Book Review: Mortal Danger

Title: Mortal Danger (Immortal Games #1)
Author: Ann Aguirre
Genre: Fantasy/Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance - YA
Rating: 4/5
Page Count: 372 (hardcover)
Publication Date: August 5th, 2014

Plot (from Goodreads):
Revenge is a dish best served cold.

In Ann Aguirre's Mortal Danger, Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn’t imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She’s not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he’s impossible to forget.

In one short summer, her entire life changes and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly . . . bad things are happening. It’s a head rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil’s bargains, she isn’t sure who—or what—she can trust. Not even her own mind.

Review:
At the beginning of this book the world felt unreal, in some way, and I'm not sure why. After a bit, that passed and I was fully immersed, but there was still something that felt like it was missing. And, this might of been me, but that also felt intentional - the way that you couldn't quite believe what was going on, because the main character wasn't really accepting it all at first, either, and she wasn't being told a lot, almost nothing.

On the other hand - I really loved the writing and the characters, and the very real portrayal of depression, at the beginning, and I really liked Edie as a character because she was flawed and hurting, at the beginning, but I didn't like how quickly that changed. I didn't like how quickly she was no longer depressed, and had all of this confidence that she didn't have thirty seconds ago, and I think that's one of the things that added to the beginning of the book feeling a little off.

Overall, though, I did enjoy this book. I had some problems with it, those listed above mostly, but I also just really enjoyed it. As soon as things started to pick up and we started to learn more, I instantly just wanted to know more about the mythology, about this world, about what the hell is going on and what's going to happen next.

I'd mostly recommend this book to people who like Young Adult urban fantasy that is heavy on the romance side of things.

I was approved for an eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire #3)

Title: Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire #3)
Author: Kate Locke
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy (Steampunk, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal), Alternate History, Romance
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 311 pages (Hardcover)
Publication Date: November 12th, 2013

Plot: (from Goodreads)
Xandra Vardan thought life would be simpler when she accepted the goblin crown and became their queen, but life has only become more complicated. Everyone -- vampires, werewolves and humans -- wants the goblins on their side, because whoever has the goblins -- wins.

Queen Victoria wants her head, Alpha wolf Vex wants her heart, and she still doesn't know the identity of the person who wanted her blood. What she does know is that a project from one of the 'secret' aristocrat labs has gotten free and she's the only one who can stop the perfect killing machine -- a sixteen year-old girl. With human zealots intent on ridding the world of anyone with plagued blood and supernatural politics taking Britain to the verge of civil war, Xandra's finding out that being queen isn't all it's cracked up to be, and if she doesn't do something fast, hers will be the shortest reign in history.
The fantastic conclusion to the series that started with the spectacular undead steampunk debut, God Save the Queen and The Queen is Dead.

Review:
I'm trying not to put big spoilers for the past books in this review. However, if you haven't read the first or second books in this series, then please turn back now. This will be spoiler free for this book, but not those two. And I have reviews of both of them up: God Save the Queen and The Queen is Dead.

This book has that same great atmosphere, characters, fast pace as the other two in this series, but it definiely wasn't my favorite of the series (I think book two was, I really loved book two). That doesn't mean it wasn't good, obviously I really enjoyed it as I gave it five stars, and, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the last book in the series. And I didn't have any problems with how it ended, no spoilers, of course.

There are questions answered in this one and shit goes down in a major way. And man was it good. Once again, all the things I've said before still stand for this book so I'm trying not to just repeat myself here, but there isn't much else to say without spoiling this one.

This series is full of Steampunk fun and Victorian undertones and I really do recommend this series with love, because it's a ton of fun.

Favorite quotes:

"Oh, they'll think about it," I said with a small smile. "Just before I eat their liver."
To my surprise, he smiled. "That's my girl."

He grinned at me. "Most people trust their parents and not strangers. You have a habit of trusting strangers more then family."
I stared at him. "Have you met my family?"

Book Review: The Queen is Dead (The Immortal Empire #2)

Title: The Queen is Dead (The Immortal Empire #2)
Author: Kate Locke
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy (Steampunk, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal), Alternate History, Romance
Rating: 5/5
Pages Count: 352 (Hardcover)
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013

Plot: (from Goodreads)
Nothing lasts forever---and immortality isn't all its cracked up to be.

When her brother Val gets in over his head in an investigation of Half-Blood disappearances and goes missing himself, it's up to Xandra, newly crowned Goblin Queen, to get him back and bring the atrocities to light. Xandra must frequent the seediest parts of London, while also coping with what she is, the political factions vying for her favor, and the all too-close scrutiny of Queen Victoria, who wants her head. Add this to being a suspect in a murder investigation, a werewolf boyfriend with demands of his own, and a mother hell bent on destroying the monarchy, and Xandra barely knows which way is up. One thing she does know is that she's already lost one sibling, she's not about to lose another.

Review:
I talked about how much I loved this world in my review of the first book, but I just want to say it again because the world becomes even richer in this one. I didn't love this book much more then the first one, except for one character we got so much more of but I'm saving that, but maybe a little more. These books are a lot of fun to read, fast passed, and really good to boot.

They're not super heavy on the romance type of books, but - Xandra and Vex's relationship does play a huge part in these books, and in such a good way. Especially because of how supportive he is of her and, even though he's an actual alpha (he's the alpha werewolf of his pack), he doesn't try and tell her what to do. He'll ask, and maybe push her a bit if it's important to him, but he doesn't just tell her something and it's so, and she wouldn't put up with it if he tried - their relationship is just so good and, actually, adorable and it's one of my favorite elements.

Now, the only reason I'd say I loved this book more was because of one character, like I said earlier: Penny Dreadful. She's Val, who is Xandra's brother, sister, so to both of them - they're family. Penny works at this club called Freak Show and is trans and, from what I can tell, a seriously fabulous, impressive drag queen. There are some great descriptions of her outfits, that just made me ridiculously happy, because I love Victorian fashion and in this book it's that but mixed with modern and - basically what I wish my entire wardrobe was.

And now I'm going to go on a bit of a ramble, and I apologize, but this is the first book that had LGBT characters that were treated like everyday people. It was just expected to be accepted as fact from the readers. Xandra's sister, Avery, has a girlfriend (Fiance) Emily and it's not even talked about at first at all, it's just accepted. And I loved that.

There aren't a lot of books with LGBT characters at all, and I haven't read many at all, and I think because most of the descriptions I've read just sound like something sad. And I don't like sad books, I mean I do in a certain mood, but mostly I just can't read something I know is going to make me break down. Also - I've never read a book that had a trans character before. At all. So, yes, they're technically probably 'secondary' characters, but - Penny was in this book a lot, and she's such a great character. Like I said, though it's very accepted and just such a good way to have LGBT characters in books, because they should be there. And now I'm going to stop before I get more into LGBT characters or more diverse characters in general, because - that's probably multiple posts, but I did want to mention it in this review.

And, now to end my rant and review about this book, I just want to say I'd highly recommend this series, whether you care about my whole thing about LGBT characters or not this series is really good and so much fun.

Favorite quote(s):

I told him about my adventure at the chicken place instead.
"I'm beginning to think you shouldn't be allowed to leave the house," he said with a smile. "I've only been back a few days and already you've had more happen to you than most people have in a year." 

Book Review: Solid

Book: Solid (Solid #1)
Author: Shelly Workinger
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy, Dystopian, Supernatural, Paranormal Romance
Rating: 4/5
Favorite Character: The main girl, Clio, is probably my favorite (even if I have never seen that spelling before. I do still find new ways people have decided to spell my name, though).

Plot: (From Goodreads)

Clio Kaid may be 17 and just beginning the last summer before her senior year, but her life is anything but typical.

She's just discovered she was genetically altered before birth and is now headed to a top-secret Army campus to explore the surprising results of the experiment.

Follow Clio and the other teens as they develop fantastic super-abilities, forge new friendships, and find love as they search for answers.


Review:
When I was first introduced to the idea of this book, I found myself immediately interested. Science interests me more that I care to admit, but DNA is one of my favorite things. This book is pretty short, but it has a lot going on. The characters were probably my favorite part of it.

Overall, I'd say it was good, maybe even really good. I liked the writing, it wasn't perfect, at times it felt a little... clunky, but I was able to look past that, it didn't pull me out of the story any. I didn't have many problems with the book overall.

And I found the story and characters interesting overall. I love trying to figure out something before the characters  it's a weakness. To wrap up this review before I get with the rambling, I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who likes some YA SciFi/Fantasy with some mystery in it. If you've read Solid, what did you think of it?

The second book in this series is Settling; the third and final book is Sound which comes out the 1st of November.

Disclaimer: I did recieve a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Book Review: Blameless

Book: Blameless (Parasol Protectate #3)
Author: Gail Carriger
Genre: Romance (Paranormal Romance, Alternate History, Steampunk)
Rating: 5/5
Page count: 374
Favorite character: If not the main choices of Alecia or Lord Maccon. Maybe the Templars. They are definitely the 'bad guys,' but they're just so interesting, especially because of the plot around them. Or Madame Lefoux

Plot: (From Goodreads)

Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto.


Review:


There may very well be spoilers for the first two books in the review, so if you haven't read them what are you waiting for? I highly suggest you do.

I really loved this book and how we got to see Alecia struggling to figure everything out. I can't put my finger on why I loved this book so much since much of it is spent with Lady and Lord Maccon apart, who are so entertaining when together, but I did indeed love it. It may have something to do with them going to France and then Italy or maybe just Madame Lefoux, who I do enjoy a rather lot.

I also love the dialogue, the humor in this book is perfect and hilarious. And with the dialogue and the lovable characters, I guess it was more impossible for me to not like this book then to love it, which I did.  Also, I didn't know that werewolfs could get that drunk, but I guess that they normally, really, can't. It seems to take dedication and, uh, hard work. It wasn't entertaining, per say, but it also was. And infuriating. I kind of wanted to shake him, because he had to know one some level that Alecia was loyal to him.

I highly recommend this whole series, even though I have yet to finish books four and five, I am sure that they will be just as wonderful as these past three have been. Also, this is definitely not my normal genre of books that I read, but I really enjoyed it.

Book Review: Changeless

Book: Changeless (Parasol Protectorate #2)
Author: Gail Carriger
Genre: Romance (Paranormal Romance, Alternate History, Steampunk)
Rating: 5/5
Page count: 388
Favorite character: Besides Alexia and Lord Maccon, I adore Professor Lyall because, as Beta, he puts up with a lot of stuff and I love that he's almost always completely calm, at least, on the outside.

Plot: (From Goodreads)

Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears - leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.

She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.


Review:

Let me just say if you haven't read the first book in the Parasol Protectorate series you should go do that, now. Also, there will be spoilers for that book here so you might not want to look. On with the review, then, I love these characters. Gail Carriger writes some amazing characters, even the ones I didn't really want to like or found annoying, I still loved. The pack mentality is fun to read about, especially in this kind of society. And all of the characters are diverse and believable and interesting.

It was fun to read about Scotland and how all of that was handled. Miss Hisselpenny, Ivy, probably gets one of the best lines. While in Scotland, where men wear kilts, she says this: "Alexia," she hissed to her friend, "there are knees positively everywhere!  What do I do?" I was laughing so hard as I read that, poor thing, too many knees for her.

However, I suggest having the third book close on hand, because this one ends with you wants to throttle some characters. I did yell at my book when I finished it. I'm really glad, though, in a round-a-bout way that it ended like that. That there wasn't an instant fix or whatever, even if it was kind of painful to read. No spoilers, I promise, just go read it and enjoy.

I want to add that I'd really love a Parasol like Alexia's, it's sound so pretty and deadly. I love all of the clothes in these books, though, that might just be my obsession with the time, though.

Book Review: Book of Shadows

Book: Book of Shadows (Wicca #1)
Author: Cate Tiernan
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy (YA)
Rating: 2/5
Page Count: 176 (Paperback)
Favorite character: I guess, Morgan. None of them really stuck out enough for me to pick a favorite.

Plot: (From Goodreads)
Morgan and her best friend, Bree, are introduced to Wicca when a gorgeous senior named Cal invites them to join his new coven. Morgan falls for Cal immediately and discovers that she has strong, inexplicable powers.

Review:

It was okay, I mean, it entertained me during the short time it took me to read the book, but it just annoyed me at the end. Maybe because pretty much everything in this book I've read before, except for the fact that they're modern witches practicing Wicca. Wicca is an interesting religion that a lot of people don't take as for what it is, thinking they're worshipping the devil or something, so I'm always interested to see how it's portrayed in the book. And there are many places this could of gone, but it was too short.

At the end, the last scene, I felt that it should of been the climax of the book. And I'm all for cheesy things, I love cheesy things, this was not cheesy. It was just overused. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, though, it wasn't word shaking or anything, but it held my attention. I may even read more books in the series, but I won't be reading all of them, there is a lot.

Overall, it was okay. "Okay" and "interesting" seem to be the only adjective that come to mind for this book, it wasn't bad, but it just wasn't great. So if you like witch-y stuff and don't mind fainting and some awkward scenes that just seem weird or out of place, then you might find it entertaining, too. The mythology of the witches is interesting and I'd like to learn more about it, but it's just one of the redeeming qualities I found.

I don't enjoy posting reviews when I didn't like the book, I want to like books I read, I want to love them, but I'm going to try and continue this series, so I thought I'd get my thoughts out and organized about this one. Maybe the rest in the series get better, here's to hoping. Have you read this book or series? Did you love it? Think it was okay? Or even hate it? I'm curious. (It has an overall ratings on Goodreads of about 4/5 stars, so I want to know why people liked it so much.)