Gossip Girl with period dresses and a overly glamourized version of that time period. From the sound of it, this series is going to be more of the same just with Flappers instead. I'm giving it a shot because it's free though.

From the Library:
Bad Girls Don't Die Book 2: From Bad to Cursed by Katie Alender-Bad Girls Don't Die was a recent pleasant surprise for me so I'm eager to read the sequel that recently came out.
Kate Daniels Book 5: Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews-Finally getting around to this one which I've been dying to read ever since I finished up Book 4.
Mercy Thompson Book 5: Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs-I'm trying to wrap up the Mercy Thompson Series. After this I just have River Marked and I'm all caught up with this series which was a book goal of mine this year so yay.

That's all for me this week. What did you get in your mailbox?

Book Review: Die For Me

TITLE: Die For Me
Book 1 in the Revenants series
AUTHOR: Amy Plum
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: paranormal, romance
PREMISE: A girl falls in love with a guy in Paris only to learn that he's a revenant-someone who dies and comes back to life.
MY REVIEW: I had no idea what to expect from this book. It hasn't been a huge one on the bloggersphere. And I certainly see why because honestly it's pretty average. The whole girl meets supernatural guy thing has been done to death and this did not do anything hugely creative with it. But nor did it totally flop either.
As usual the romance was blah and slightly overdramatic. What saves this book from being a total snore is the interesting dynamics in Vincent's group and the idea of the Revenants which was actually rather creative. I also liked that the author did not ignore the issues in the relationship even though in the end she and Vincent were still okay of course.
So I say it's a decent first effort. Writer needs to work a bit on prose and cheesy dialogue but I am sort of interested in seeing where this goes. The next book comes out next year.
WHO SHOULD READ: Twilight fans, romance fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five paris cafes

Book Review: Starcrossed

TITLE: Starcrossed
Book 1 in the new Starcrossed series
AUTHOR: Josephine Angelini
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: mythology, romance, urban fantasy, drama
PREMISE: Helen finds out she's descended from the greek gods and is cursed to play out the greek tragedies like all the ones descended from the gods.
MY REVIEW: Okay, I admit it. I did not really expect much from this book. I figured it would be Twilight but with mythology based on the summary given so I wasn't totally eager to run out and buy it. But you guys, this is a actually GOOD. Okay, the romance is kind of cheesy (up until the revelation at the end then I found it slightly more interesting), it somewhat drags in the middle, and is guilty of occasionally cheesy dialogue.
But for the most part the writing is pretty decent, the characters are interesting and actually have personalities (I LOVE Claire). Even better is that it's creative! The author does follow mythology but like the Percy Jackson books she puts her own spin on things in a as believeable can be way and it's really interesting how she does it too. I love that she's not afraid to be as violent or dark as the greek myths either. No sugar coating the gods here or trying to stick christian ideals into it (yes, I'm looking at you Goddess Test book).
Possibly this is one of my favorite debuts of the year along with Clarity by Kim Harrington. I can't wait to see where the author takes this. Sadly the next book doesn't come out till next year.
WHO SHOULD READ: greek mythology fans, Twilight fans, Percy Jackson fans
MY RATING: Four and out of Five greek gods

Book Review: Matched

TITLE: Matched
Book 1 in the Matched Trilogy
AUTHOR: Ally Condie
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: Dystopian, romance
SHORT PREMISE: A girl lives in a world where everything including who you marry is decided for you.
MY REVIEW: Okay, I liked Matched a lot, I really did. But during reading I suffered from what I have decided to call Over Hype Syndrome. What is Over Hype Syndrome you ask? It's what I've decided to call what happens when I read a book that has been hyped a lot. When a book gets hyped a lot I can't help it: I get high expectations sometimes too high such as the case with Matched. Because I get high expectations it is thus inevitable that the book fails to meet those expectations and I start to notice big gaping problems with the book that I otherwise might have been able to oeverlook in a normal book that wasn't so over hyped. I suppose this is the downside to being a book blogger as opposed to someone who is not so in the know of what's hot.
Because of the hype I noticed plot holes because I was expecting it to be perfect. No book is perfect and Matched isn't. It spends way too much time on the romance angle when I think it would have been better to focus on this really interesting world that Condie created. I personally found the love part to be the most obvious and least interesting thing in the book so I was frusterated when I got an interesting little morsal about the world but then quickly would get back to "oh, is Ky the one?!" To some extent the revalations at the end did explain the focus but at the same time I felt she could have focused on the more interesting parts of the world. I also found the shift of Cassie going "The Society protects us" to "I hate the Society" to be REALLY abrupt and sudden and I didn't understand how she got to that point when a chapter ago she was perfectly happy living under the Society's rule. Plus to be quite honest large parts of this were dull because it focused so much on the obvious and uninteresting romance.
But it was also decently written. It makes you think. I was really interested in this world that Condie created even if I didn't understand everything (such as why people let the Society tell them what to do. I understood it in Delirium because they were essentially numbing people's emotions and thus numbing their free will and it was clear that a lot of brain washing/conditioning was going on as well. That wasn't happening so much here and it was clear not as many people were happy or content with the way things were). Also some of those revelations at the end...ouch. Plus I think this is leading into a much bigger story and we haven't gotten the entire picture yet.
So I give Matched a lot of leeway because I recognize that the over hype gave me way too high expectations and because this is the first book. But I have to say I expect a lot more to actually happen in the second one, like I don't know, something OTHER then "is Ky the one for me?" How about a rebellion because it's clear people aren't happy. Also more on that war that you briefly mentioned in one page would be nice. So I'm giving a higher rating then I would normally with the expectation that the next book will be better and with far more interesting stuff going on. I do think this book is good and recomend it but I was expecting a lot better but again, I think that was due to the over hype. The second book Crossed comes out in October.
WHO SHOULD READ: dystopian fans, Twilight fans, Wither fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five silk dresses

My Top Tens (9)

My Top Ten Ghost books (in no particular order)

1)The Mediator series by Meg Cabot-This is the series that made me a Cabot fan. In this, Suze is a Mediator, a girl who can see the dead who sadly won't leave her the hell alone. Even worse is there's a slightly cute male ghost in her room! But Suze has a calling and it's time she faced it...

2)The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman-My first Gaiman book that I read and I'm still fond of it. It won a Newberry and all sorts of awards and for good reason. This one is about a boy who is raised by a family of ghosts in a graveyard after his parents are murdered.

3)The Gilda Joyce series by Jennifer Allison-Okay technically ghosts haven't made much of an appearance in these books yet but if they do, Gilda will find them because she's a investigater of all paranormal activity. To bad, no one takes her seriously.

4)Darkest Powers Trilogy by Kelley Armstrong-This is a bit of a cheat but ghosts do make a occasional appearance in this because the main character Chloe is a necromancer and can raise/see the dead.

5)The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting-Okay so it's more echoes of the dead that Violet sees but I say it still counts.

6)Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender-A spooky story about ghost possession. One of my pleasant surprises this year. A ghost possesses a teen girl's sister and she does what she can to get her sister back.

7)Ruined by Paula Morris-In this little known YA book a girl goes down to New Orleans and meets the ghost of a slave girl and discovers dangerous family secrets...

8)Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready-In a world where everyone can see ghosts but few can actually communicate with them a girl deals with the ghost of her ex-boyfriend who won't let her move on.

9)Deception by Lee Nichols-In this one a girl can see ghosts and discovers it's a family trait.

10)The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde-In this classic short story a family inherits a mansion but discovers that it comes with a cranky old ghost who doesn't like the new tennants at all. One of my favorites of Oscar Wildes.

Next week: favorite relationships that don't suck.

Book Review: A Touch Mortal

TITLE: A Touch Mortal
AUTHOR: Leah Clifford
PUBLISHED: 2011
GENRE: angels, drama, romance
SHORT PREMISE: A girl becomes an angel
MY REVIEW: Eden has been depressed for a while now but she meets a boy and things start looking up. But then the boy dies and she commits suicide only to find he's not as dead as she thought.
Okay I do give lots of points to the author for not being afraid to touch dark subjects and being rather creative. However I took a big issue with the way suicide was treated in this book. Namely how it was used as a plot device and then virtually ignored. Um...NO. You do not do that with subjects like suicide authors. You ESPECIALLY do not make it the way that people become "angels" in the first place and then have everyone in their human life somehow conveniently forget they ever existed. On behalf of families and friends of people who have commited suicide I find this very offensive. Also read your bible mythology if you're going to do books about angels. I'll give you a hint: people who commit suicide? Don't become angels or what passes for angels in this book. I also didn't care for the heroine who was dull and wrapped up in her boyfriend and of course was uber special even among angels. How wrapped up in her boyfriend was she? She commited suicide to begin with because she thought he was dead. Yeah, great role model for teens there.
Yes this was creative and there were some intrigueing things I even give a pass to the writing but the suicide thing bothers me WAY too much to say go out and buy it. Check it out from the library only.
WHO SHOULD READ: Twilight fans, Fallen fans
MY RATING: Two and a half out of Five

In My Mailbox (53)

This is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at the Story Siren that tells people what new books we've gotten over the week. All the links in this post go to the book's info page at Amazon if you want to know more.

Bought:
Bloodlines Book 1 by Richelle Mead-SQUEE! I don't need to explain why I bought this do I? No? Good.

From the Library:
Starcrossed Book 1 by Josephine Angelini-new one from this year I wanted to read but didn't want to waste money on in case it happened to be bad. Thankfully my library finally got a copy in.
Hannah Swensen series Book 1: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanna Fluke-Finally figured out which of this series was the first and library finally had the first.
Revenants Book 1: Die For Me by Amy Plum-See explanation for Starcrossed.

Book Review: The Liar Society

TITLE: The Liar Society
AUTHOR: Laura and Lisa Roecker
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: mystery, drama
SHORT PREMISE: A girl investigates her friends murder
MY REVIEW: Kate has been dealing with her friends death not very well. A year later she gets emails from her friend's address that hint her death wasn't an accident like it was believed. Now Kate is on the trail to catch a killer..
There was a nice mystery in here I'll admit. Unfortunately for the authors this storyline has been done rather often and in much better ways. See Veronica Mars (no really see it, awesome show that was canceled way before its time). So I wasn't really seeing anything fresh with this other then the fact that hey, a mystery! We haven't had YA mysteries in ages that wasn't written by Sara Shepard. It was a decent enough read though. The heroine was likeable and relateable, male leads were not horrible but not terribly interesting either, and there was suspense going on. It just sort of dragged though and the ending was rather dissatisfying but I have a feeling that the authors are making this into a series.
All in all a decent first book and I may be looking out for more from these two especially if they do continue this like I think they're going to do. That said, it wasn't fantastic either and again, similarities to Veronica Mars were too big to ignore (but to their credit at least they picked a good show to rip off). I'd say check this out from the library/borrow from a friend.
WHO SHOULD READ: Veronica Mars fans, mystery fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five plaid skirts

Book Review: Witches of East End

TITLE: Witches of East End
Book 1 in the new Beauchamp Family series
AUTHOR: Melissa de la Cruz
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: urban fantasy, witches, romance
SHORT PREMISE: A woman and her two daughters are witches living in a town in New England.
MY REVIEW: The premise pretty much explains the book. I admit I checked this out from the library hesitantly because I was less then enamoured with Blue Bloods. But the idea sounded cool and I figured that maybe Cruz's adult writing would be better then her YA books. Unfortunately it's pretty much more of the same old.
Cruz's writing hasn't improved any, which is odd considering I'm sure she's written at least eight books since Blue Bloods and now. This book had all the problems I had with Blue Bloods: boring until the last eighty or so pages and that wasn't enough to convince me to continue reading. Rather annoyingly token characters. This one had the librarian, the party girl, the mothering one, the gay guy and so forth. None of them really had any depth either and I didn't like the ones that I wasn't utterly bored with. I did like the weaving of the mythology that she had in there. That was somewhat interesting. However it was also a tad confusing. Then I looked online and discovered that apparently this book comes with another book: Witches101 that helps you understand the mythology or whatever. Um...I'm sorry but I shouldn't have to buy a book in order to understand another book. That's ridiculous and obviously a ploy to get more money. I don't appreciate it, Cruz (or publisher, who's ever responsible for that marketing ploy). Also for an adult book, it felt remarkably juvenile. The only real adult thing in it was the sex. If you had gut out that, this could have been a YA book.
This book had some compelling ideas but it wasn't enough to make me care about it and I detest that I needed to buy something else to understand it better. Unless you are a huge Cruz fan. I say skip this one. I think I'm done with Cruz's books, they just don't do anything for me.
WHO SHOULD READ: older Melissa de la Cruz fans, fans of Charmed
MY RATING: Two and a half out of Five witches

Book Review: Heartless

TITLE: Heartless
Book 4 in the Parasol Protectorate series
AUTHOR: Gail Carriger
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Urban fantasy, mystery
SHORT PREMISE: Alexia juggles being pregnant and finding out who's trying to kill Queen Victoria.
MY REVIEW: In the lastest Parasol Protectorate, Alexia makes arrangements for her baby, goes investigating after a killer, and of course much drama such as her sister insisting on imposing herself on them.
Well, you've all probably figured out what I'm going to say and yes, I'm still in love with this series. No, it's not brillaint but it's so darn fun and works because it doesn't take itself seriously. All the characters are enjoyable, even the detestable Felicity is fun to an extent. The mystery is diverting, it's fun seeing everyone interact and as always, it's pretty hilarious.
The best series ever? No probably not but still very fun and manages to make the urban fantasy genre feel refreshing which at this time is no easy feat.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that read and liked the first 3 books, steampunk fans, urban fantasy fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five victorian hats