Book Review: Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin

Title: Low Red Moon

Author: Ivy Devlin

ISBN: 9781599905105

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books

Pub. Date: September 2010

Genre: YA/Paranormal/Mystery/Romance

Pages: H-256;P-256

Amazon

Author's Website

Synopsis (from Goodreads.com):  The only thing Avery Hood can remember about the night her parents died is that she saw silver—deadly silver, moving inhumanly fast. As much as she wants to remember who killed them, she can't, and there's nothing left to do but try to piece her life back together. Then Avery meets the new boy in school—Ben, mysterious and beautiful, with whom she feels a connection like nothing she's ever experienced. When Ben reveals he's a werewolf, Avery still trusts him—at first. Then she sees that sometimes his eyes flash inhuman silver. And she learns that she's not the only one who can't remember the night her parents died.Part murder mystery, part grief narrative, and part heart-stopping, headlong romance, Low Red Moon is a must-read for teen paranormal fans. As breathless as Twilight and as spooky as Shiver, this is a book to be devoured in one sitting—by an acclaimed YA author making her paranormal debut under the pseudonym Ivy Devlin.

My Reveries and Ramblings:  When I first picked up this book all I knew about it was that it was a book about a girl who falls in love with a werewolf.  Which seems to be a popular plot element in most paranormal YA books along with vampires and angels.  But since I’m obsessed with love stories I picked it up anyway.  I do not regret it one bit!   It’s a short book so it didn’t take me that long to read.  The book was fast paced and heart racing.  Seriously, my heart was actually racing.  It was beating so hard I had to stop reading to calm down-that’s how suspenseful it was-especially the ending. 

       The story revolves around Avery Hood, whose parents were just brutally murdered.  She witnessed the murder but can’t remember it.  The only thing she remembers is a flash of silver and blood.  Haunted by nightmares and forced to live with her grandmother, Avery buries herself in the pain of losing her parents.  Strange things start happening to Avery as she tries to remember who murdered her parents- her hair starts changing color (to blood red), her love of her old home draws her into the woods, the murderer is out to remove his only witness, and a cute new student arrives at the local public high school (which Avery attends). 

       Ben and Avery have a seriously intense relationship.  I love it!  They can sense/feel each other’s emotions which makes it difficult to hide things.  They both know what the other is feeling.  Imagine how amazing it would be if you could feel the love and know with out a hint of doubt how much they loved you.  That’s how Avery and Ben’s relationship is.  Of course both have secrets that they keep, even ones that they don’t even know they have. 

       Ivy Devlin did a beautiful job with the writing.  I felt the pain that Avery felt when she mourned her parents.  She truly loved them.  She didn’t have that typical “teenager hates parents” relationship that I’ve seen in a lot of YA books.  She was close to her parents.  Also, in the book whenever the word “moon” came up, the word was printed in red-as well as the cover.  The color red was seen throughout the book, not just the typography but also in the story.  It fit perfectly with the story since red symbolizes both love and blood. 

       Low Red Moon was a sensational debut novel that had me flipping through the pages.  This modern day paranormal retelling of the popular Little Red Riding Hood will leave you wanting a sequel.  I really really really hope Ivy Devlin writes a sequel.  So far I haven’t read anything that says she is-but I’m hoping anyway. I give it 5 Kisses.

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Book Review: Glimmerglass by Jenna Black

Title: Glimmerglass

Author: Jenna Black

Series: Faeriewalker #1

ISBN: 978-0-312-57593-9

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Genre: Paranormal/Romance/YA/Urban Fantasy

Pages: P-294

Amazon 

Excerpt

Author's Website

Synopsis (from Goodreads.com):  It’s all she’s ever wanted to be, but it couldn’t be further from her grasp… Dana Hathaway doesn’t know it yet, but she’s in big trouble.  When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, again, Dana decides she’s had enough and runs away to find her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the captivating, magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in Avalon, everything goes wrong, for it turns out she isn't just an ordinary teenage girl—she's a Faeriewalker, a rare individual who can travel between both worlds, and the only person who can bring magic into the human world and technology into Faerie. Soon, Dana finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat game of Fae politics. Someone's trying to kill her, and everyone seems to want something from her, from her newfound friends and family to Ethan, the hot Fae guy Dana figures she’ll never have a chance with… until she does.  Caught between two worlds, Dana isn’t sure where she’ll ever fit in and who can be trusted, not to mention if her world will ever be normal again…

My Reveries and Ramblings:  Glimmerglass was entertaining.  Dana runs away from home to Avalon, where her faerie father lives.  When she arrives, she is kidnapped by her aunt.  Following is a whole string of kidnappings, attacks, and betrayals.  They all have to do with the fact that Dana is a faeriewalker which means that she’s either wanted to be used or wanted dead.  Ethan and Kimber, faerie siblings, befriend Dana.  Well, Ethan wants to be more than just friends.  Then there is also Keane, Dana’s “bad boy” self defense coach. 

       I enjoyed reading this book.  It’s not very long, but I was still absorbed in the world.   There were a few things that bothered me.  Although, none had to do with the writing-it was very well thought out.  Many of them revolved around Ethan.  I have such mixed feelings about him.  I hated what he did to Dana (twice!) in the beginning.  I wouldn’t trust him

again.  But then what he did at the end kind of made up for his actions earlier-but still.  I like Keane so much better.  I actually hope she ends up with him. 

       Dana annoyed me with her stubbornness.  First of all, her father is trying to help and protect her-she ran away so she didn’t have to act like the only adult in the family.  So why is she just ignoring her father’s wishes?  He wants her to stay put so she’s protected and what does she do? She runs away when there are faeries who want her dead...smart.   I mean, her father definitely did some things that I (and Dana) didn’t like and has some opinions that I ( and Dana) seriously don’t agree with, but still he’s got her best interests at heart.  I think Dana made a bunch of really dumb choices. But, she’s only 16, and making mistakes is all apart of being a teenager.  Those mistakes will influence how she makes her future choices.  Black did a great job writing the voice of a teenager who was forced to grow up too soon. 

       I was drawn into Black’s world of faeries.  There is no way I’m leaving-I will definitely be reading the next book in the series.  I give it 3 Kisses. 

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It. Is. FRIDAY!!!!

So.....it's friday.  Which means it's time to find new blogs to follow!  Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.  This week's featured blog is: Ruby's Reads.  You can read her answer to this week's question here.This week's question:  What is your favorite romance hero-type? Stereotype wise. Do you like the strong silent type or the brute macho man?My Answer:  Well, I don't think I have a favorite-I love them all!  I did try to come up with one, though.  But it was too hard.  I love heroes like Barrons.  But at the same time ones like Edward Cullen.  These two characters are so very different.  I could never pick just one.  

Book Review: On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

Title: On the Edge

Author: Ilona Andrews

Series: The Edge #1

ISBN: 0441017800

Publisher: Ace

Genre: Urban Fantasy/Romance/Paranormal

Pages: P-309

Amazon

Excerpt

Author's Website

Synopsis (from Goodreads.com): The Broken is a place where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is nothing more than a fairy tale. The Weird is a realm where blueblood aristocrats rule and the strength of your magic can change your destiny.Rose Drayton lives on the Edge, the place between both worlds. A perilous existence indeed, made even more so by a flood of magic-hungry creatures bent on absolute destruction.

My Reveries and Ramblings:  Ilona Andrews crafted a fantastic world that combines our mundane world with an alternate world filled with magic.  The mundane reality is known as the Broken.  The alternate realty of our world is called the Weird.  Between the two is a long strip called the Edge-not quite mundane and not fully magic.  People that inhabit this area are kind of like the much less rich and powerful people of the Weird.  Basically everyone there owes allegiance to themselves and their families first.  The story centers around Rose, a twenty something yr old who lives pay check to pay check while raising her two younger brothers-one who is a shifter and the other who can raise people and animals from the dead (taking years off his life).  Rose also has a talent- she can flash white, which is very rare.  Ever since she flashed white during her high school graduation, people in the Edge have been trying to sell her to nobles in The Broken.  Her ex-boyfriend attacked her and tried to sell her-but she was able to get away.  Ever since then Rose doesn’t trust nobles, or anyone else for that matter. 

       When Declan, a noble, arrives in front of their house, Rose emerges with a gun, jumping to conclusions, and telling him that she will not marry him.  He manages to make a deal with her and ends up living with them.  Since she lost her job, she does not have much of a choice but to let him pay her to stay.  While there, Rose has to give him three challenges.  If he is able to complete the three challenges then she has to leave and go with him back to the Weird.  But Rose seems to have other things on her mind than the challenges-the wolves that have started attacking people in The Edge and internal family problems.        

       I loved this book!  The villain didn’t really scare me-he could have been more threatening but it bother me too much.  Rose was such a strong character.  She had a really hard life.  Her ability to take everything day by day, hour by hour, problem by problem was really impressive.  Her selflessness was shown throughout the book, mostly in the care she gave to her brothers.  She did everything she could so they could live comfortably.  She was basically like their mother.  Declan, oh boy!  I thought he was an arrogant jerk in the beginning-kind of like how Rose felt.  But then he started to show his soft side.  He loved Rose so much.  He helped her even when she was rude to him. I don’t want to give anything away, but what he did for Rose was so awesome and just heartwarming.

       I couldn’t put this book down!  After I finished it, I went back and re-read all my favorite parts.  I so badly want Ilona Andrews to continue with Rose and Declan-even though the end is a kind of “happily ever after-the end” ending.  The world was wonderfully crafted and fun to read.  Everything was just so different from the paranormal/fantasy/romance books out there.  I would definitely recommend this book to all who love a good romance, magic, action, and a bit of mystery.  

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Book Review: Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Title: Marked

Author: P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Series: House of Night #1

ISBN: 0312360266

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Genre: Paranormal/ Romance/ YA/ Fantasy

Pages: P-306; H-320

Amazon 

Book Website

Synopsis (from Goodreads.com): The House of Night series is set in a world very much like our own, except in 16-year-old Zoey Redbird's world, vampyres have always existed.  In this first book in the series, Zoey enters the House of Night, a school where, after having undergone the Change, she will train to become an adult vampire--that is, if she makes it through the Change.  Not all of those who are chosen do.  It’s tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling.  She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx.  But she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers.  When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school's most elite club, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny--with a little help from her new vampyre friends.

My Reveries and Ramblings:  The day Zoey Redbird was marked changed her life forever.  However, it didn’t change for the worse.  It changed for the better.  At home she had to live with her stepfather, who was a member of a religious group that made her life very difficult.  He thought of Zoey as going down the wrong path in life.  Her mother, of course, listened more to her husband than her daughter.  The day she was marked causes her parents to want to keep her from going to the House of Night, a school for fledgling vampyres-the only chance she has of surviving the change.  With her grandmother’s help, she arrives at the House of Night, but not before having a strange vision/dream that seems to have affected her mark.  At the House of Night, Zoey meets a group of friends who become the family she never really had.  Her time at House of Night isn’t all that easy.  Zoey starts being haunted by ghosts of students who didn’t survive the change.  She also has attracted the attention of school hottie, Erik, and his ex-girlfriend, Aphrodite.   Zoey also has to deal with the fact that her ex-boyfriend, Heath, refuses to be an ex.  Oh, and her markings/tattoos seem to be growing and changing everyday. 

       I was very hesitant to pick up this book/series.  I had read many mixed reviews on the series as a whole-people either loved it or hated it.  I thought I’d get about halfway through Marked before putting it down; so I never started them.  That is, until my sister-in-law lent me the first 5 books in the series and told me that they were amazingly good.  I didn’t love it.  But it was really interesting and I found myself wanting to find out what happened next.  The world is well-crafted. It is a world filled with pagan rituals, vampyres, and special powers.  The People of Faith reminded me of the Fellowship of the Sun from True Blood.  Zoey is forced into a world that from the outside looks like a curse, but to Zoey its much better than before.   Her friends are great and help her throughout the book.  Zoey’s thoughts on characters and situations is shown through the narration-Zoey’s POV.  I felt like I was in Zoey’s head, seeing everything through her eyes. 

       Overall, I enjoyed it.  I will definitely be picking up the next in the series.  I give it 3 Kisses.  

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Book Review: The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

Title: The Eternal Ones

Author: Kirsten Miller

Series: Eternal Ones #1

ISBN: 1595143084

Publisher: Razorbill

Genre: YA/Romance/Paranormal

Pages: H-416

 Amazon

Read an excerpt here
Also check out the author's website for extra stuff (like letters between Ethan and Constance)

Synopsis (from Goodreads.com):  Haven Moore can't control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother's house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.

In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again.

My Reveries and Ramblings:  Haven Moore has spent most of her life passing out and having visions through the eyes of a woman named Constance.  All her visions center around the handsome Ethan.  Everyone, apart from Beau-her friend, thinks she’s either crazy or a bad seed.  Her grandmother is convinced she’s possessed.  The only person who ever really knew the truth, or beginning to learn the truth, was her father who died in a car accident when she was little. 

       One day Haven sees Iain Morrow, a celebrity, on TV.  She can’t stop thinking about him.  After some time she decides to go to New York to try and find him.  After finding him, Haven discovers that she and Iain are soul mates who have been reincarnated for thousands of years.  Problems continuously arise threatening their relationship and the reincarnation cycle.  People start going missing or turning up murdered.  Haven is constantly being watched, and not always by the good guys.  Iain is hiding something from Haven, and she knows it.  By going out and trying to find answers on her own, Haven ends up even more confused and unwilling to trust anyone.  She must decide who to trust before its too late. 

       Oh my! This book was good.  It was so different from most girl-and-boy-fall-in-love-at-first-sight books.  This story centers around the idea of immortal (not vampire) people, reincarnation, and soul mates.  I felt like I was being pulled in every direction alongside Haven.  I wasn’t sure who to trust-although I always...let me repeat that, ALWAYS trusts Iain.  I hated how she kept ruining the moment with her paranoia about how Iain may or may not be the murderer.  The twists throughout the book were so good.  After closing the book, I waited about an hour before rereading it.  Then a few days later I reread it again.  I couldn’t stop thinking about this book.  It was one of those I-wish-I-was-that-character moments.  I believe in soul mates.  This book definitely fueled that belief.  I really really really really wish this would happen to me-except maybe no killing and creepy secret society- but definitely all the true love stuff. 

       You don’t have to believe in reincarnation or soul mates to love this book.  It’s a beautiful love story filled with mystery that will leave you wishing you were the characters.  *secretly wishing I was Haven.  The only...and I mean only problem I had was with Haven’s trust issues.  I found them a bit annoying-but that’s it.  It was such a great book.  I give it 5 kisses. 

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TGIF!!!

Hi all!  In case  you didn't already have it circled a zillion times on your calendar-IT'S FRIDAY!! With Friday comes the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Crazy-for-Books.

This week's question:  What are you reading now and why are you reading it?

My Answer:  Right now I'm reading Avalon High by Meg Cabot and Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson.  

I'm reading Sundays at Tiffany's because I saw the movie and loved it!  Then when I was going home for Christmas I saw it in the Hudson bookstore at the airport and had to buy it.  But its been sitting on my shelf for a while-with me reading a few pages every once in a while.  I decided yesterday that I would commit to reading the whole thing.  My friend lent me Avalon High and it too has been sitting on my shelf for about 2 weeks.  I'm putting off reading it because the movie on disney didn't look that great.  I didn't watch it but then again, I didn't really want to.  I think Meg Cabot is a fantastic author and so far everything I've read of hers has been amazing so hopefully this will be too.  

Book Review: Fire by Kristin Cashore

Title: Fire

Author: Kristin Cashore

Series: Graceling #2

ISBN: 0575085118

Publisher: Gollancz

Genre: Fantasy/ Adventure/ YA/ Romance

Pages: H-461; P-336

Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.

Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

My Reveries and Ramblings:  Fire is the last human monster-and she intends for it to stay that way.  Fire’s father, also a monster, was the king’s best friend who used his power to get what he wanted.  He did terrible things just because he could.  Fire was the only person her father loved and who was never under the influence of his power.  Over time Fire realized her father was not good.  After her father’s death, she vowed never to have children-that the line of human monsters end with her. 

       The novel starts with Fire getting shot with an arrow.   The shooter is one of the many men being found around the kingdom who have clouded minds and don’t seem to understand what they are doing.  Fire is asked to help the royal family interrogate prisoners with her ability to reach into people’s minds.  However this proves difficult since Fire refuses to do anything bad with her ability.  On top of that, she also has to deal with Lord Brigan who seems to be set in hating her, King Nash who keeps declaring his love for her at every opportunity, Archer’s (her lover) growing jealousy, and a boy with different colored eyes who gives her the chills.  The story is set during a tension filled time leading up to a huge war which takes place as the story progresses. 

       I LOVED this book!  I read it twice and still couldn’t stop thinking about it.  Fire is such a strong character and yet ironic character.  Fire’s beauty drives men mad.  Many try and kill her because they know they can’t have her.  Others harass her and then turn to violence.  She is hated by those who hated her father and even worse, is only trusted by her close friends.  Throughout the course of the story she has to overcome all of these difficulties. 

       Lord Brigan.  I couldn’t imagine a hotter knight in shining armor.  He’s so strong and was forced into the army at a young age by Fire’s father in hopes that he would die. Instead, he emerged a hero.  He grew up distrusting monsters and because of that distrusts and hates Fire.   However over time his heart softens and he sees Fire as a human instead of a monster. 

       This story was just riveting.  I was engrossed in the novel from the very first page.  It had suspense, adventure, and romance.  It was epic.  I thought it was so much better than Graceling even though it is a prequel or companion novel.  It takes place years before Graceling.  Also, I love reading books that have a redhead protagonist because, well, I am one!  Overall, I highly recommend this book.   I borrowed it from the library, and will probably one day buy it so that I may reread it a million more times.   

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