The full review can be found at The Book Bratz

Note Before I start my review:

Can I say one thing? Cinderella came BEFORE Cinder. Yes, Mechanica is a Cinderella retelling, it is in no way even close to Cinder. They're two completely different ideas and stories. Mechanica is in no way a rip off of Cinder nor vise versa. I liked both stories. Cinder is loosely based and Mechanica follows it a little closer.


Review:

This cover is just beautiful. Nicolette, her dress, the head piece, all the mechanical parts and the typography make it eye catching and memorable. Retellings typically make me nervous, the author will either destroy the orginal story or they will do an amazing job. I have yet had a chance to find a book that has a happy medium. Mechanica is a magical steampunk twist on a classic fairy tale that didn't fail to disappoint.

I love retellings because an author can go in any direction with it and it is totally acceptable. Steampunk and metal horse had me sold and in total grabby hands mode for Mechanica. The writing and world building in Mechanica was rich and enchanting. There was so many aspects to the story that it was overwhelming at moments. But everything (for the most part) makes sense in the end. I wish that Betsy talked more about the faerie and their world. There was so much that was talked about but unclear, I see that it wasn't necessary for the plot. But it was thrown in there and we were expected to notice it.

I am warning you now. In Cinderella, she falls in love and gets her happy ending. Mechanica wasn't about Nicolette falling in love and living happily ever after. The story was of Nicolette, who meets her prince charming. But changes her mind that happily ever after isn't for her. It came a bit of a shock to me, but with the friendships, learning about ones true self, and what family really means Mechanica was much more then a story about love.

Overall I really enjoyed Mechanica. It was an interesting twist on a fairy tale that everyone has read before. It was a beautiful story that will stay with me for a long time.

The full review can be found at The Book Bratz

I read Melissa's other NA series and thought that nothing else she could write would top it. I was wrong. No Kissing Allowed is full of angst, a taboo relationship and tons of steam. I was on vacation with family and some friends and I hid in a corner for two hours and just devoured this. All I can say is this: Aidan has been added to my very long list of book boyfriends.

Cameron has never let go before, she loves structure. With her life officially taking off, her and her two besties make a list of 10 things to do before adulthood. Her last task? Hook up with a stranger. No problem. That is until she walks into work and learns that she had a one night stand with her boss. Aidan is honest with her from the start, he doesn't do romance or relationships, but he wants something with her. Cameron's new job has a "No fraternizing with co-workers" policy something the protect the female workers from the ovary explosion called Aidan. That could potentially end in both Cameron and Aiden in big trouble with the Partners if they are find out. But love is always worth breaking the rules.

For the most part I really liked Cameron, you can see that she worked hard for what she wanted in her life. She broke away from a large family in the west, survived her father's unexpected death, and scored a once in a life time job at a HUGE advertisement company. She explains in the first chapter that she liked structure, and hooking up with a stranger is not structure. But she goes along with it anyway because she HATES to loose. My biggest issue with Cameron was she always wanted more then what Aidan could offer her. They broke the rules for their "relationship" to begin with, and every time Aidan gave in Cameron would want more. Maybe I don't understand because I am young, but Aidan was doing the best he could. I also think another reason I has issues with Cameron was because I saw a lot of myself in her.

Aidan didn't have a great childhood, and because he was terrified to become like his father he swore he would never enter a committed relationship, marry, have kids, ect. Things changed when he met Cameron though. All the walls he spent years building up would crash when ever they would talk. But holy crap. I would have loved for this book to alternate POVs so I would have be able to see into his head. There is always something about the forbidden/taboo relationship that will always have me devouring a book. A relationship between a boss and a worker seems to be my favorite. For a good part of the book I wanted to reach my hands in and smash their faces together. This book had so much angst. And steam. Especially Steam.

Alexa was a character I had many issues with. I knew from the time Cameron befriended her that Alexa would be the reason that the company would find out about Aidan and Cameron's relationship. All Alexa wanted was a promotion and was searching for any skeletons in anyone's closet to exploit. She was just a fake person. I hate back stabbing people. Then what does she do? She quits her job. Really? Ugh.

Overall I really loved No Kissing Allowed. The characters were great and the need to know what would happen between Cameron and Aidan will leave you reading. I do hope that we get books about Cameron's friends as well. I am not quite ready to let them all go quite yet.

The full review can be found at The Book Bratz


Firstly, I love the cover. Every single aspect of it goes along with the story and makes it eye catching. I know if I spotted this book in a crowd and picked is solely based on the cover this would be the on I picked. This book is a great blend of romance, adventure and Egyptian culture!

I wasn't a fan of Lily at all. At first I was slightly sympathetic, her parents are very controlling of her future. Her only freedom is when she spends her day at the Met, and she isn't about to have freedom long. When trying to find a silent spot to think Lily stumbled upon the new Egyptian exhibit, only there is one issue though. The sarcophagus is empty, and Lily is face to face with a beautiful God like man he can't speak English. Amon binds himself to Lily, linking their life forces together. Now together Lily must follow Amon back to his home land of Egypt to find his two other brothers and save to world from an evil Egyptian force.

My biggest issue with this book, and why I kept putting it down to read something else was our main character Lily. I never wanted to reach into the pages of a book and knock as much sense into a character as I wanted to do then.

I saw that Houck was trying to build up the romance, and I loved it for the most part. But it just drove me insane that for nearly 25% of the book Lily would try to lay one on Amon and then get all pissed off when he denied her. It turned me off from her character that she didn't know how to handle rejection well. There were reasons why Amon didn't/wouldn't kiss her. It is complicated to talk about. Also in the beginning when she thought that Amon was really a mental patient, she acted like she was above him and a know it all. She tried to make herself seem like a good person by helping him but she was really thing "You are a total freak." Lets just leave it that I wasn't a fan of Lily.

I loved the culture and mythology used in this book. Egypt is really the only subject in world history that I genuinely enjoyed. There is so much to learn and to know about that I'll probably never make a dent in the info. But this book did feed the "Egyptian history and mythology is really cool and I need to know it ass" monster in me.

Overall, I really liked the plot of this book and I am interested in seeing what is going to happen in the next book. I HOPE that Lily will show some character growth in book two because I seriously considered DNFing this one a few times do to her. But plot, mythology and world building wise Reawakened was beautifully done is recommended for Egyptian history junkies such as me!

I was really looking forward too this one, so I was even more disappointed when I didn't enjoy it. My biggest issue was Haley. She was demanding, bratty, and had a one tract mind. She kept claiming her brothers were the reason she didn't have a boyfriend, I honestly think she needs to reevaluate that. Haley isn't someone I would want to be friends with. I would put her in her place. The whole blackmail thing was stupid, the whole situation was the caused by the other Haley's inability to deal with her stupid actions. There were so many things that I disliked with this book, I am surprised that it didn't DNF it.

I actually liked Dead Upon a Time more then I thought I would, until I hit 67% and I literally didn't care for what was happening anymore. Obviously this is a book of fairy tale retellings but for almost three quarters of the book they didn't talk about what the summary described. I felt a little mislead. Nothing extraordinarily interesting happened in the first 75% of the book. To be honest I was bored.

Thoughts coming eventually

The full review can be found at The Book Bratz

I originally stick to New Adult contemporaries, only because I never came across anything but those. I jumped at the chance for Gamma Rift. I love science fiction and I love alien books. This was right up my alley. The only way I can explain how I feel about Gamma Rift is this: You have an ice cream sundae, but no matter how much of it you eat you NEVER feel content. Gamma Rift was okay, but I wouldn't read it again.


What I liked:

-The idea behind Gamma Rift was awesome. Aliens kidnapping other aliens to and experimenting on them. Sounds freaking awesome. Gamma Rift had the opportunity to be awesome too.
-The world building. It took a while before I had a solid image of what Garran and his kind looked like, but eventually I got it. America's cell inside the laboratory sounded really cool too. I loved how it was described.

What I didn't like:

-I can't put my finger on it, so please don't make me but there was something that I didn't like about the romance, I found is rushed and just strange. I think the alien/human romance just weirded me out.
-The sex scenes, I give it to Kalli. They were unique. But back to the alien/human thing. It just didn't sit well.

I would give Kalli's future writing a try. I like her writing style, and ideas. Gamma Rift just wasn't for me. I know this review is very vague. It is just one of those books that nothing stuck out to me. It was very bleh.

The Unquiet had a strong start, and then it fell flat. At 35% and 7 days in I finally decided to DNF it. It was pitched for fans of Orphan black so I actually thought I would love it. I was sure I was. The idea behind The Unquiet was interesting, but very little actually happened that left me wanting to read. I had no connection to any of the characters, and frankly I thought Lirael was immature. No matter how many times she tried to prove she wasn't.

The full review can be found at The Book Bratz

I've eyed this book for months now, and I was so excited to read it. I was even more excited when it was in the Entangled Teen newsletter and I could request it. I been on a mystery/thriller kick and I couldn't wait to feed this one to that burning monster.

Reasons why I DNFed it:

-I was only up to 35% and Amber just went missing. Plus, no one seemed overly concerned with the fact she just vanished. Her boyfriend was sad, but it was like they broke up. Not that Amber just up and disappeared after a party.

-I get you have expectations with your friends. But Nova and Alex's friendship didn't seem like a good one. His sex life is none of her business, and she shouldn't make him feel bad that he didn't want to tell her. She basically told him the things he was doing was stupid, all because he branched out and made other friends besides her.

- All the "Cakes" were just assholes and I didn't like a single one of them. Even if Zach was nice at moments.

-Nova gets upset that people talk about her, but she doesn't do ANYTHING to shut down the rumors. She keeps let them spread and spread, destroying her image in the town. Plus her actions don't exactly help them at times. She tries to seem all tough but she really isn't.

-I was genuinely confused with who had feelings for who, so Alex was hooking up with Jenkia (an enemy to both of them) and Nova was in love with Alex, who at times did things that suggested that they should be more then friends, but once upon a time Nova and Zach has sex and then he broke up with her so she hooked up with Matt and then someone started to spread rumors? It wasn't very clear at moments. I am not even sure that was all correct.

-I get building up the story and characters, but 25% to do so? I got it at 5% This is the middle of nowhere town that is basically a vacation spot for rich families.

I am not saying for you not to try this book, it just didn't work for me. My biggest issue was Alex and Nova's friendship, as well as the choices that Alex was making. He basically began to chose the people that made his life hell for years over Nova (Who he knew since the 4th grade) but Nova also acted like a baby about it. Sigh. I really did wish I could have like this one.