Kira

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, especially since I've had very little interest in reading it based on the synopsis and also because I don't particularly care for fairytale retellings. My fear is always that I will be bored because I know the bones of the story, but Cinder managed to throw me some curve balls. Honestly, if I hadn't known it was supposed to be based on Cinderella, and if there hadn't been a royal ball and a mean stepmother, I wouldn't have even associated this story with the classic fairytale. She may have used it as a jumping off point, but the story and world Marissa Meyer created is all her own.

I was thrilled to get an advance copy of Fractured and I went into it with high expectations. The cover alone on this book had me drooling. I wanted it to really wow me and make me forget the things that I didn't like about the first book (the instalove between Malachi and Lela, and the fact that they both martyred themselves for someone who didn't really deserve it or even care that they were doing it). I wanted an epic battle between the Mazikin and the guards of the Shadowlands. I wanted to learn more about the Shadowlands and some of the other dimensions there. And I really wanted to see some growth in Malachi and Lela's relationship. Unfortunately, while there were things that I liked about it, overall Fractured left me feeling just sort of 'meh.'

It was an accident, really. I downloaded it as a freebie, read some reviews and decided it wasn't for me, but still cracked it open just to read a few pages. And somewhere between the devirginizing party and the messy paint sex, I got sucked in. 

But just because I got sucked in, that doesn't mean I liked it. Clearly it got my attention enough that I finished it, so it wasn't terrible but towards the middle it just became sort of meh.

I was hoping for something kind of like the movie The Skulls, because it's supposed to be about an uber secret society afterall. But we really didn't hear too much about the Lapelles other than being told they are scary and that we shouldn't mess with them. By the end I really didn't care too much about anyone, Clint had turned into a big sissy and his dialogue was so cheesy it was laughable, and it was no wonder Norah is annoying; she's surrounded by men who kept telling her what an amazing creature she is.

You know what I think of when I hear someone repeatedly called a creature?

I don't feel like writing more about this book, so I'm just going to point you to Ash's review because, yeah, what she said. I even read her whole review first, while laughing my butt off, and I still read the book. So if you get sucked in and read it too, I won't judge you. 

Going into this, I knew three things about Slammed.

1. It contained slam poetry.

2. It had a guy named Will.

3. Everybody on the face of the planet had read it and swooned.

Because I hadn't read anyone else's interpretation or experience with this book, the story was fresh for me. I had no idea what the conflict between Will and Layken would be and that meant it was just me and a great read that contained plenty of surprises... and some of the hottest hand-holding I've read about.

This book has been blowing up my feed lately. Lots of people have been throwing glittery stars and puffy hearts at it, and I was intrigued. A small-town girl, recently orphaned, who heads to Nashville to follow her dream? She somehow gets noticed and brought on tour with a handsome older star, but they don't like eachother and the sparks fly? Yes, please.

But...I don't think I read the same book as everyone else.

"On my first day at Warwick High School, if you'd told me I would choose to go to hell for any of the students, let alone Warwick's queen bee, I would have laughed. Or maybe I would have stabbed you with a ballpoint pen (it was kind of a rough day)."

I really loved the premise of this book and was pleasantly surprised by a lot of it. It was interesting and kept me turning pages. I honestly haven't seen a world quite like this one, and that was refreshing in a very oversaturated paranormal market. However, and I can't believe I'm saying this, Sanctum wasn't quite gritty enough for me. There was almost too much romance.

I have a feeling that if I re-read this book after the third and final installment is out, I will like it a lot more than I do right now. I'm supremely frustrated with the ending, and was bored for the first third of the book, but the last 14% was worth the whole read and I'm still fully invested in this series.

I need closure on this whole Aren/Kyol situation, especially since it was so beautifully black and white right up till the end.

I left Kyol because I wasn't myself when I was with him. I was careful with my thoughts, my words, and my actions. I tried to become someone I wasn't all because I wanted to be worthy of him. I don't feel that way with Aren. If we work out, it will be because we work, not because we're changing ourselves to meet the other's expectations.

The choice was very clear and McKenzie wasn't wishy-washy about it, even when it was painful, which I really admired. But now the author has presented us with a conundrum and I don't know how it will all work out, or even if it will. *big sigh*

Also, I would like to state for the record, just as Heather so eloquently put it in her review, I am "schmexy scene frustrated." So close so many times, and yet so far away. What good are those zingy lightning bolts if no one ever gets to enjoy them?

I don't know if its just that I've read way too many J.Lynn/Armentrout books in the last couple months, or if I'm burned out on the NA genre already, or maybe because it's July and this book is set in a snow storm, but I'm adding this book to my "great shelf of meh."

I feel like I've read it all before. Probably because I have.

• There was a hot boy with dark hair. His eyes were brown in this book, though, not blue or green, so I guess she's changing it up.
• There were abs. Serious abs. An eight pack of abs.
• There were several oaths using some sort of reference to babies... "For the love of babies everywhere!" or "I wanted to cry like a fat, ugly baby" I don't really understand it, but there will be a baby reference in every Jennifer Armentrout book you read, mark my words.

Other than that, the story itself wasn't terrible, it was just sort of middle of the road and there wasn't much that made me want to keep turning pages. The subplot with them being sabotaged during a snowstorm wasn't even a mystery, we all knew who it was from the beginning... well, except for Kyler and Sydney. They were pretty surprised. It felt a little silly and overly dramatic when the majority of the book really centered on Kyler and Sydney working out their changing relationship once they were snowed in. They had a lot of issues to work through and could have spent more time actually doing that if J.Lynn wasn't busy trying to make the book more exciting. My main nit pick: Kyler's "past" was the main reason that they had never been together, even though they've supposedly loved eachother since childhood, but Sydney is able to forget all that because

I dunno. I think I just like a little more mystery in my books. I want to wonder how it will end, and be excited to flip pages to get there. These NA college romances can be sweet, but they can also be predictable. If you don't mind knowing how it will end from the get-go, and you want a little escapism, then go for it. I didn't find anything special about this one though. 

Ohhhhh it has a cover and a title!! I wasnt sure how they could follow up that beautiful frosted eye from Unravel Me but they did it. Me likey!

"I love it when he tells me that he likes the way I feel because it goes against everything I've heard my entire life and I wish I could put his words in my pocket just to touch them once in a while and remind myself that they exist."

This series really did sneak up on me and grabbed me by the shirt and ordered me to love it, even when I didn't want to. The writing is still a little flowery, with a lot of teenage-girl stream of consciousness, but it has been toned down quite a bit from the first book and I wasn't distracted in this one like I was in Shatter Me. I maybe even enjoyed it.As far as the world and the story? Love it. It's like a dystopian X-men, and who doesn't love the X-men?

So, I rarely read novellas or the .5 books authors put out between series installations, but my favorite character in Shatter Me was Warren and I was curious to get inside his head.

This is what I found:

"There is little I allow anyone to discover about me. There's even less I'm willing to share about myself. And of the many things I've never discussed, this is one of them... I like to take long baths."

Holy crap. Warren, I think I could love you. Misunderstood with a dry internal humor just does it for me.

Not only did this little book help me understand Warren's past and motivations, but it gave me a glimpse into his real feelings about Juliette. Especially when he found the notebook she dropped in her escape and read through it... I hate to say it, but I think he does have the potential to really understand her and to love her.

"I don't regret putting her through such a horrifying experience; I don't know that she would've ever allowed herself to finally lose control-- to finally inhabit her own body--if I hadn't found an effective method of provoking her. Ultimately, I really believe it helped her, just as I intended it to. But I do wish she hadn't pointed a gun at my face and jumped out a window shortly afterward."

I had mixed feelings towards Warren after Shatter Me, mostly disgust and pity, but Tahereh Mafi managed to change my mind and I'm curious to see how Juliette reacts if she ever learns the truth about some of his actions.

"This girl is destroying me. A girl who has spent the last year in an insane asylum. A girl who would try to shoot me dead for kissing her. A girl who ran off with another man just to get away from me. Of course this is the girl I would fall for. I close a hand over my mouth. I am losing my mind."

Warren is the main reason I'm reading the next book. I hope he gets the girl, even if its a long shot.

This was one of the more imaginative worlds I've seen in this genre. A magical carnival run by vampires in steampunk Victorian clothing? I LOVED that part. It was like The Night Circus with a sense of humor. I did lose interest about halfway, but I don't know if I can blame the book. It was a little hijinxy with all the capers Criminy and Letitia got into, but it was still entertaining. I just think I'm vampired out and wasn't fully in the mood for this one, hence the three stars. If I had read it in the height of my urban fantasy mania it may have gotten 4.

I did love Criminy though. How could I not?

"What are you doing?" I asked him. "I'm letting you get used to the idea of me," he said idly. "I'm pretending to be harmless. Is it working?"

Shatter Me, Shatter Me, what shall I say about you? You may get the award for "most intriguing plot smothered with the most annoying prose" and yet I still like you.

At first I enjoyed the descriptions. They were lyrical. They were evocative. They painted emotions with words. And then it started to distract me from the story. That was hard to do because this is the story of a girl who is locked in an insane asylum, alone for almost a year with nothing but a tiny notebook to scratch down her frazzled thoughts, a girl who cannot touch or be touched because her skin is deadly.

I was drawn in immediately and bought into the story, the world-building, and the characters. I loved it all. My biggest hangup however, and the thing that very nearly killed the book for me, was the dang purple prose.

According to Wikipedia, the definition of purple prose is:

...written prose that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context. It may also employ certain rhetorical effects such as exaggerated sentiment or pathos in an attempt to manipulate a reader's response.

See also, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.

Juliette could never just be surprised by something. Her jaw was always "dangling from her shoelaces" or becoming debris on the floor or swinging in the breeze. This annoyed me more than I expected it to, and I started rolling my eyes when I should have been enjoying the story.

With that being said, however, I still recommend this book because the plot was strong and the last portion of the book took the storyline in a direction I completely didn't expect. Suddenly I was getting excited to read the sequel, when midway through I just wanted it to be over. My main goal in writing this review now is to encourage someone who is is turned off by the prose, but otherwise enjoys the concept, to stick with it. The next two books (one is a novella called Destroy Me) were so much better and the author does tone the prose down quite a bit. I'm actually surprised to find myself fully invested in the series and really looking forward to the third book. This is one of those books that's worth getting through because the series only goes up from here. I'd even go so far as to say this is one of my favorite finds from 2013. 

This was a fluffy one-day read that was cute but largely predictable. I liked it ok, but Candace gave me whiplash a few times for no good reason, and that drives me nuts. Brian was great, and for a supposed bad boy covered in tattoos and piercings, he really had his sh*t together and was way more mature and ready for a relationship than Candace. There was insta-love, a rock concert, smexy scenes, family drama, and a happy ending. So if that's what you're in the mood for, go for it.

This was a good solid 3.5 stars. As an audiobook, the narrator was wonderful and was able to switch effortlessly between several different accents and voices, and she made me believe the performance. As a story, I enjoyed it and it kept me wanting to listen, but it did take a while to get going and was a little slow. I am interested enough that I will listen to the next in the series to see where this goes, although the lack of romance, or the brevity of it, was a little disappointing.