Review: A Long Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

Genre: Young-Adult Sci-Fi Dystopian

Published: 8/9/11 | Candlewick

Format: ebook | Library Book 

It should have been a short suspended-animation sleep. But this time Rose wakes up to find her past is long gone-- and her future full of peril.

Rosalinda Fitzroy has been asleep for sixty-two years when she is woken by a kiss. Locked away in the chemically induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten subbasement, sixteen-year-old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew. Now, her parents and her first love are long gone, and Rose-- hailed upon her awakening as the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire-- is thrust alone into a future in which she is viewed as either a freak or a threat. Desperate to put the past behind her and adapt to her new world, Rose finds herself drawn to the boy who kissed her awake, hoping that he can help her to start fresh. But when a deadly danger jeopardizes her fragile new existence, Rose must face the ghosts of her past with open eyes-- or be left without any future at all.

I was very surprised when I read A Long Long Sleep.  I actually read a review on this book while blog hopping (I forgot which blog it was) and I thought the blurb sounded very interesting.  When the ebook was available at the library, I immediately checked it out and promptly forgot about it.

Fast forward to three days before the book was due and I received an email from the library that the book was due.  I started reading it that same day and I enjoyed it. 

The story is that Rosalinda, daughter of one of the most powerful families/rich corporate CEO's of the day, is woken up from a 62 year sleep by Brendan, a grandson of the current CEO of Rose's company.  She wakes up to a world after the Dark Times, which I compare to the Dark Ages.  In fact, it is like the Dark Ages, where the Beubonic Plague and Tuberculosis outbreak resurface.  Naturally, everyone Rose loves, even her boyfriend Xavier, are long gone.  Add in a Plastine (a robot with a human corpse for a body that is programmed to be an assasin) who tries to track and kill Rose, and a dark secret that ultimately transforms Rose into a stong young woman, and you have a recipe for a really awsome book.

As much as I liked this book, I had a few problems with it.  One was the non sci-fi element of the book.  Sure, it was set in the future and there were future tech stuff that were mentioned (e.g. hover cars that travel over water, a techie notepad/tablet) and future slang like "this is so sky", "coit", "noid", and "I comm",  it didn't feel like a true sci-fi novel.  The book also lacked description.  I wanted to see what the world looked like post Dark Times.  For a sci-fi novel, this lacked a lot of description.

Another thing that I did not like about it was that this book was basically about Rose moping about, trying to navigate the futuristic high school, developing her art, and falling for Brendan.  I expected to read about how Rose would investigate the dilemma that is the reason why she had a long stasis sleep.  I expected to read about her taking over her parent's company that was under the influence of a slimy CEO.  If Rose did not redeem herself by the end of the book and stood up against her attacker and destroyed her stasis tube, I would have given this a 2!  Oh, and Rose's voice sounded like a little girl.  I really had problems with that.    For a 16 year old, she seemed pretty immature to me.  A

What was iffy about this was when it was revealed in the end that Ron, Brendan's grandfather and CEO of the corporation is in fact Xavier, Rose's boyfriend!  Ick!  Although I was expecting this to be the case, I still thought it was very, very, very weird.  Plus, Rose demands that he becomes her guardian!

What I did like about this, however was how the author showed us the emotional abuse that Rose went through - the detachment of how her parents treated her.  I actually liked that the author hinted at the abuse and how we were gradually introduced as to Rose's actual age.  Apparently, Rose has been in and out of stass all through childhood.  In fact, Rose practically raised Xavier since she was about 7 when he was a toddler.

Another surprising character that I liked was Otto, the blue alien/human that has powers but is unable to speak.  Rose and Otto have a very interesting relationship via the web where they have long conversations between each other.  The only thing I had problems with was that Otto had a girlfriend that he broke up with probably because he was falling for Rose.

All in all, this was a quick read for me that I recommend to those who love non sci-fi YA sort of romance.

My Rating

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Review: Seduced by Innocence by Kimberly Kinrade

Genre: Paranormal New Adult Romance | Series: Seduced Trilogy #1

Published 1/21/13 | Daring Books

Format: ebook | free in exchange for an honest review

Their passion will destroy them.
Only true love can save them.

"Liquid fire poured into me, filling me with the intimate sense of him as he leaned in to claim my lips with his own. I reached for him, needing him closer, but my arms couldn't close the distance between us, which grew wider with each hitched breath. So close to finally feeling something real, something carnal and deep, I cried out in frustration, dropping my hands as he disappeared. My cries deepened into a frenzy of panic and my eyes flew open. I clutched my blanket and stilled myself to calm my racing heart.

Just a dream. Always just a dream."

Rose Wintersong didn't have an ordinary upbringing. Raised in what most would call a hippy commune, but what is actually a powerful coven of witches, she never questions the life fate chose for her.

Until she meets Derek O'Conner.

Derek challenges everything Rose believes and forces her to see the secrets hidden beneath the whitewashed walls of her idyllic country life.

Rose knows she should walk away, that the sexy martial arts instructor is bad news bred to create discord in her tight community… but the animal magnetism between them is impossible to fight.

Caught between the passion of first love, and the steady beat of the life she's always known, Rose must choose between the innocence of her youth or the pleasures of womanhood—but lost innocence comes at a price, and Rose harbors a dark secret that could destroy everyone she loves—including Derek.

Submit to the Seduced Saga as Derek and Rose face their future while unraveling the mysteries of their past.

This is the first book that I read by Kimberly Kinrade and I thought it was okay.  I am not sure if I will read the next book in the series but I'll just see if I will be tempted enough to read it because of the cliffhanger in the end.

First of, I have to say that I hate the cover!  I know the saying but still!  See, when I go to a library or bookstore, I look at the cover first before I read the blurb in the back and this does not scream "read me!"  The same goes for when I am virtually browsing books.  I did love the small pictures (rose and wolf) before each chapter since each chapter is written in the POV of both protagonists.  There are also quotes from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet before each chapter which I thought was a lovely addition, sort of like an introduction on what was to come.

That being said, I thought the book was okay.  It was a pretty quick read for me and at 188 pages (epub).  The story pretty much runs like Romeo and Juliet with a feud between two families of different "species" so I will not give a recap of how the story went.  Rose, is a sheltered witch with an evil mother Rainbow (really, a better name for a villain should have been picked) who tries to control Rose and their coven.  The book seems like a coming of age of both protagonists as both are trying to find out who they are.

When both of them meet, there is an instant attraction with Rose realizing that Derek is the one she has been dreaming of almost every night.  Derek, on the other hand, tries to be a different person and change because Rose makes him a better person.  I would have loved it more if the author explored more on the development of Rose and Derek's love.

I did like that the author wrote in Rose and Derek's POV because I love reading about a guys' POV.  There is just something about reading in a male perspective that I think is more romantic because I kind of get an insight to what he was thinking.  Plus, it's always great to have a chance to look at their mind.

I mostly read adult romances and occasionally read YA/NA romances but I thought this lacked a little bit of romantic development between Rose and Derek.  I recommend this book to those who love to read about star-crossed lovers.

My Rating

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Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Genre: YA Dystopian

Series: Lunar Chronicles #1

Published 1/3/12 | Feiwel & Friends

Format: ebook | purchased

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

This is a story about a cyborg named Cinder who lives with her "stepmother" and two "stepsisters.  They are not technically her step anything since she was adopted.  Now, this cyborg is a mechanic and lives in a Dystopian earth in a city called New Beijing.  She meets Prince Kai when he seeks her out to fix his old android.  There is also a plague going on called letumosis and I assume that it is like the Beubonic Plague that hit the world back in the middle ages.  The story pretty much revolves around the ball that everyone is invited.  This ball becomes Prince Kai's coronation ball due to the passing of the current Emperor due to letumosis.  Cinder also becomes a "test subject" when her stepmother/guardian volunteers her against her will to submit to the letumosis research when her sister Peony gets the disease.  During the testing, it is then discovered that she is in fact not a human but a Lunar (or someone who is from the moon) and that she is immune to the disease as all Lunar's are.  The scientist also discovers that she is the long lost princess and heir to the throne of Luna.

 

Once the king dies, the current Lunar Queen, Lavena comes to Earth in the guise of paying her respects when in fact she is bent on war and is interrested in becoming the Empress of New Beijing by marrying Kai.  At the palace, she spots Cinder and discovers that she is a Luna and is threatening war unless Kai looks for her.

 

Cinder crashes the ball (even though she was invited) to let Kai know that Queen Levana has plans for war and plans to become Empress so she can start the war.  This doesn't go as smoothly as she hopes because Cinder is discovered and is also exposed as a Lunar and a cyborg, both of which Kai does not know.  The story ends with a cliffhanger, with Cinder locked in jail.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  Although I enjoyed it, I had problems with most of the plot.  This was a pretty quick read for me but I expected more from reading the blurb.

 

I'll start with the cons first.

1. Dystopian theme - The story takes place in a dystopian Earth after World War IV in a place called New Beijing.  Supposedly, this country arrose in the same location of Beijing, China. 
   However, there was lack of references to the Chinese culture.  True, the name Kai sounded Asian but his whole name Kaito didn't sound Chinese but Japanese.  There was a mention of chopsticks used but that was it!  I thought the author lacked in the aspect of incorporating the Chinese culture in the story.  Also, I thought the character Kai was not Asian, based on the description of the character.
2. Lunar People - There was also a mention of Lunar people.  However, I feel that the author lacked description about the race e.g. how did they get there, why do they have powers, etc.  After readin the whole book, I am still looking for the answer to this.
3. Descriptions - Another thing that I thought was lacking was the descriptions of the places.  I didn't get the feel of New Beijing.  I wasn't transported to New Beijing.  Since this is a futuristic/dystopian theme, I would have expected the author to take us to the city/country.  I expected there to be vivid descriptions that can aid mu imagination build my own New Beijing in my mind but this never happened.  I picture New Beijing as a dump, overcrowded city, akin to the middle ages.  Now with my thoughts of the middle ages, I cannot picture having hovercrafts and other highly advanced machinery in the city.
4. Cyborg - With the heroine a cyborg, i would have expected more from her.  I mean, she was cyborg.  Don't cyborgs have increased strength or something?  In this case, I see her as a teen with disabilites.  I guess this was what the author wanted the cyborg to be protrayed as but still, I felt it was unbelievable.  Cinder also did not meet any other cyborgs in the story.  I would have assumed that with the advancement in technology, there would have been others at least mentioned.  I get that the cyborgs were descriminated in that world but still...
5. Romance - I thought the romance between Cinder and Kai was very underdeveloped.  I did not see how Cinder could fall in love with Kai and vice versa.  I thought the romance was pretty shallow.  Granting that Cinder was only 16, I would think that a love that can change the course of their world would have to be developed further in the story.  As it was, it just felt shallow and reminiscent to tween attraction.  Even the kissing was meh.

Now, on the pros.

I have to tell you that the premise of the whole thing is freaking awesome.  I give props to the author for thinking about it.  I mean, a cyborg Cinderella? An alien race living on the moon out to start war on earth? A beubonic like plague in a dystopian world?  Come on, don't tell me that wasn't an amazing idea?!  I had a "I wish I thought about this" moment.  I thought the android Iko, was funny and was an awesome minor character, although a bit of an airhead. 

 

I enjoyed reading about this futuristic tale of Cinderella and hated the cliffhanger in the end.  I am looking at reading the next book Scarlet to see what would happen next. 

 

My Rating

 

Heat Level

 

Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal/Urban Fantasy

Series: Everneath #1

Published: 1/24/2012 | HarperCollins / Balzer + Bray

Format: ebook | borrowed from the LA Public Library

Buy: Amazon | B&N

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she's returned--to her old life, her family, her boyfriend--before she's banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance--and the one person she loves more than anything. But there's just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's queen.

Everneath is loosely based on the Greek mythology of Persephone and Hades and of Orpheus and Eurydice with mentions of the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris.  The story starts 6 human months after the feed where the main protagonist Nikki awakens after being sent to the Everneath (or the Underworld).  The Feed or Feeding is the way an Everliving (those immortals that live in the Underworld) can continue their immortal lives by stealing/freeding on the emotions and memories of the living (humans).  The feed lasts for a hundred years which is like 6 months of human time.  Once you have been fed upon, either the sacrifice dies, becomes old, or in rare cases, survives.  When a sacrifice survives, she then has a chance to become the Queen of the Underworld, with her Everliving the King.  If the sacrifice survives however, becomes old, she is then taken by the shadows and is brought to the Tunnels (Hell, if you wish).  The three main characters of the story are Nikki, Jack and Cole.

Cole is the Everliving that took Nikki into the Everneath and bonded with her by taking all her emotions and memories.  They spend bound together for a hundred years when Nikki was able to leave the Everneath by keeping a thought/memory of her human love alive.  She is then taken over by a shade and awakes in a mini-mart in their town 6 months after the was supposedly gone.  She then tries to repair her relationship with her family while staying away from Jack and trying to repair her life.  This basically comprises most of the middle part of the story with the end resulting in Nikki staying above and Jack going to the Tunnels.

Now, on to my review.  I was surprised that I liked the story of Nikki and Jack even though I had serious problems with the inconsistensies and the impossibilies of the whole story.  Let's start of on why I liked it.  The premise of the story IS intriguing.  I was curious about how the author would execute the Persephone and Hades' story.  Another thing that I did like about the story is the way Nikki comes off as a relatable character, although there are just times that you just want to bash her on the head for being so stupid.  Jack, on the other hand, comes off as a love-struck boy that apparently hasen't forgotten Nikki at all with Cole, adding to the romantic tension.  I see Cole as the perfect bad boy and secretly wish that this was a love story about Cole and Nikki.

I love how the author gradually introduced us to the backstory by giving flashbacks of Nikki's memories 6 months ago.  It was integrated in a way that did not deter or confuse the reader and I was able to follow through without digitally flipping the pages back or forward to get what the author was trying to say.

Despite my liking the whole story, or shedding a tear or two (it may just have been my raging hormones or something *shrugs*), I had problems with the story.  I just didn't get why no one put an Amber Alert out for Nikki when she went missing, why her father, being the Mayor of Park City didn't do anything in his power to find his only daughter, why everybody accepted that Nikki came back from Rehab when there were no signs of her acting like she needed to go to rehab before she went with Cole.  The only bad behavior I saw her do was going to concerts with Cole and his band which was not really bad at all since I went to concerts as a teen and was never in any risk of going off to rehab!  *Sigh*  True, she pretty much flipped out when she found out the hit-and-run driver who killed her mom got acquitten AND she caught Jack cheating on her.  That could have been a catalyst but still...

I also thought that the whole time Nikki was pining away for Jack and not talking to him the whole middle part of the book was pretty stupid.  I mean, I am pretty straightforward and with her not talking to him was just stupid.  Jack, on the otherhand, I also expected him to confront her and ask her what her baggage is.  I know guys don't do the confrontation thing but with him saying that he loved her, I thought that would prompt a confrontation.

Now, let's talk about Cole.  I thought that he was the hero in the story!  He had all the makings of a bad-boy alpha hero and I would have liked the story be based on Cole and Nikki.  True, he stole from Nikki but that would have made an awesome love story instead of Jack and Nikki's meh romance.  As a villain, Cole didn't do much of anything; just stalk Nikki like crazy and appearing in her room uninvited (what is it with creeps appearing in girls rooms uninvited?  THAT is not romantic!).  I thought that was serial killer/rapist creepy.

I recommend this book to those enjoy the following books:

My Rating

Review: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife-between desire and danger.Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

What more is there to say about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight? I understand that it is a very popular book but this book didn't capture me as it should have.

I struggled while reading this book. First of, I didn't really get the obsessive love/relationship Bella had with Edward. The times that Edward was watching Bella while sleeping without her knowing really creeped me out. I thought it wasn't very romantic (although some might view it as romantic) and it felt stalker-ish. Next, I hated that these breed of vampires glittered in the sunlight. This really re-wrote the vampire lore that I just could not accept. I mean, how scary can a vampire be if he only GLITTERS in sunlight?  No.  Vampires burn and turn to ash.  Period.  Lastly, I just did not get Bella's attitude towards her friends. Not spending time with them and devoting all her time to her new boyfriend is not a good thing to write in a book meant for teens.  Teen angst and social pressure notwithstanding; I think it is just giving teens (and adults, for that matter) that obsessive love is good.  Which is not. IMHO.

I have to admit though, that Bella and Edward did have chemistry together. I felt that their first meeting was electric, and their second meeting was like "love at second sight." I appreciated the inner struggle that Edward had to go through and his hesitance to be with Bella. It does help that I read Midnight Sun, based on Edward's point of view, that was leaked before it was even released.  That made me understand his inner struggle with his attraction to Bella.

I gave this book 3 stars because I thought it had some promise but the glittering and the attitude of the characters just ruined it for me.

I have also read the other 3 books in this series.  May or may not be reviewed.

 

Rating: 3

Heat Level: 1

Review: Vanish by Sophie Jordan

An impossible romance.

Bitter rivalries.

Deadly choices.

To save the life of the boy she loves, Jacinda did the unthinkable: She betrayed the most closely-guarded secret of her kind. Now she must return to the protection of her pride knowing she might never see Will again—and worse, that because his mind has been shaded, Will’s memories of that fateful night and why she had to flee are gone.

 

Back home, Jacinda is greeted with hostility and must work to prove her loyalty for both her sake and her family’s. Among the few who will even talk to her are Cassian, the pride’s heir apparent who has always wanted her, and her sister, Tamra, who has been forever changed by a twist of fate. Jacinda knows that she should forget Will and move on—that if he managed to remember and keep his promise to find her, it would only endanger them both. Yet she clings to the hope that someday they will be together again. When the chance arrives to follow her heart, will she risk everything for love?

 

Disappointment does not begin to cover what I felt when I read the sequel to Firelight. I just could not get the love triangle between Jacinda, Will and Cassian.  I just wanted to hit Jacinda in the head. So much so that I just could not finish this book!  I didn't even flip ahead to see how the whole book ended!  I just thought it was so ridiculous for Jacinda to be flirting with these two guys when she was already in love with Will!  Agh!To top it all off, she goes and runs away to Will, who seems to NOT care how she feels and gets caught by Will's dad with Cassian's sister (I forgot her name)!  That was it for me and I just had to stop.

 

A good thing about it was that I did like that Tamra is now a Draki but this still does not make up for the whole love triangle.  I cannot fault Tamra's attitude when she found out that she is now a Draki. It was in the first book how she was treated because she wasn't a shifter, how out of place she was in their "tribe."  I also didn't feel that

 

Rating: DNF

Heat Level: 1

Review: Torment by Lauren Kate

Hell on earth.

That's what it's like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel.

It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts - immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students: Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.

At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn't told her everything. He's hiding something - something dangerous.

What if Daniel's version of the past isn't actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else?

The second novel in the addictive FALLEN series...where love never dies.

I was a little bit disappointed about this sequel. Again, this book left me hanging and there was still a lot of issues that were left unanswered.

To be honest, I am still a little bit puzzled about the development of Daniel and Luce's love story. True, they are destined to be together and have been falling in love in their past lives, but it was hard to believe how they fell in love in THIS life.

It also seemed that Luce was not that interested with Daniel since it was apparent that she was flirting with another Nephilim. It was just so confusing. Instead of developing Luce and Daniel's love and relationship, we got Luce sulking and holding on to Daniel who doesn't show himself.

Another thing that bothered me was how the book ended. It just left me hanging. I know there is another sequel and Miss Kate might have done this in purpose so the readers would anticipate the next book but I thought this was not appropriate. At least some answers should have been provided to the readers.

Overall, it was a good read. A little bit better than the previous one however it still left more to be desired.   Recommended to those who love Twilight.

Rating: 2.5 Hearts

Heat Level: 1