Pride Book: If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

In honor of pride month I really wanted to help transgender writers, and I came across this book.

The story follows Amanda Hardy, who moves in her estranged dad to start a new life for her senior year of high school. Amanda is determined to stay under-wraps until she starts falling for football player Grant, an easy going guy who' s interested in her. As she starts to let him in she realizes she deserves to find happiness even if she couldn't be truly faithful about something. Things are going well for Amanda as she now has a boyfriend and friends while carry a dark secret. She's transgender and was previously known as Andrew.

Amanda is worried about what will happen if her secret came out. After what she went through in her old school she realizes that in order to survive she can't let her secret slip.





Review: First off there was so much to love about this book! This is an LGBTQA+ book about transgender girl, written by transgender woman and the model on the cover is transgender! A step in the right way publishing. While this came out in 2016 and I'm just discovering it, shame on me, I found this story lovely! While I am writing a book with trans main character it's not from the POV of trans character.

While some parts were fictionalized it really opened my eyes to transgender community, and I hope to find more books about transgender teens as I think it's such an important topic. Some amazing scenes to note was when Amanda's dad thought Grant attacked Amanda but it was a misunderstandinG. Another was when after her GRS, Amanda sees her mom crying over her photos and accepts that even though she has lost Andrew she has Amanda. Such a powerful scene!
Also this was not a typical story where transgender faces bullying. Instead it was about hope and love and being who you are. I totally fell for Grant.

Two things I didn't like. First off the ending. It really left me hanging. I have no clue what happens it could have elaborated on that! Also it was the flashbacks, the flashbacks were unorganized going from six years ago to three years ago to four months ago.

Other than that I highly recommend reading this!

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 



Le Cirque de Rêves is a magical circus draped in shades of black, white, and gray. It was conceived as being more refined than most circuses and was built to be housed in many rambling tents, awaiting each attendee's personal discovery of them, instead of one large tent for everything. The circus only opens at night, and it comes and goes without any announcement traveling all over the world. The main characters, Celia and Marco have been in a decades-long game of a magical duel. 

I would walk into a bookstore and see this book, especially at the book store at target. A lot of people on goodreads have read this book and really liked it so I bought it from Target. It took me a year to finish this book. Not because I thought the plot was boring, but I just loved the story so much I didn't want to finish it in a hurry because the book was truly beautiful. There are moments when the plot was just gut wrenching, while the couple who falls in love when they shouldn't. I want books like this that just make me appreciate the book. i looked at the authors website and saw that it was a series of NaNoWriMo projects. This read is amazing and I highly recommend it. This is one amazing NaNoWriMo published book. And it's been optioned for film! YAY!

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.








Claire is an artist, and as a child she stumbles upon a man in the forest near her home. While she's there she seems to finds a man who can time travel. Throughout her life Claire finds herself running into Henry at different times and in the strangest palces. Claire doesn't exactly get to have a traditional normal relationalship with the person she loves.

I had seen the movie previously, and I normally don't do that, but I had wanted to read the book for a long time, and I finally found the time. I don't want to sound too biased, but I like the movie better. When I was reading the book, I found myself getting confused. I normally don't mind books written in multiple point of views, but Claire's personality was really irritating. I also kept getting confused when it would come time to read Henry's point of view because it would flop around between different time frames. The story is good, but it needed more editing.

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shephard

Three years ago, Alison disappeared after a slumber party, not to be seen since. Her friends at the elite Pennsylvania school mourned her, but they also breathed secret sighs of relief. Each of them guarded a secret that only Alison had known. Now they have other dirty little secrets, secrets that could sink them in their gossip-hungry world. When each of them begins receiving anonymous emails and text messages, panic sets in. Are they being betrayed by some one in their circle? Worse yet: Is Alison back? A strong launch for a suspenseful series.












Pretty Little Liars sets the story a group of five friends and when the leader of the group Allison mysteriously disappears, the girls all go their separate ways. A year after her death 

I have been following the show for a while now. Pretty Little Liars has to be one of the best and high rated shows ABCFamily has aired in a long time. I've been watching it since day one, and I knew the T.V. show was based on a book but I wasn't sure as to whether or not to read the books because like the Vampire Diaries, whenever This is one of the shows that is still renewed for a contract. I had seen the novels around the bookstore and I did judge it by the cover. I thought by looking at the cover this was going to be another one of those books series that tries to knock-off the popular books, like the Gossip Girl series. 

I hope this review doesn't make me sound biased but here it goes. I'm not going to lie. I thought the first four books in the series were really good. The final book in the series was originally book six, and that left everything into piece. Then comes in ABCFamily who decided to make Pretty Little Liars into a T.V. show, and still keep the show running because of it's highest ratings.  So then the publisher demanded more books from the series, and just like with the House of Night novels, the plot and everything else just went down the drain, and taking the characters with them. The first four books were good, then after that the rest of the series went south.

The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus Bk 1) by Rick Riordan

I love Greek Gods!

The Lost HeroJason has a problem. He doesn't remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper. His best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids", as Leo puts it. What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.
Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he's in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn't recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?
Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What's troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.


Years ago when I finished the Harry Potter series I told  myself I wouldn't like many other adventure series. But MAN Rick Riordan can write and is now one of my favorite middle school.

For a brief summary,  three teens, Jason, Piper and Leo, are at a Wilderness Camp a camp for delinquents when they are attacked by wind spirits. The coach is carried away, and they make a near escape on a chariot pulled by Pegasus. Leo, a fiery Latino; Piper, a beautiful charmer of Native American and Hollywood heritage; and Jason, a guy with a magical sword and virtually no conscious memory of his life before that fatal day at camp; are taken to Camp Half-Blood, into a series of self-discoveries and a quest. 

At firs I thought Jason was a replacement for Percy, but as you get further into the series you see the characters evolve more, I didn't find myself too gripped to them, but they do bring the story out.What I liked most about this series is how it combines Greek and Roman Gods. Great book for the first in a series, I am anxious to read the next book in the series.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

A BIG NOVEL ABOUT A SMALL TOWN ...
When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils ... Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?





This book has about several different storylines going at one time. Mrs. Fairbrother, recently widowed begins a relationship with her husband's beat friend. Fairbrother’s opponent, the Howard Mollison, is those stuck up rich people who think they are better than anyone else; Krystal Weedon, is a prostitute and her drug addicted mother, Terri; Krystal’s new social worker, Kay Bawden, who has recently moved to Pagford with her teenage daughter; the disaffected adolescent boys, Fats and Andrew; and a variety of local gossips and pot-stirrers.

I checked out the book at my university library. I wanted to read it but the price was a little too steep and I wanted to read it so imagine my surprise the library  actually had it. Honestly, Rowling's writing is still perfect, the description and everything. The story itself is just bland. I understand this is her first project away from the universe of Harry Potter, and there has been criticism on how she should have just stuck to writing Harry Potter books. One thing the literary world said "Can Rowling being the same magic to her adult fiction like in Harry Potter?" First off people need to stop reading it like it's a Harry Potter novel. I respect Rowling for taking her time with her writing and seeing it as a new original story. Every new series by an author I like I read their work with a fresh eyes, not comparing too much to their previous work. I didn't like the book too much, and maybe Rowling's next book will be good. The writing is good, but it just doesn't have that spark. Rowling still has it, it just may take a while for things non Harry Potter. 

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July!

Baby & Bump by Brooke Moss

At thirty years old, caterer Lexie Baump has a lot on her plate. With a business to run, she doesn’t have time for any added distractions. But one momentary indiscretion adds a little hiccup to Lexie’s plans. She’s pregnant. With no relationship prospects.
But if Lexie thought fighting morning sickness while running a catering business was hard, enter Dr. Fletcher Haybee. Their connection is instant, and their love of vintage rock tee shirts and Elvis music is enough to bond them for life. There are just two minor problems.
One: he’s dating her oversexed best friend. Two: he’s also her obstetrician.
With events to cater, awkward OB appointments to endure, and her ever-growing baby bump making it impossible to close her jeans, Lexie has to find a way to curb her undeniable attraction toward Fletcher and focus on her new role as a working mother. But it certainly isn’t easy when its clear Fletcher himself feels the same magnetic pull toward Lexie.
Can Lexie leave the gorgeous Fletcher for her best friend to chew up and spit out, or will she cave to her feelings and find love in the stirrups? Life is about to get messy, and we're not just talking about crumbs in the car seat...


I have been trying to look for other books outside of the romance department but I was lucky to receive an ARC. What I liked the most about this book was there was more comedy than found in most chick lit books. There are moments that are full of embarrassment, and that will make you laugh and may spark some of the most embarrassing moments that happened to you at one time. If you're looking for a romantic comedy to read next, I highly recommend this book.

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter

Hiding is Roo Fanshaw's special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment's notice. When her parents are murdered, it's her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life.
As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn't believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth.
Despite the best efforts of her uncle's assistants, Roo discovers the house's hidden room--a garden with a tragic secret.

When Roo Fanshaw's parents mysteriously are murdered, Roo is sent to go live with the uncle she never knew she had. Roo is now stuck on an island called Cough Rock, and finds her new home filled with adventure. 

I have not really read remade classics into books, although a remake of some more American literature classics would be nice, I found this middle grade novel being a remake of the classic novel The Secret Garden to be wonderful. What is really capturing is the development of Roo's character, the character is what really draws the reader, and I like how it's filled with so much originality and not filled with the same thing you find in most young adult novels. I highly recommend for those who liked The Secret Garden.

Astarte's Wrath by Trisha Wolfe

A tragic love story.
Two thousand years before Dez Harkly developed her secret powers, Guardian Astarte was vowed to protect by the binds enslaving her to the Egyptian pharaohs. Discover the prophecy that originated from a very different time, and spans generations to link two very different girls.
This is the beginning.

Set against the backdrop of the Battle of Actium, in the city of Alexandria, Star struggles with her guardian duties as her feelings for the newly named pharaoh of Egypt grow deeper. Not only is Caesarion her duty, he’s the son of Cleopatra, and he’s human. All of which makes their love forbidden.

But when a conspiracy linked to Caesar creeps into Alexandria, Star must choose between helping her fellow Kythan free themselves of their servitude, and protecting her charge—the last pharaoh—while Egypt burns around her.
New Adult/Mature YA: sexual content, drinking, drugs, violence, language, death, and other mature content intended for readers 17 and older. Astarte's Wrath is a companion novel to Destiny's Fire, but can be read as a standalone novel.


A good author friend of mine Trisha wrote this book, and being a history major with a fetish in historical and mythological elements I just HAD to pick this book up to read. The story is dripping with Egyptian elements. It's a refreshing take compared to all of the young adult books written about Greek mythology. What really brings the reader into the book is the world building the author did, it's so unique you find yourself mesmerized. I don't mind Greek mythology books, but some of them need a different story line. Seeing as to how the book is self-published it's written very well, just a few grammatical errors, but I'm not that picky so I enjoyed every second of the book. If you are looking for a mythology book with a refreshing take then this is the book you need to get your hands on.

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

New soul
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.
No soul
Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?
Heart
Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana's enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Set in the post-apocalyptic world, during the past thousand years people living in the Range  have been reincarnated over and over again. What makes the incarnation the most interesting compared to other books is the world building. It's when the people are reborn, they remember their pasts including who they are and what skills they posses. When Ana, the main protagonist is reborn, and they scan her finger into a system to see who she was before, nothing comes out so she is defined as newsoul. Ana lives away from society growing up, and when she's old enough she ventures on her own. Ana then meets Sam and together they search for her past.  It's also a little been considered a utopia but I don't care it's a beautiful bookl.

This book is a crosses several sub-genres of dystopian, dragons, science fiction, fantasy and romance. Compared to the majority of dystopian books out there published this one was my favorite. If I could give a book award for incredible world building it would be awarded to Jodi Meadows. After the first thirty pages into the book, it's where the real juicy parts of the story begin. Once further into the book I found myself unable to put the book down. This is a unique and interesting read and those who love dystopian books will be blown away by this original story.

Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

In my quest to one day in my writing career to write books for middle grade, I decided the best I could try and learn what it takes to write a middle grade book was to read them and evaluating what the author does to the books that makes them appealing to kids. The only children's books I have ever enjoyed reading were the Harry Potter series and the Junie B. Jones books by Barbara Parker, and it's mostly because I grew up with the books and saw as each new title was released each year and displayed in the bookstores. I went around asking many for recommendations and I was told the Percy Jackson books. I knew it was a movie but I honestly thought the books were YA not MG and I hadn't read the book or seen the film. So I decided to begin reading this book.





Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus' stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.




 

The Lightening Thief is book one in the Percy Jackson series. Percy Jackson is a twelve year old boy with learning disabilities. Percy has been rejected by schools and bounced around countless schools due to his abnormal behavior. Percy's math teacher also turns out to be a mythical creature in search of a mythological object. Percy soon discovers that he not like every one else, he's a demigod, the son of one of the Gods of Mount Olympus. 

When I first began reading the book, I had to try very hard to not read it with Harry Potter expectations. This has to be the first children's book I have read since Harry Potter series. I found this to be a new unique idea and plot compared to most of the books in the young adult genre. I think this book inspired the trend of Greek mythology in YA books today. I happened to find this a really good read. It almost reminded me of the Harry Potter books. The reviewers who say it's a rip-off of Harry Potter are reading it with the Harry Potter series in mind, because  they are nothing alike. The writing is what really hooked me from the first page. The world was created so well with such vivid imagination that it keeps the reader engaged into the novel. It has quirky dialogue with action that made me never want to put the book down. This is something many young boys will enjoy reading along with the Harry Potter books. Now I must go buy the DVD of Percy Jackson and read the second book before the next film comes out.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom points Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transformation power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.






I read this book for my high school for my Multicultural English class. Then when I had to sign up for second level English in college World Literature it turns out The Alchemist is the required reading for my class. When I was in high school I had never even heard of this book until I saw it was on the course syllabus to purchase. We were reading it in class and the book really appealed to me. Then to just read it all over again in college was helpful because well, I already know the book pretty well.

The Alchemist is about main protagonist Santiago, a shepherd who is on a journey and spiritual quest. During his quest he encounters people, strange dreams, and omens that stand in the way of him accomplishing. 

The books deals with nothing about magic or witchcraft or anything that would be deemed inappropriate. things that we've either forgotten about or simply dismissed as childhood fantasies. It is all about finding yourself. Finding the personal legend in yourself and pursuing your dreams regardless of anything that might come in the way . This book is really inspirational to those who are just trying to accomplish something in life. 

Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave. Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word... especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra. If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood—not even from each other.





This was a book I had been so anxious to get my hands on, and I was very impressed with this witch book compared to the others I have been reading. It's like a historical paranormal romance.  I LOVE to read books that take place during another time in history. Cate is filled with so much conflict. The characters were just so captivating I can't stop thinking about them. I was upset at the end of the book. I really hope it continues as a full series (and maybe 2 novellas). Plus the new paperback release in in this pretty pink color!

Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Is death the end . . . or only the beginning?Ethan Wate has spent most of his life longing to escape the stiflingly small Southern town of Gatlin. He never thought he would meet the girl of his dreams, Lena Duchannes, who unveiled a secretive, powerful, and cursed side of Gatlin, hidden in plain sight. And he never could have expected that he would be forced to leave behind everyone and everything he cares about. So when Ethan awakes after the chilling events of the Eighteenth Moon, he has only one goal: to find a way to return to Lena and the ones he loves.Back in Gatlin, Lena is making her own bargains for Ethan's return, vowing to do whatever it takes -- even if that means trusting old enemies or risking the lives of the family and friends Ethan left to protect.  Worlds apart, Ethan and Lena must once again work together to rewrite their fate, in this stunning finale to the Beautiful Creatures series.





 

This is the last book in the Castor Chronicles following the love story of Ethan and Lena. At the beginning we find out The book was written in dual point of view, and I was glad that the books finally put Lena's character. It felt nice to actually read what she was thinking most of the time. I think the writing of the dual point of view would have worked out fine if the authors didn't have the point of views switched after every every one hundred pages, and if it was apparent that we were actually in different POVs the views were too similar lacking characterization. It didn't have that dynamic feel to the beginning. The beginning tends to be a little depressing. The plot became to predictable for the ending. It really takes four books just to find out who Lena's parents really are? The series really just lagged on just to keep the books going. If you are someone who has been following the series from the start you may be happy with the book, and you may or may not be happy with the series ending.

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

Love hurts. There is nothing as painful as heartbreak. But in order to learn to love again, you must learn to trust again. 
When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.
But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her . . . a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo’s empathic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards . . . and that in 
the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.



I have never read any of Nicholas Sparks books, I only read one of his books Message in a Bottle, and I found that book to be unappealing. I recently picked up the book to read because I am very picky. I refuse to watch a movie based on a book without reading the book first. I found this book to be quite enjoyable. The book really falls under the romance-thriller suspense. There are parts filled with so much romance and suspense the reader can find their hearts racing between the chemistry of Katie and Alex. Sparks has really good writing, and for a male writer, his romance novel fulfilled my expectations. I am very excited to be seeing the film and to compare what was kept and removed from the film.

Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What — or who — will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?
For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it isn't by Lena - and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself — forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask. Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.

The style begins to feel the same like the first two books where the reader has a really hard time getting into the story. It's also really hard to feel the love between Ethan and Lena in this installment in the series like we did in Beautiful Creatures itself. Ethan is just a wonderful Southern gentleman and he treats Lena with so much respect, makes my heart melt. It takes a really long time to get into this book. Another issue is the interaction between the characters it feels really forced. There is still trouble between the Castor world and the Mortal world. It's not until the end something really horrible and tragic happens.

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.
Sometimes life-ending.
Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

The first book in the series was really good. I was too conflicted to actually continue reading the series because I had a lot of issues with the first book but since the last book of the series came out. Beautiful Redemption came out I wasn't as happy with book one but I am eager to see what happens with the characters and I am determined to read this series. 

Ethan continues to narrate through the book and his narration is not horrible but it is hard to tell if Ethan is actually a boy, the narration is not too realistic for it to be a boy perspective, a book that had a boy's point of view down to the core was Wolves of Mercy Falls series. Lena, while she barely makes an appearance throughout the book, her behavior in this book angered me so much, I had to refrain from throwing the book out of the window, Lena was a bit too conceited in this book. There was an interesting storyline between Link/Ridley/John is pretty interesting and I hope it keeps developing throughout the series as I continue to read it until the end. 

Another cliche is the love triangles, or a love square for this particular books.The most common problem with this just like in Beautiful Creatures is the writing, the writing is not bad, but the story just lags on where the reader just wants to put the book down. About 175 pages in this book could have been cut out. 

Another thing that made me think that this book was just another carbon copy of Twilight was when Lena announces to Ethan that she and her family are leaving town after an incident that happened in the school parking lot. Sound familiar from another book? The Cullens leaving Forks due to the accident that happened on Bella's birthday?

WRITERS: Never write pages that lag on, a book should be so addicting that the reader should never want to put it down.  there could be dozens of pages cut out so the reader gets to the good juicy parts.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Creatures

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

Beautiful Creatures is the first book in a four book series known as The Castor Chronicles, and is co-written by the author Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Ethan Wate lives in the small, boring town of Gatlin, South Carolina. Ethan is dealing with a family death and just wants to escape his small town life. Then Lena Duhannes moves to Gatlin. Lena wants to be normal, everywhere she has lived she has felt like she does not belong. Lena struggles with her abilities and Ethan then finds himself interested in her despite all the talk from his classmates and from his nanny to stay away from Lena.  Ethan takes an interest in Lena. Ethan tries to pursue Lena but she s him it's best he stays away from her. Ethan is later told in the book by Lena that she is a witch, just like the rest of her family and when she turns sixteen it will determine whether Lena is a good witch or evil. Lena is terrified that she will turn dark and it will do nothing but destroy the boy she loves.

Beautiful Creatures reads like a replica of Twilight. The book is told from Ethan's point of view, since Beautiful Creatures is written by females, it does not feel like you're in the head of a teenage boy. the only difference in the novel being that the paranormal love interest is a witch/castor and not a vampire. Garcia's agent is also the same agent who represents Stephenie Meyer, and Beautiful Creatures is published by the same publisher of Twilight it should have clicked how similar that book was. so when you are reading the book, you start to feel like you are reading Twilight all over again. When I first saw the book, needless to say and to be perfectly honest, I thought this book was going to be horrible which is why I didn't want to read it when I saw it at the bookstore for the first time because it's co-written. In most cases in terms of co-authored books, one of the writers will write one book one writer will write a chapter and then the other author would then begin working on the next chapter, causing the book to  make absolutely no sense causing the readers to get confused.

Beautiful Creatures had a lot of issues. The book is extremely long. There is a rule when it comes to word count when writing a books. Most young adult books run within the word count of 45,000-65,000 words, now 45,000 words is considered a novella. The only way an author can go beyond this rule is if the book is paranormal, science-fiction, or urban fantasy in which the general word count could range anywhere from 65,000-90,000 words. A debut author should not break this rule when it comes to their first time for publication. J.K. Rowling broke this rule, but the world and the stories she crafted were phenomenal and readers wanted more. There were also parts in the first book that so bland and overly descriptive tends to make you want to put the book down. There were also certain parts that should have been cut out of the book but it's mostly on fault of the editors. When I was reading, I found myself skimming through pages, or falling asleep there were pages within the book that were bland. it's evident that chunks should have been cut out of the book. Since the book series was published from the publisher as Twilight, the editor should have caught this along with the fact that the whole beginning of the book is just the background of the story, shouldn't the background of the story be the synopsis? Even then the publisher could have pulled the first hundred pages of the book and made it into a prequel story to sell before releasing the actual series. Then the characters tend to feel unrealistic. I will also admit I was not very impressed with this book, but I want to find out more about what's going to happen to the characters. 

I loved the chemistry between Lena and Ethan. and I loved the books! And here is the trailer for the movie! I'm so excited to see it!

Soulless by Gail Carriger

First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette. Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire - and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?






This is a book I have been wanting to read for some time and imagine the look on my face when I see that the publisher has all five books in the series available to purchase. I prefer to read a completed series because I get so impatient during releases and it allows me to read the whole series straight through.

This book is more of stemapunk with mystery. The plot was unpredictable, whenever I thought I had something figured out, something else would happen and throw it off the surface. It has a very unique take on the supernatural. I love the steampunk books because I am a huge fan of the Victorian era. The main character, Alexia, of the book has no soul and since she has no soul it neutralized supernatural creatures like wolves. I didn't really find a lot of wolf element. The book does deal with a lot of stereotype. I found this book to be a quick, entertaining, and interesting read with the mixture of fantasy,romance, humor, and steampunk! I really enjoyed how Carriger blended all of the elements to make one fantastic book.. It was a unique and enjoyable read.