Book Review: Secondhand Spirits

TITLE: Secondhand Spirits
Book 1 in the Witchcraft Mystery series
AUTHOR: Juliet Blackwell
PUBLISHED: 2009
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Cozy Mystery, Mystery, Urban Fantasy, Witches
PREMISE: A witch runs a vintage clothing store and gets caught up in a murder mystery.
MY REVIEW: This book is another result of me going through the cozy mystery genre. But this is one series I think I may actually continue. It's not just a cozy mystery, it's urban fantasy as well. Now, for a lot of these, the world-building can suffer and be put aside for drama (see the Bewitching Mysteries series) but not for this one. I do get the sense that the author has actually thought this world through and is not just having the magic there to grab interest or something.
True, as with all of these cozy mysteries, there are a lot of tropes that are familiar. But the author does make me care about the characters. Also: yay, female friendship. It's amazing the lack of female friendship in books so I always like to give a shout out to authors who actually have it (actual friendship guys, not frienimies stuff. Frienimies do not count as friends in my book).
If you're in the mood for a magical cozy mystery, I highly rec this one.
WHO SHOULD READ: cozy mystery fans, Bewitching Mystery fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five vintage dresses

Book Review: Let the Sky Fall

TITLE: Let the Sky Fall
Book 1 in the Sky Fall series
AUTHOR: Sharon Messenger
PUBLISHED: March 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Romance
PREMISE: Vane remembers nothing of his time before he lived with his adoptive parents. Then he meets a strange girl who tells him he's a prince...
MY REVIEW: First, I swear I will refrain from making James Bond references during this review. Because lets all be honest here: the first thing that pops into your head with that title is the Adele song of the same name. Sadly, this doesn't have much to do with Bond.
This book suffered from what I like to call Deja Vu Ville. It is when you read a book, it has a slightly interesting world in it, but the plot, the characters, the scenarios all sort of feel very familiar because they are really common book tropes. The world-building is very nice. Messenger's writing is also solid. It's just that everything else....has kind of been done before. Especially in YA and especially in the fantasy/urban fantasy genre.
So...it's not the best in terms of uniqueness. But, if you're in the mood for a romantic urban fantasy, I suppose you could do worse then this one.
WHO SHOULD READ: Those who don't mind cliches, Urban fantasy fans (who again: don't mind cliches)
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five this has been done before shrugs

Top Ten Halloween Reads

This is a weekly meme hosted by the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week: Top Ten Halloween Reads

1) Dracula by Bram Stoker-Pretty much a no-brainer.

2) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley-Again, a no-brainer.

3) Edgar Allen Poe-Specifically, Tell-Tale Heart. But he's got a bunch that are wonderfully creeptastic.

4) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving-Another no-brainer. Oh, and if you haven't checked out the new show Sleepy Hollow, you totally should. It's awesome.

5) Anything Stephan King-It or Carrie would be my picks. But you also can't go wrong with The Shining or Pet Cemetery.

6) Anything R. L. Stine-If you like light spooky, this is the guy to go with. The Goosebumps series and Fear Street series were my crack back in the day and basically my introduction to horror.

7) Bunnicula series by James Howe-What, you never knew about this series with a vampire bunny? If you have kids who are into the creepy, I'd give them this.

8) Anna Dressed in Blood Books by Kendare Blake-One of the best recent paranormal series in YA.

9) Bad Girls Don't Die series by Katie Alender-But especially the first book which features a sister possessed by a ghost.

10) The Mediator series by Meg Cabot-Great series about a girl who sees ghosts and has a hot ghost living in her bedroom.

Book Review: The Wicked Within

TITLE: The Wicked Within
Book 3 in the Gods and Monsters Trilogy
AUTHOR: Kelly Keaton
PUBLISHED: September 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Mythology Referencing
PREMISE: Ari and her friends face down Athena and the gods in the conclusion to the Gods and Monsters Trilogy.
MY REVIEW: This was one of those trilogies that when it started out, I enjoyed it. It was a bit cheesy, sure, but it was fun and there was good stuff. Then the second book happened and I enjoyed it less. Now...I'm kind of apathetic about it really.
This was kind of a ho hum ending really. Nothing happened that I didn't really expect. The only thing that really came out of left field was the ending with Athena (really, that's how you get rid of a Goddess? Throw a baby at her and watch her coo at it?). Oh and the thing with Violet was a wee bit of a surprise, but she turned out okay so it wasn't a huge deal in the end.
I honestly don't have much to say here. Sure, it tied up loose ends, but it was sort of a lackluster ending to a overall just okay trilogy.
WHO SHOULD READ: Fans of books 1 and 2, Percy Jackson fans, mythology fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five mythology figures
RATING FOR TRILOGY: Three and a half out of Five

Book Review: Conjured

TITLE: Conjured
AUTHOR: Sarah Beth Durst
PUBLISHED: September 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: A girl with no memories tries to find out who she is and why she's important to the people holding her captive...
MY REVIEW: As you all know by now: I love Sarah Beth Durst's books. To me, she's one of the many underrated YA authors who fly under the radar which is a darn shame. She's a great writer and she's one of those rare authors who is always always writing something new that she hasn't done before. This book is totally different from her last book, Vessel. The only things her books ever have in common are that they have fantasy elements.
This book is a good example of how she plays with writing style and ideas and I just love that. Though I will say, this is not my favorite of hers (that's probably between Vessel or Drink, Slay, Love) and I don't think it's as good as some of her other books. But like all Durst books, it was interesting because I couldn't predict what would happen. That's a pretty rare thing in YA nowadays.
So, not Durst's best work. But like all her stuff, it's unique and definitely one of the more interesting books of the year.
WHO SHOULD READ: Sarah Beth Durst fans, Fantasy fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five memories

Book Review: The Infinite Moment of Us

TITLE: The Infinite Moment of Us
AUTHOR: Lauren Myracle
PUBLISHED: August 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Romance, Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: Girl meets boy basically.
MY REVIEW: I confess, I never quite got around to reading Shine last year despite everyone reccing it right and left. It's on the list, believe me. It's just one of those that's not really a priority read for me. When I saw Myracle had another out this year, I thought I'd give it a try to at least see how I like her writing despite the fact that contemporary romance is honestly not my genre at all. Sometimes I like to push myself and read books that I otherwise wouldn't normally read. Every so often, that works in my favor (like with Anna and the French Kiss). But a lot of times it backfires on me.
This one, sadly, was a backfire. I just plain didn't like it. I liked the writing style for sure. Myracle has a wonderful way of writing that makes me think that maybe Shine will be way better then this. I hope so because this was a aggravating book for me. The characters drove my last nerve. I didn't believe the insta love for a second. The story was also predictable as hell and thus kind of boring.
So this one was a bust. I may still give Shine a shot, because as I said, I liked the writing style. Unfortunately, writing style alone, cannot carry a book.
WHO SHOULD READ: Contemporary Romance fans (who don't mind cliches)
MY RATING: Two and a half out of Five yawns

Book Review: Dancer Daughter Traitor Spy

TITLE: Dancer Duaghter Traitor Spy
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Kiem
PUBLISHED: August 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Mystery, Historical Fiction (still not comfortable with the idea of a book that starts literally the same month I was born, being categorized as historical fiction)
PREMISE: A girl's life is torn upside down when her mother gets caught up in state secrets in Russia during the Cold War.
MY REVIEW: I think I liked the idea of this novel more then the actual execution of it. Come on a spy novel in the Cold War era? Awesome, right? To be sure, the author did do great research into this. I did honestly feel like this was the eighties and she captured the era and feel of the story well.
Unfortunately she takes far too much time to get to the meat of the story so I spent a large part of this novel being really bored. I'm sorry, but Marina's personal life was simply not as interesting as the stuff going on with state secrets and only like a third of the novel was spent devoted to that. The rest was mostly teen drama in a eighties setting. Which, fine, but when you promise me a great mystery and then don't get to the mystery till over half way through...I get irritated.
So, it was a good idea, it just needed better execution and less wandering plot. I do think this author has potential though, because it was interesting. She just needs to work on focusing her plot.
WHO SHOULD READ: Historical fiction fans, those interested in the eighties
MY RATING: Three out of Five leg warmers

Book Review: The Enchantress

TITLE: The Enchantress
Book 6 in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series
AUTHOR: Michael Scott
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Adventure, Mythology, Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: The twins finally face their destiny in the last book of the series.
MY REVIEW: This series is one of those underrated series that I wish more people knew about but at the same time it does sort of have issues so I also understand why it's not very popular. It didn't help that it was one of the many that came out just as HP was nearing its end and publishers were pumping out fantasy books like whoa in the hopes of finding something that would make it as big (spoiler alert: never happened, but we did get many wonderful series as a result of this frenzy such as Percy Jackson).
So this series has been going on for quite a bit. I'm a little sorry to see it end because as wacky as it could sometimes be (seriously, William Shakespeare is alive in this and is sort of a villain) it was sort of fun. I love how Scott mixes up history/mythology and just plays with it. Again, much of it is wacky and probably will make no sense. But it was fun too.
As an ending to a series this was satisfying. Some of it was predictable as these things can sometimes be, others were actually a surprise. All in all, I liked the ending and am going to miss this series. But I look forward to whatever Scott has in store for us next.
WHO SHOULD READ: Percy Jackson fans, those that have read books 1-5
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five historical figures still alive and kicking ass
Rating for series: Four out of Five

Book Review: Omens

TITLE: Omens
Book 1 in the Cainsville series
AUTHOR: Kelley Armstrong
PUBLISHED: August 2013
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Mystery
PREMISE: After finding out she's the daughter of notorious serial killers, Olivia runs away from her life to the town of Cainsville...
MY REVIEW: I love Armstrong's stuff. You all know that by now. That said...this isn't a favorite of mine. I don't think it totally stinks. There's actually a lot here to make me want to read the next book.
But I will warn: it's slow. Like really slow. I get it's the first book but damn. Also it's more mystery then urban fantasy. So if you were hoping for something knee deep in the supernatural, you're probably better off going elsewhere. Honestly this book was mostly just a set up and a promise that things are coming and it will be supernatural most likely.
So...I'm not a huge fan. But...it's also not bad? I'm on the fence with this one. It doesn't help that I'm really biased towards Kelley Armstrong.
WHO SHOULD READ: Kelley Armstrong fans, Mystery fans, Haven fans (it reminds me a lot of Haven)
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five spooky towns

Top Ten Books I Was Forced to Read

This is a weekly meme hosted by the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week: Top Ten Books I Was Forced to Read

1) Peter Pan by James M. Barrie-Let me explain, you guys had teachers who forced you read stuff.I had them AND I had a grandmother who was a retired English teacher. Whenever I visited her (which was often in my childhood because then she lived half an hour or so away) she would press books into my hands. Or sigh when I told her what we were reading in school and say "here, read this instead". When I told her how much I loved the loved the Disney Peter Pan, she pretty much nodded and said, "okay, then you're ready for this." When she handed me books, I was expected to read them. Luckily I loved it.

2) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll-Another Grandma made me read.

3) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott-One of the few school reads I actually liked.

4) Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling-Because if you say you've never read it, you get horrified looks from readers.

5) The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett-Grandparents read (My Grandfather, also a book reader, would occasionally conspire with Grandma and get me stuff he thought I should be reading as well)

6) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee-Was a "suggestion" from my Mother. Are you getting why I'm a reader yet?

7) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle-School read. Again, one of the few I actually liked.

8) The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis-Made to from Grandmother number two who is quite religious. I didn't notice the religious stuff till someone pointed them out to me and suddenly I knew why she had given them to me despite frowning whenever I mentioned my love of fantasy books.

9) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien-Made to by a well-meaning Middle School but naive teacher who didn't quite get that Lord of the Rings is not something for middle-school. I hated it when I first read it, but when the movies came out I went back and reread it and Lord of the Rings while in late high school and fell in utter love.

10) The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi-Was a gift from Step-Grandmother who was married to Grandfather aka the co-conspirator. This is still one of my favorite historical fiction reads.