Review: The Guardian of Bastet by Jacqueline M. Battisti

Cat-shifter Trinity Morrigan-Caine has discovered a demon is killing supernaturals. Magically challenged, she has every intention of letting handsome Alpha werewolf Gordon Barnes handle it. But after a dying vampire gifts Trinity a mystical amulet, she is drawn into the fray as the legendary Guardian of Bastet, a warrior born when the need arises.

Though Trinity initially rejects the role, she warms to the idea when Gordon agrees to train her—and their passion for each other grows as he teaches her to embrace her animal instincts.

As she begins to accept her destiny and believe in her growing powers, Trinity realises the danger is even closer to home than she ever imagined—and she and Gordon are going to have to face the demon in a fight to the death...

MY OPINION:

Trinity is a sassy, kick ass character.She is a shifter.Her mother is a powerful witch and her father is an alpha were puma. However trinity has neither a flair for witchcraft nor does she transform into any impressive animal.She is a simple cat shifter.
Here is a brief of the rest of the story:
She doesn't believe in her worth nor does her mother.However, an old vampire believes her to be a reincarnation of a warrior goddess and presents her a powerful  Amulet .He believes that only Trinity can,with the help of the Amulet , send the demon back.The story progresses further as Trinity realises her self worth and eventually faces the demon.


The story was a little slow in the start but picked up pace later on. The relationship between the characters wasn't well developed..I personally think they needed more time together to develop that degree of closeness There should have been a little more of Trinity and Gordon since they kept on saying:  "We will talk about this after all this is over!"
But what happens after all is over? Pah! nothing..! Well duh..!Also there  seemed a certain friend she had been interested in and  though about how well he knew her etc etc..But later he is just sent to a trip and this new bossy person who doesn't even know her well enough gives her his loyalty on the basis of the powerful Amulet she is granted....AND... of course they fall in love!(I am being sarcastic..!).not because he began to understand her but because he thinks she is worth respect now that she carries the Amulet..!!

Trinity is sassy, feisty and has got spunk but when it comes to men, she has the morals of,well ,an alley cat! I am not sure I liked the part when she ends up having sex with THE DEMON..!

Lily dear allowed to get away even after being intentionally ignorant and therefore partially responsible for the death of so many people..all because she is family??..Oh..! They must have taken certain action..but..of course..we as the readers are expected to imagine it because the author didn't care to mention it.

So, the ending was definitely flawed as were a few parts in-between.

My Rating:

Are you a book lover..?

                            Are you a book lover..?

Review:Softly at Sunrise (KGI #5.5) by Maya Banks

Rachel Kelly has traveled a long, hard road in her journey back to her husband, Ethan, and the Kelly family. Now, as she and Ethan are poised to move into their new home, safe behind the walls of the Kelly compound, Rachel wonders if she’ll finally be free of the ghosts that have haunted her for so long and if she’ll step into the sun after a past steeped in darkness.







MY OPINION:


Since I am a great fan of the KGI series by Maya Banks, I was eager to read this book...and it didn't disappoint me! 
Softly at Sunrise is a short novella about Rachel and Ethan from The Darkest Hour(KGI#1). Rachel has been through a horrific ordeal in the past and is still working on returning to the normal life. Its a tale about how Rachel and Ethan work on overcoming the demons of their past and move forward. There is a little action too (Its the KGI series after all..!) and a sweet surprise..or should I say twin surprises..? *wink**wink*
There is a teaser about P.J as well which made me all the more curious and impatient about the next book.
To sum up ,this novella is a  short romantic  interlude between the other KGI series books and lovers of the series will surely love it !

Rating:

Review: Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle

Lucretia’s best friend and upstairs neighbor Sunny—a sweet pitbull of a kid, even as she struggles with a mysterious illness—has gone missing. The only way to get her back is for Lucretia to climb the rickety fire escape of their Queens tenement and crawl through the window of apartment 6D, portal to a vast shadowland of missing kids ruled by a nightmarish family of mutants whose designs on the children are unknown. Her search for Sunny takes Lucretia through a dark fantasyland where she finds lush forests growing from concrete, pigeon-winged rodents, and haunted playgrounds. Her quest ultimately forces her to confront the most frightening specter of all: losing, forever, the thing you love the most.

Lucretia and the Kroons is a dazzlingly imaginative adventure story and a moving exploration of the power of friendship and the terror of loss. This all-new novella serves as the perfect companion piece to The Devil in Silver, a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror that continues the story of Lucretia.

MY OPINION:

        *I received this book from Netgalley for review*

When I saw that the genre is Horror,my first instinct was to avoid reading it.Even as a child I used to avoid reading Goosebumps (thought the reason can be attributed more to a rather insensitive beast who took great pleasures in terrifying his little sister..!).Anyway,I am going off the topic..Hey! No, I am NOT ! By now most of you think I am crazy..! Well, I am not! You see,this book fantastically reminded me of such incidents:Older brother narrating terrifying stories about monsters to his kid sister. So back to the book,I gathered courage and read it.*surprise**surprise* its not a nightmare giver at all..!

Its a story about a 12 year old girl Lucretia, who's best friend and upstairs neighbour Sunny is suffering from a terminal illness.When Sunny goes missing,the only way to get her back is for Lucretia to climb the rickety fire escape of their Queens tenement and crawl through the window of apartment 6D,where nightmarish family of mutants called 'Kroons' reside.The apartment itself appears to be a doorway to a parallel dimension which is inhabited by missing kids and ruled partly by Kroons and partly by a 'cloud of rats'. Her adventure ultimately forces her to confront the most frightening spectre of all: losing her best friend.The end of the book hints at it all being an imagination of young Lucretia,her way of coming to terms with the loss of her best friend.

Its a short, nice and an engaging read. The pace of the story was good and the length just right.There was no dragging and the story kept me hooked.
I found the book surprisingly insightful of the way a 12 year old thinks and how girls that age are conscious about themselves.
The horror in the book is nothing intense, making it a very suitable read for children.

Rating:

Review: Shattered Dreams by Ellie James

Sixteen-year-old Trinity Monsour wants nothing more than to live a normal life. But that isn’t as easy as it seems. Trinity is different. She is special. She sees visions, and for those she’s seen, it’s already too late.

Trinity arrives on her aunt’s doorstep in New Orleans with virtually no knowledge of her mysterious heritage. She begins settling into life at a new school and even starts making friends. But all too quickly her dreams accelerate; twisted, terrifying visions of a girl locked in a dark room. And when the head cheerleader, Jessica, goes missing, Trinity knows she has no choice but to step forward with what she’s seen.

But people believe that Trinity has information about Jessica’s disappearance not because of a dream, but because she is involved. She is kind-of dating Jessica’s ex-boyfriend, Chase, and Jessica did pull a nasty prank on Trinity. Revenge seems like the likeliest scenario.

Nothing prepares Trinity for the dark odyssey that ensues while searching for Jessica, including the surprising romance she finds with Chase, or the shocking truths she learns, not just about the girl who has gone missing, but the past that has been hidden from her


MY OPINION:


OK , so the synopsis of the book was interesting enough and made me look forward to reading it but it ended up being a huge disappointment .The starting was decent enough but the transition from normal to mystery was too sudden and too early.There was no gradual development in the intensity and by the time I had read one third of the book everything was way too confusing..!The characters weren't fully developed.
There were far too many loose ends.
Seemed to me like the author just kept compiling random thoughts about the plot but never shaped any of those into a plot.
Throughout the book I found random information and scenes and kept on reading hoping to find a link later on...but I never did find any.

I still couldn't get the following...(those who have read the book would know)

-Emma Watson..?? She hated Trinity's mother because of her son-in-law..?? Why..??

-the scene when they went to visit her mother's cousin,the cat,the knife,the mirror,...the context of it all to the main story ?

- the scene with the tarot and palm reader??

-Who was following her..??Now or throughout her life?? How?? why??

The questions were all there in the book but sadly there were NO answers.I guess the author sort of wanted to create a certain amount of suspense regarding the other books yet to come in the series..but she monumentally failed in hooking me up to the story in the process.

Rating:

Review: Starkissed by Brynna Gabrielson

Kissing movie star Grant West may be every teenage girl’s dream, but when it happens to Sydney Kane, it’s nothing but a nightmare. Sure he’s cute, but having her face plastered all over celebrity gossip blogs is not something she’s interested in. Now cheerleaders are trying to befriend her, reporters won’t stop calling, and her mother keeps chasing her with a curling iron so she won’t be caught by the paparazzi with flat hair ever again. 

Forgetting Grant is all Sydney wants and Colin, the guy she’s had a crush on since seventh grade, seems like a pretty good way to do it. Then Grant shows up at Sydney’s door begging for a second chance and the more she gets to know him, the more she isn’t sure she wants him to go away. But with Grant in the picture, Colin is backing off and she definitely doesn’t want that. Everything is a mess and Sydney doesn’t know what to do, who to choose, or how to make those pesky cheerleaders leave her alone. She only knows one thing for sure, being STARKISSED isn’t a dream come true at all.

MY OPINION:

My first reaction when I read the blurb was :- Oh No! A love triangle again..!But somehow because of the beautiful cover I still went on and read it..and I don't regret it !
Now that I have read it I can tell you, there is no love triangle (at least not a proper one that makes you want to pull your hair out..!). The author has just built up a situation which could have progressed into a love triangle..BUT..it doesn't..! *smile**smile*

The story line is good ,interesting and progressive.There are a few funny instances as well:

She parades down the stairs wearing a tight black skirt, knee high stiletto boots, and a mauve, curve hugging shirt. She makes it to the third to last stair just fine, but then Grant looks up and meets her eyes. She gets flustered and when she goes to take the next step, she loses her footing and falls the remaining way down. 

 Also,

“Nice view,” he says.
“Uh yeah,” I respond intelligently

It's a nice and relaxing summer read. If you are looking for a light, easy, summer romance read, this book is for you.
Here's one last quote from the book for you all:

“Look at that, you’re dancing already.” He grins.
“This isn’t dancing.”
“It is in my book.”
“Well your book is obviously not well written.”

I hope you all enjoy reading it..! :)

Rating:

Pic of the Day..!

              I just had to share this with you all..!!

Review: A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorced dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great. Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together. Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about.

MY OPINION:

The book deals with teen issues,insecurity and the need for love by a teen aged girl whose parents are divorced.I honestly did cry with Whitley a few times while reading the book.Now, this will surely make you ask- why such a low rating?

I had some major problems with the conclusion and quite a few other things.


What I wanted to say to Whitley:

Your mother should get over herself already because divorce took place 6 years ago!Well, try putting yourself in her shoes...You are married to a guy for about 10-15 years and have 2 kids with him and suddenly out of the blue he cheats on you!--->Its the other way of saying 'I don't care about you'.Isn't it the same as your parents not caring for you all of a sudden?..SO.. get over yourself already..!

Other things that didn't agree with me:

1)All her life she's been blaming her mother for separating her from her dad and moving away. She states too, that her dad did not try for reconciliation.Didn't she ever question why..?

2)Even when her dad admits that he did not want her,spent the entire vacation ignoring her and doting on 

Nathan and Bailey  and didn't even care about the entire facebook thing...he says sorry, I love you, and all is well..??

3)Even when she comes to know that her father cheated on her mother..no apology..just you did not give me attention...??seriously.?? At least she wanted you when your father didn't even want you!.
Your father didn't even take the pain to inform you about his engagement.

4)Frankly,between her mother and father,her father was the greater sinner,yet,there was no reconciliation with her mother..she just kept ignoring the calls from her mother .

5)Falling for step brother...having sex with him..?? Uh...well..no comments..!

Moreover, Whitley confrontation with her father at the end of the story felt really anti-climatic and insufficient. The solution and interaction was done too quickly to be meaningful.
So well...

My Rating:

Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and 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 needs—and wants—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 OPINION:


Its an addictive read.It is a total roller costar ride of intense emotion. You love the book,you hate it,you are frustrated but you can't put it down.
I have mixed thoughts about the book.I like and hate the book at the same time.There were so many instances when I was extremely frustrated and had I written this review then, it would surely have been brutal.There were so many times while reading the book when my mind would automatically start cataloguing instances to be mentioned in the negative review.But despite it all..did I give up reading the book?? The answer is NO.Whenever I kept it down an insane curiosity would cause me to open it again and start reading it.This is what in my opinion makes it a good book.

Note:I didn't say its an easy read.Its gritty,its violent. Its rouses insane, dark, incomprehensible emotions.

Many books we like are because they fulfil a secret fantasy or fuel it, because we can relate to them or because they deliver the anticipated and in general leave us filled with a happy or righteous feeling.This book expends all emotion.It brings out all types of emotions and leaves you feeling exhausted.It's this ability of the book to bring out intense vicarious feelings in the reader which makes a commendable piece of work.

Having said all this I won't recommend it for people below the age of 18.

Rating:

Review: Entangled by Cat Clarke

What does he want from me?
How could I have let this happen?
Am I going to die?

17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with table, pens and paper—and no clue how she got there.

As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she’s tried to forget. There’s falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there’s something missing. As hard as she’s trying to remember, is there something she just can’t see?

Then, in a story full of dangerous revelations, Grace must face the most important question of all: why is she here?


MY OPINION:


Entangled by Cat Clarke is a nice read. It may be a little confusing read for some but on the whole its good.
It deals with so many issues; cutting, pregnancy, relationships, suicide. It provides an inner view of the thought process of the young and how they view cutting as an escape.
What really made me give this book the extra 1.5 in the rating was the ending. My best part of the book was the last part-
- about how Grace attempts suicide and ends up in coma at the hospital. 
- the hospital visits from Devon, Sal, Nat and her mother.
- the uncertainty of Grace's coming out of coma and yet the definite end of her inner turmoil with new hope for tomorrow and the never give up attitude

The book ends at an uncertain and yet a positive note..!

Rating:

Review : The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse

As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up.

The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway






MY OPINION:

Oh! wow...!! The book managed to surprise me.Frankly,I didn't find the cover or the blurb exciting.I usually prefer nicely developed romance novels or books with intense emotion. This book has no paranormal element in it and is rather gritty.My reaction after reading the book was :

The book is nicely written with an explanation for everything. Though the explanations may not be the best in all cases but they are in most cases, satisfactory.


Let me start with the book summary:
When Alenna Shawcross is 10 years old her parents are arrested by the military police and she ends up becoming a ward of the United Northern Alliance and leading a life in a govt. run Orphanage . It is a rule of the state that all the kids no matter what their background have to undergo Government Personality Profile Test—GPPT when they turn 16.Its a test that predicts a propensity for criminal activity years in advance and can identify potential murderers, rapists, thieves, and psychopaths before they act on their impulses.The test is performed by injecting a serum and scanning the brain. The kids who fail the test are labelled “Unanchored Souls” and considered to be potentially harmful and are transferred/deported to an island where the expectancy of life is 18 years.Alenna goes for the test and is shocked when she wakes up on the island after her test.The island is called "The Wheel" by its inhabitants and is divided into 6 sectors.These sectors can be basically categorised into 3 categories:
The grey area:off limits to most of the inhabitants.The scientific hub of the govt. with labs,industrial buildings and airstrips.
The blue sector:inhabited by a group of kids who have built a new version of life in the wild conditions by uniting their talents and division of chores.
The Monk ruled region:A mysterious person called "The Monk" controls four sectors—orange, purple, yellow, and red.
The inhabitants of the blue sector and the Monk controlled sectors are constantly at war with each other.

Alenna and others of the blue sector realise that despite all their effort they are barely able to survive i.e they are merely existing on the island but it can't be called living.Also,they may not be able to escape the mysterious death causing disease prevalent in the island forever. So they decide to cross the boundary into the grey area which might hold the answer to their escape.And thus they embark on a journey full of challenges and fraught with danger.Eventually they uncover the truth regarding the real reason the got sent to Prison Island Alpha.


The flow of the story was good.The story was fast paced and action packed which kept me hooked.The were a lot of twists and turns which kept me from loosing interest.The end was nicely packed up too.There were many questions that were answered in the end which gave the story a lot more substance as compared to the initial lame reasoning.

The romance wasn't something well developed.They had known each other for hardly a few days and they fall in love..?? Also,despite the fact that they used to play as kids it certainly did not explain an instant rapport.How can it when they don't even remember it...? It seemed to me more like a case of mutual crush which came out in the form of the words :"I love you" in desperate circumstances. Who knows may be the harsh environment and the difficult living conditions made them understand each other enough to fall in love..or maybe...they understood just enough to fall in love and will undergo character development during the course of their relationship.Perhaps in the course of their relationship they will come to understand each other better and will learn to make adjustments and allowances for each other as well.Oh..! Now I am running away with my imagination..!


Allena is just like any other average girl, nothing much special,which in my words makes her real and easy to relate to.She wasn't a skilled fighter or had the grit for it in the beginning but the harsh circumstances in the island shaped her into one.The only difference b/w the kids on the island and the others is that their genetic make-up is able to resist the sedating chemicals that the government puts in the thought-pills. Other than that they are just normal kids.That's what made it a special read for me.

To sum it all up,I found it to be a worthy read and I am really curious about what will happen in the next book.

Rating:

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Review: Oh, Brother! by Peg Cochran

Oh, Brother! by Peg Cochran

What happens when the hottest boy in school becomes your stepbrother?

Mac Daly’s friends can’t believe she’s going to be writing the “advice to the lovelorn” column for their high school newspaper--she has never even had a boyfriend. Mac bets them she can snare Travis Cooper, one of the hottest guys in school. But then Mac discovers that Travis is about to become her stepbrother.




MY OPINION:

This book is about a 14 year old girl Mac Daly who's just begun to write for “advice to the lovelorn” column for their high school newspaper--she has never even had a boyfriend.When Amber,a gorgeous blonde cheerleader(you could think of her as a bitch from the school's in-crowd..!)taunts Mac about never having had a boyfriend Mac bets that she could snare Travis Cooper, one of the hottest guys in school. But then Mac discovers that Travis is about to become her stepbrother.

Hearing about this Amber suddenly turns friendly.Mac revels in this new-found friendship and ignores her other two friends.

Having read this much of the story(about 1/2 of the book..!) I naturally assumed that it would be followed by something boring and predictable along the lines of a series of events happening and Mac finally realizing her mistake etc etc...But that's not how it went..oh! it did ,but not the way I had though it would. It was rather followed by a development of Mac's character (Big time..!),a new romance and a new brother-sister relationship.By the end of the book I was rather impressed by the strengthening and development in Mac's character. 

Also,I for one, loved the author's humorous way with words.For instance:

"At first, all I could think about was the fact that here was Travis Cooper, lead singer of Travesty, super cool guy who had kissed me (okay, only on the cheek, but still), and I was dressed as the torso-less, artificial-limbed eighth wonder of the world"

another one:

"Score! I finally had the thing, whatever it was, caught with my chopsticks. Now to get it to my mouth without dropping it...I did it!

I took a bite, and it was like someone had lit a match inside my mouth. I spit it out, and it landed right on Mark’s tie. I didn’t care."

All in all, it's a light, relaxing and fun read.Nothing out of the ordinary or intense but unique in its own way.

Rating:


                                                                                                                     

Books are art..!

                       Books are art..!!

Welcome

Hey all..!:)

Here goes my first blog post and I welcome you all to my blog.I love reading so this blog will be mostly about books ,though other interesting things might find their way here.I hope you all enjoy visiting my blog.