Review for Beautiful Redemption (Caster Chronicles #4) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

TITLE: Beautiful Redemption
SERIES: Caster Chronicles #4
AUTHOR: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
PUBLICATION DATE: October 23, 2012
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown Books For Young Readers
PAGES: 456 pages
FORMAT: Audiobook / Hardback
SOURCE: Borrowed / Purchased
RATING: 4 stars

Ethan Wate has spent the majority of his life fighting to get out of Gatlin SC, to go off to college and see the world and never permanently return to this southern life. Now, he’s fighting to get back home. After swan-diving off the water tower to save everyone he loves, he finds that death is quite a bit like life. Most of the dead is present, in their Gatlin-like homes attempting to finish their unfinished business. Now, Ethan is more determined than ever to find a way back from the grave and Lena is doing everything she can from the other side to help. Can these two defy the laws of nature to be together?

Like this last novel, this was a bit hit and miss for me. Once again, we get the same old gang, with a few new additions. We finally get to really meet Lila Evers Wate in the afterlife and Amma’s greats. We get a few new underworld allies, but it’s more or less the same group as it ever was fighting. This time they aren’t really fighting for good or evil, but more to reunite Ethan and Lena because….they can’t live without each other? Don’t get me wrong, I wanted a happy ending to this series and this gives us that, but they defy more than one of nature’s laws here and it’s all for personal gain, which I think is a big no-no. The story does have a romantic twinge, with Ethan literally fighting his way back from death to be with Lena because he loves her so much.

It’s written in that same fascinating way the rest of the series is, with Garcia and Stohl becoming the perfect writing duo, but I had a few issues. There is my obligatory spill on character death because another beloved character dies. Not one of the main six, but it broke my heart nonetheless. When one of the sisters died in the last book, it was a major downer, but this was worse.

My other main issue is that this wasn’t as enrapturing as the others had been. I wasn’t really invested in the story. Maybe I’m annoyed at the characters? Maybe it’s because the plot was so predictable it was impossible to not see how it was going to end? I don’t really know the why, all I can tell you is that I didn’t put in extra effort into finishing this. I listened to the majority of it on audiobook (I got my book out and read the last 50 or so pages, but the rest was all audio). I’m an audio addict. It started as a way to help consume books during my lunch hour but still have time to eat and let the dogs out and so on. Most of the time, I end up listening to whatever book it is outside the normal lunch hour. Take Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, which is what I’m currently listening to. I listen at lunch and then I usually come home and listen for another hour afterwork while I do housework and I have to force myself to stop. That’s how I usually am with audiobooks, it’s so effortless that I find myself listening more and more, but it wasn’t the case with this. I listened for my lunch hour everyday, but no more. I didn’t go out of my way at all to get just a few more minutes in.

This novel wraps most everything in this series up in a nice little bow. You get the conclusion we have been waiting on since we finished the first book and it’s nice and neat, but somehow not perfect. This series started out with great promise and though it remains a solid 4-star series to me, my love for it has dwindled a bit. The announcement of Ridley’s book next in a new spinoff series excited me a great deal, but having already read it as well, I can say that maybe I need to just leave this world be because it’s all downhill from here.

Review for Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles #3) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

TITLE: Beautiful Chaos
SERIES: Caster Chronicles #3
AUTHOR: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
PUBLICATION DATE: October 18, 2011
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown Books For Young Readers
PAGES: 516 pages
FORMAT: Audiobook / Hardback
SOURCE: Borrowed / Purchased
RATING: 4 stars

Ethan Wate’s life is never going to be normal. He and Lena return home to find things are stranger in Gatlin than when they left. Apparently Lena broke things a bit when she refused to choose a side and now everything has gone pear-shaped. And even worse, Ethan is being haunted both in dreams and in real life and he’s slowly losing himself. The gang needs to get things together and quick because the wheel of fate is going to crush them all if they don’t make things right.

I’m at a bit of a loss for what to say here. We get the same cast that we had in the previous novels, with more of John Breed and Olivia. They are on a journey to set the order of things straight again since Lena fucked them up when she “skipped” her moon. I still love Ethan and Lena and their relationship, but it’s far from perfect and that shows here more than ever. Ethan spent much of the last book with Olivia because Lena ran off with John and now he isn’t allowed to see her because it upsets Lena. So we have this sorta-not-really love triangle thing happening that irritated me to no end. But Lena has no qualms talked to John Breed even though it’s the exact same situation as Ethan and Liv. Which pissed me off. Then the predictable thing happens.****SPOILER****John turns out to be a “good” guy who was being controlled by Abraham and he falls head over heels for Liv. I hate how they get together seemingly just to make them all pair up. Ethan and Lena, Link and Ridley, and ooops….John and Liv are left out so let’s just push them together, right? Okay…ooo…look aren’t they cute? All joking aside, they do have a bit in common, but I hate how it happened nonetheless****END SPOILER****

Then there is the whole Link and Ridley situation in general. Rid is human now and Link is quarter incubus, so you’d think the majority of the problems are solved, right? Rid can be good and Link can be her almost human boyfriend and they ride off into the proverbial sunset, yeah?

Or not…..

FFFFFUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK. Is that too much to ask? To have Link and Ridley finally get their shit together. Or rather, to have Ridley finally get her shit together? This was a big forshadowing moment in my lifetime that I missed because from this point on, my opinion of Ridley just sinks lower and lower. That’s a depressing thing because I really liked her in Beautiful Creatures, despite the fact that she was a quasi-villain and she redeems herself a tad in Beautiful Redemption…but then she falls again and I just want to punch her in the fucking face.

Besides my obvious hangups about characters, this novel has one big issues, the huge motherfucking cliffhanger. This books ends in quite possibly the worst cliffhanger I have ever read. Now, I know what you are all thinking: But Tabitha, don’t you already have a copy of the next book? Isn’t the audiobook queued up just waiting on this to end? Yes, it is, but it’s the goddamn principle. I know a lot of people read these books as soon as they were released and I cannot imagine having to wait for a year or more to find out what happens next. This is not fucking necessary. It’s infuriating. I’ve been letting cliffhangers slide lately, but this was over the line.

Despite my anger and my issues, this was still a highly enjoyable installment of the Caster Chronicles. You get a bit of mystery and a bit of action and a lot of Ethan/Lena romance. You get more of that swoon-worhty southern charm that is Ethan Wate. Just be warned that you’ll want to have the next novel close on hand because the ending leaves a lot to be desired.

Review for House Of Ivy & Sorrow by Natalie Whipple

TITLE: House Of Ivy & Sorrow
AUTHOR: Natalie Whipple
PUBLICATION DATE: April 15, 2014
PUBLISHER: HarperTeen
PAGES: 352 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC
SOURCE: Publisher via Edelweiss
RATING: 4 bows

Josephine Hemlock has always known that the old witch under the bridge wasn’t a myth….because that witch is her grandmother. And, like her grandma, she’s a witch. She’s spent the majority of her life hiding from the Curse that took her mother’s life (as well as many of her other relatives) and it’s going rather well until a mysterious man shows up looking for her mother. So now she must figure out who is behind the curse and destroy them before the curse claims her or her beloved Grandma. Will she succeed or will she succumb to the curse?

Josephine is that perfect combination of spirit and fear. She is fiesty and determined to do the best she can, but she’s also terrified of her grandmother dying and of catching the curse. She has a great group of friends and a new romance with the hot, sweet guy at school, but somehow still manages to feel lonely because she can’t share her magic with anyone. She’s so beautiful and awesome, but still self-conscious in the most adorable way around her new beau. Her determination to save her Grandmother was endearing as hell.

Winn, said beau, is absolutely awesome. I’ve read a multitude of bad boy types, and he’s nice guy image was a great change. He’s genuinely a good guy, who always does the right thing and really likes Josephine as she is. He’s a nice looking, muscly guy, but the muscles don’t just miraculously appear where they have no business being on a teenage boy. They are the result of days working on his parents farm. I loved that. I’m sick of reading about characters that are all toned and hot but for no apparent reason. It was nice to see that there was a legitimate need for him to be all muscly, not just because, you know, it’s hot.

There are is a parade of additional characters, including Jo’s two best friends Kate and Gwen) and the inevitable other point in the love triangle, Levi. Who I kinda liked better, because he has a bad boy vibe. I know, I know, I just went on a spiel about how great it was to read about a nice guy and I like the bad guy more. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m just fucked up. Anyway, I liked all the characters. I loved that the friends get let in on the secret and not pushed aside. What I really loved though, was the darkness of it. I’ve read a review or two claiming this wasn’t dark enough. I wholeheartedly disagree. What I really loved about this was it’s darkness. I’ve read a lot of YA’s or witch stories in general, where the people are just born with the ability and they don’t have to cast spells or make potions or anything, just wave their hand and poof! Problem solved. That’s not the case here. Everything has a cost and sometime it’s as simple as pulling out a flew strands of hair or going color blind for a day or two. Other times it’s yanking out a fingernail or a tooth. The debt must always been paid. I loved (loved loved loved) that darker take on it. It felt more like witchcraft or voodoo, less like pansy-ass hand waving.

This is exactly the novel I was looking for when I started reading it. It’s a little slow to start, but has everything you need for a great novel, with dark voodoo, a great mystery, and a light romance. This is the best witchy novel I’ve read since Once A Witch!

****Thank you to HarperTeen for providing me with an eARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review****

Review for Dream Dark (Caster Chronicles #2.5) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

TITLE: Dream Dark
SERIES: Caster Chronicles #2.5
AUTHOR: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
PUBLICATION DATE: August 2, 2011
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown Books For Young Readers
PAGES: 75 pages
FORMAT: Audiobook
SOURCE: Borrowed
RATING: 4 stars

This novella follows Link in during his realization that he was bitten by a supernatural being and is now an incubus. This includes running around the Caster tunnels and lots of facetime with Macon.

It’s an interesting way to tell Link’s tale because it’s still told via Ethan’s voice, even in scenes where Link is alone. Link has been a favorite character of mine since book one, as has Macon, so the fact that we get lots of time with both here made overjoyed me. This is also the first thing from this series I’ve read since I’ve seen the film and I’m delighted to inform everyone that this still holds as much appeal as before. I was scared that the film may have ruined the books for me because they changed so much. Also because, since it’s been a long time since I’ve read the first two books, I get some of the details confused or I just plain forget them. This little novella brings it all back with startling clarity.

Not only does it tell a new story from a new “perspective” but it also reminded me of the fact that I loved the first two novels. Really, if you loved the first two novels, than this will be right up your alley. I can’t wait to dive into Beautiful Chaos, which I happen to already have a hardback edition of as well as the audiobook. :))

Review for Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles #2) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

TITLE: Beautiful Darkness
SERIES: Caster Chronicles #2
AUTHOR: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
PUBLICATION DATE: October 12, 2010
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown, And Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc
PAGES: 503 pages
FORMAT: Hardback
SOURCE: Purchased
RATING: 4 stars

We pick up pretty closely after the ending of Beautiful Creatures. Ethan and Lena struggle to hold on to their relationship despite the constant turmoil of Lena’s life and all the unknown facts Ethan discovers about his and his families past. But the death of Macon was too much to take and soon Lena is pulling away and Ethan is having visions of Macon’s past. Now the countdown to Lena’s seventeenth moon has begun and no one knows what the future holds for her.

Rating this book was just as hard as rating the first. From the moment I started this story, I was instantly irritated at it. The pacing was much slower than the first book with a lot less action in the beginning. For most of the novel, I was reviewing it in my head, watching its star rating drop lower and lower as I thought up scathing things to say to warn people to stay far away. I felt like the authors were hiding in a dark corner, laughing manically because they knew I was suffering. I could hear them whispering in my head, “Ha! We fooled you! We gave you a great first that lacked the things you hate and now, just when we have lulled you into a false sense of security, we are going to throw every cliché you loathe right at you!”

The hero and heroine splitting up, love triangles, angsty angsty angst. Not to mention the amount of southern clichés that are so in your face, I have a hard time ignoring them. I live in the goddamn south, in a relatively small town (so small there is one lonely grocery story and not a single fast food restaurant) and I can assure you that I don’t know half the people there, much less every single one and all the gossip associated with them. I can attest that there are plenty of small-minded individuals here, but not everyone is. I’m almost insulted by the way they describe their world.

The more I read, the anger I became. Lena’s being a fucking moron, Ethan is just letting it happen, Link is so hung up over Ridley, he can’t see straight, and then they introduce a new female character who is naturally attracted to Ethan. Lena ends up running off with another Caster/Incubus hybrid and the tale is a clusterfuck of everything any book with Middle Book Syndrome has. There were parts where I just had to read something else because the urge to stop completely was too much to take.

Then, about 400 pages in (a pretty long way to go to get to the good parts, I know), things started to get better. Ethan stops being an idiot and goes after Lena. Link & Liv (the new annoying point on the triangle) follow him to what appears to be a make believe land and they battle darkness to save Lena. The last 100 or so pages are well worth the annoyances of the preceding ones. Everything comes together in ways I wasn’t expecting ****SPOILER****AND MACON IS ALIVE!!!!
NOT DEAD NOT DEAD NOT DEAD!!!! Sorry, but he was my favorite character and I’m beyond thrilled that I’ll get to see more of him in the next book.****END SPOILER****

I really recommend it for anyone who enjoyed the first novel. Yes, it goes downhill pretty fast, but if you can make it through the bad bits, there is a surprise waiting for you at the end!

Review for Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

TITLE: Beautiful Darkness
SERIES: Caster Chronicles #1
AUTHOR: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
PUBLICATION DATE: December 1, 2009
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown, And Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc
PAGES: 563 pages
FORMAT: Hardback
SOURCE: Purchased
RATING: 4 stars

Beautiful Creatures follows Ethan Wate around his small southern town. Tired of being in a place where nothing unexpected ever happens, he can’t wait to graduate and go to college far far away. Then Lena Duchannes moves to town and everything he thinks he knows is suddenly not so accurate anymore. Lena is a witch, but they prefer the term Caster. Apparently in her family, on your sixteenth birthday, you and your powers are Claimed for either the light or the dark and you get no say in the matter. We follow Ethan and Lena on their fight to either allow Lena to choose her side at her claiming or to make sure she goes Light.

I really wanted to give this book 5 stars. I really enjoyed it. It’s one of those books that sucks you in and you spend every spare second you get digging it out of your bag so you can read just a tinsy bit more. I can’t give it 5 stars though because of a few small problems. The biggest one being the cliffhanger. I know I haven’t been deducting for that lately, but considering this book is almost 600 pages, it had ample time to wrap the story up properly. I’m not entire sure it really counts as a cliffhanger, but it just didn’t feel like the story ended properly and that really irritates me. The other reason is my favorite character died. I won’t tell you who, but it upset me so much. I knew that there would probably be a casualty or two, but I wasn’t expecting this person to be one of them.

What did I like? I really liked Ethan. Southern gentleman all the way, but without the accent, I’m in heaven. I was pleasantly shocked when I started reading and realized that the novel is told entirely through his perspective. I was expecting to get Lena (which you do get a tinsy bit from her at the end) and I was wrong. Ethan’s perspective is entirely believable. He is the only male character I have ever read that really felt male despite the lack of suggestive thoughts and naughty language. Lena, well, I can’t make my mind up about her. One minute I’m sympathetic because of all the shit she is going through, but that doesn’t stop me from being enraged when she fucking pulls away from Ethan. Hello? There is a point where one of your relatives states that no caster could come between the two of you and that somehow he protects you, yet you still think it’s too dangerous? Come on, smarty pants, you can do better than that. Luckily, that bit doesn’t last long, but it still made me want to smack her.

I loved almost all of the characters in this story, from Ethan to Link to Amma to Macon, even Ridley. They all make the story that much better for being there. And who can forget the infamous Boo Radley! No, not the character from How To Kill A Mockingbird, but a dog named after that character. I’m a sucker for a cute pooch and this mutt isn’t above that.

The writing is beautiful and the mystery of it all really drew me. It was a bit longer than I would have liked, but it was still amazing. I loved that unlike most witch novels, everything isn’t explained to us in the very beginning with a hard to process chunk of information, instead you get only the bits and pieces Lena is willing to allow Ethan to see. Which is not the entire truth by any means. Even after 560 pages, there is still a great deal about L and her world that we don’t understand.

After reading this, I’m even more excited for the movie. Though, as always, I’ve very apprehensive of what they will change and how I’ll take the changes. I can already see that some things they got right and some not. Jeremy Irons playing Macon is, I think, absolutely perfect. The same goes for Viola Davis playing Amma. The actor they chose for Ethan, well I’m not happy about it yet. All I can say definitively is that he isn’t what I pictured and he isn’t tall enough. I’m trying to hold out on final judgment until I see the film and his acting skill because who knows, he may amaze me. Same goes for Lena. She is closer to what I pictured, though with the wrong hair and eye color, I’m holding out hope that they will all exceed my expectations.

Review for Witch World by Christopher Pike

TITLE: Witch World
AUTHOR: Christopher Pike
PUBLICATION DATE: November 13, 2012
PUBLISHER: Simon Pulse, a division of Simon & Schuster
PAGES: 528 pages
FORMAT: Ebook
SOURCE: PulseIt
RATING: 2 stars

I can’t decide between 2 or 3 stars for this book, so I’m going with 2. The basic blurb about this book doesn’t even scratch the surface. It basically says this is a story about Jessie’s graduation trip to Las Vegas where she reunites with her ex but also meets someone new who teachers her about magic. I guess, that does do if you want to put it in a non-spoiler-y nutshell, but it didn’t prepare me for the story ahead. Once you get past the first hundred pages and find out more about Jessie’s witch-y heritage, the story is so complicated that I had trouble keeping up, and not in a good way.

The gist of it is that in this strange world, there are actually two separate “worlds”, which I’m going to refer to as dimensions to simplify things. Jessie lives in the Real World and after she dies (which is how the witches are “awakened”), she finds herself in Witch World, the parallel dimension. Most things are similar in this world, the biggest difference seems to be that that everyone plays Red Queen instead of Black Jack and everyone goes by their full first name instead of a diminutive nickname (ie Jessie becomes Jessica, Jimmy becomes James, Russ becomes Russell and so on). In his explanation, Jessie’s dad basically says that the two worlds are connected and everything that happens in one happens most of the time in the other, but not always and lately there have been some differences. Awakened witches have to live the same day twice, literally going to sleep in the real world at dawn and waking up in Witch World to repeat the same day. In theory, it’s all the same, but throughout the story, Jessie’s days are never even remotely similar.

This just feels like a novel tha t was written in an half-assed way, you know? Like it could have been great if the author had put in a bit more effort and fleshed things out more. How he managed to make the book 500+ pages and still make me feel like he didn’t put enough effort into it is amazing, but it’s how I felt. The whole idea of a parallel world felt a little preposterous in the way Pike explains it and then it felt like he focused all his energy into making Jessie as annoying as possible and let everything else fall away. It all felt so underdeveloped that I could cry. The best example I can give is that they don’t even give the real world a name, but it’s implied that calling it the real world isn’t proper. Witch World is Witch World, but every time one of the important witch’s speak about the other world, they simply say “what you refer to as the real world.” Geez, wouldn’t it be easier to NAME the other fucking dimension? Instead of this song and dance, just give it a proper goddamn label and be done with it. Another thing that really bugged me were the names. All the characters have very generic feeling names. Jessica, James, Alexis, Russell, Frank, Michael….it’s like the author looked at a top 100 baby names list and just picked at random.

Normally at this point, I would rant endlessly about the cliffhanger, but to be honest, this one didn’t bother me at all. I think it’s because I wasn’t invested enough with these characters to truly care what happened next.

I really wanted to like this story. I went in with relatively high hopes because I always end up loving witch tales, but this just didn’t do it. I see a lot of raving reviews, so maybe I’m missing. I can say that I don’t plan to read the sequel to this tale or anything else by Christopher Pike. I’m sure he’s other books are great, but this was just too much of disappointment to do again.

Review for Always a Witch (Witch #2) by Carolyn MacCullough

TITLE: Always A Witch
SERIES: Witch #2
AUTHOR: Carolyn MacCullough
PUBLICATION DATE: August 1, 2011
PUBLISHER: Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
PAGES: 276 pages
FORMAT: Ebook
SOURCE: Borrowed
RATING: 5 stars

Whoa. Just wow, I really wasn’t expecting that ending. It came flying up out of nowhere and hit me smack in the face. It was completely brilliant though. Since I adored everything about Once A Witch, it really is not surprise that I loved this one as well. Carolyn MacCullough took everything I loved about Once A Witch and managed to improve upon it when writing this book. It’s witty, it’s funny, it still has that great Tamsin/Gabriel relationship. The sarcasm is cut down a bit, but it is still great.

This novel pics up not too far after the last one left off and it follows Tamsin in an adventure in the past. Her grandmother can no longer see a future for their family, so her only real option is to follow Alistair into the past and prevent him from warning the Knights. Deciding it is best to do this alone, she uses the Domani to travel back 1887 with no real plan beyond warning her ancestors and finding Alistair. She ends up taking a position as a lady’s maid for the Knight family to watch for Alistair since she can’t find anyone with knowledge of the Greene family. Complications arise, ensue, and are overcome.

I really loved this novel. Love, love LOVE it.

I loved Tamsin going off on her own (though it was stupid) and blindly charging off to save her family. I love that it doesn’t turn out perfect when she arrives. Too many novels have the heroine arrive and it just all magically falls into place, like the first person she asks knows where to find her family and they believe her and fix it and then cue the happily ever after. No, Tamsin arrives and cannot find anyone that has even heard of her family. She wonders around cluelessly until a man offers her a job as a lady’s maid for the Knight family. Then when she finally finds her family, they don’t believe her. I truly loved that. Call me cruel, but I like seeing the heroine (or hero) struggle to get what they want/need.

I was a bit sad when she left without Gabriel because I love him and I want as much of him in the novel as possible. He finally shows up in 1887 a little over halfway through the book, so those of you fearing (like me), that you won’t get enough of him here, let me put your mind at easy. You get plenty of the signature Tamsin/Gabriel banter.

I have to give it to Carolyn for catching me off guard because I didn’t see that ending coming at all. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting but it certainly wasn’t****SPOILER****Tamsin giving up her powers to protect the Domani.****END SPOILER**** Even though I didn’t expect it, it was perfect. It seamlessly tied the whole story together. It makes it completely understandable why Grandma forced everyone to hide Tam’s powers from her. It really left me speechless.

I also loved that this series is just a 2 part set. It is very refreshing to see a short series in a world where it seems like every story is continued to like 15 volumes. Oh and for those of you wondering, this series had no love triangle. 🙂

Review for Once a Witch (Witch #1) by Carolyn MacCullough

TITLE: Once A Witch
SERIES: Witch #1
AUTHOR: Carolyn MacCullough
PUBLICATION DATE: September 14, 2009
PUBLISHER: Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
PAGES: 292 pages
FORMAT: Hardcover
SOURCE: Purchased
RATING: 5 stars

Tamsin Greene comes from a family of witches who all possess a special Talent. All except her. When she was born, her powerful grandmother prophesized that she was be the one of the most powerful witches her family had ever seen and they had high expectation. But when her eighth birthday rolls around and nothing manifests, everyone starts distancing their selves from the only person in the family to not develop a talent. Her best friend, Gabriel, moves away just before this so there is no one to really comfort her. When a gentleman shows up at her family’s bookstore asking for her sister, Rowena, to help him find something (one of the many services her family offers), things really start to unravel. Everything she knows changes and when her sister’s life is put in danger, she’ll stop at nothing to save her.

I had seen this book at Ollie’s several times and though it caught my attention, I never picked it up because I am sometimes iffy and witch books. It’s only logical to be so since there are so many. They are like the vampire and werewolf novels, every fucking author seems to feel the need to write about them these days. I realize not all of them are bad (in fact most are quite good), but weary of the bad ones, I am hesitant to read them unless I know someone who has enjoyed them. Anyway, stuff happened and this was one of the few books I had on my flash drive last week, so while waiting for my computer class to start, I started reading. And I couldn’t stop. I ended up transferring the pdf to Luna (my kindle) so I could read it any moment I had to spare. This book is one of the great ones. I really loved it.

Things I liked:
– I loved Tamsin. She is quirky, rebellious, sarcastic as hell, and has a decent sense of humor.
-There are no love triangles. There is just Tamsin who is attracted to Gabriel and Gabriel who is attracted to Tamsin. There is no angst over which guy to choose, just those 2 on an adventure to save the day.
-It is written in first person. I love things written in first person because I always get a better feel for the characters.
-It doesn’t shy away from sexual innuendos. Some YA novels do these days and it bugs me. I hate to break it to anyone out there with a teenage daughter 16 and up, but sex does cross their mind and is a topic that will be discussed with their peers. That being said, this book has no sexual content. Tamsin and Gabriel kiss a time or two, but that is it. My point is more that it isn’t an issue that is just completely left out. I love how Gabriel is portrayed as an amazing guy who does think about it a lot, showing that guys don’t have to be either or. It’s something I think YA is lacking these days.
-Gabriel. Yeah, I am so still going through that phase where I love all the main male characters. Hot, sarcastic, and he plays guitar…need I say more?

-I liked the ending. This doesn’t end in a cliffhanger. Tamsin and Gabriel save the day and though they don’t ride off into the sunset, there isn’t a massive cliffhanger there is grade on my nerves. The ending just leaves it open for another book.

Thinks I disliked:
-…………
I really don’t think there was anything I disliked about it.

This novel really is amazing. I will be starting book 2 next and I look forward to raving about how great it is next 🙂