3.5 stars

This Girl is the final book in the Slammed trilogy. I absolutely loved Slammed, it was such a beautiful story. Heartbreaking at times, but beautiful none the less. I myself have experienced the loss of a parent at a very young age, so there was a lot to this series that meant something special to me.

This book was honestly not what I was expecting. I had no clue that it was going to be mostly a retelling of things that happened in previous books, but from Will's point of view. We did get peeks of Will and Lake and what they were up to just after where Point of Retreat ended, and also a brief glimpse of them a few years down the line at the very end. I really enjoyed those parts. It was nice to hear a lot of the highlight reels from Will's perspective. Although I had no clue that was what this was going to be.....my bad for not reading the blurb, but I couldn't help but to have been slightly sad that there wasn't more of the current, or the future happenings between Will, Lake and their wonderful family. I loved their story so much that I really just wanted more, I wasn't ready for this series to be over, let alone spend a majority of the last book reliving the past.

I still think this was an amazing series, seriously 4.5 stars all together hands down. And if you've read the other two books than I do recommend reading this final book, you get to see some of your favorite parts from the past retold by Will, and that ending was perfectly done. Also Colleen Hoover is an amazing story teller, she's one of the few that I have on auto-buy whenever she comes out with anything. I have yet to be disappointed. If you haven't had a chance to read something by her yet, I highly recommend this series, it's a truly beautiful story.

3.5 stars

Let me just start by saying that I absolutely love horror. I've been watching and reading it since way before I was probably supposed to. Even when it scares the living crap out of me, in fact that's the exact time when I love it the most. The Girl From The Well definitely had a few spine-chilling moments. It was sort of this great mix of The Ring meets The Grudge, with something completely unique, and I really liked it!

I loved the idea of this spirit that reaped her vengeance upon the real life monsters. Who doesn't like a good anti-hero?!

"We are the fates that people fear to become. We are what happens to good persons, and to bad persons, and to everyone in between. Murdered-deads live in the storms without season, in time without flux. We do not go because people do not let us go."


This spirit, Okiku is something quite horrifying, but truly only to those out there who are horrifying in their own gruesome ways. She is an avenger of sorts for those children out there that meet their untimely, unfortunate ends at the hands of the worst kind of predators out there. I loved this! I couldn't help but to root for her to exact her revenge on these terrible people. I reveled in it as much as the monster Okiku was did. We did ultimately get to see a.....softer side if you will, of Okiku. A side of her that took interest in a troubled boy who was struggling with his own demons, something far more sinister than Okiku. This interest sparked a real change in Okiku and I enjoyed seeing a side of her that protected a child in need, rather than just avenged an already destroyed one. I also loved that no matter the changes in her, she still was a true force to be reckoned with, and one that wouldn't forget what she had become and her purpose.


"This Okiku is clawing at her own face, black bile bubbling up from the wounds scored into her skin. Her mouth is wide and black and hollow, and she is screaming soundlessly, horrid gurgles at the base of her mangled throat, where bone protrudes. But the most frightening thing about this Okiku are her eyes, as they contain nothing but hollow sockets stemming with black leech-like maggots, and look nothing at all like eyes. It was this Okiku that drowned in this well three hundred years ago, the Okiku I was when I first began my existence as a dreadful spirit, as a nothing-more. This Okiku only remembered

pain

suffering

hate

vengeance."

While their were things that I LOVED about this books, there was equally things that I did not enjoy. I found it confusing at times when the story would switch from 1st to 3rd person, even at times in the middle of a paragraph. I think the author was going for something kind of poetic and different here, and there a few times where it worked for the particular scene she was trying to get across, but mostly it was just confusing. It just didn't work well for me. Also, the constant counting of EVERYTHING that Okiku does throughout the entire story was just annoying. I get that she never rested, I also realize the importance in numbers to this particular spirit, but enough was enough. It was too much. Count just one more thing Okiku, just one more...

I really liked Okiku, but the other characters didn't do all that much for me. Tarquin was alright, but if I'm being honest I was much more interested in his plight than I was in him. I was totally intrigued by his struggles, and his sarcasm was appreciated by me at times, but he just wasn't as remarkable as his situation was. Callie, Tarquin's cousin came of as generic to me. There was nothing notable or unique about her, and I just couldn't seem to bring myself to care if she continued being in the story or not.

All in all this was a pretty good story with some quite creepy scenes. I may or may not have spent a night staying up rather late with a Disney movie playing in the background after having read some of this in bed. Who am I kidding, I totally did that. So thank you for that Rin Chupeco. I think that this is the first novel by this author, I'd say she's off to a good start, and I would definitely be willing to read more from her in the future.


I received a copy of this book from SOURCEBOOKS Fire via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

2.75 stars

I absolutely love the Marked Men series by Jay Crownover, which is why I picked this up. I really expected a lot of this book to be pretty similar to that series since Marked Men is full of the stereo-typical bad boy alpha males. In a way Better When He's Bad had some of the same elements, a lot really, except for she took that stereo-type to whole new levels of bad boy, or at least that's what she attempted.

Bax was unashamedly an asshole and a criminal. Crownover really tried to make this boy actually bad rather than just the rough exterior. Unfortunately I think this fell short. The fact that she ultimately kept relaying that Bax had became a criminal initially to survive and take care of his mother, kind of just set back that asshole bad boy image she was trying to pull off. If she was trying for bigger and badder and really wanted her guy to come off as actually bad, I think she would have done better to go all the way. Don't make excuses, make him the biggest badass ever! I just think that she failed to reach what she was shooting for because in the end she wanted to make him just redeemable and likeable enough to sell to the readers. But lets face it, sometimes when conditions are right, we've been made to like a real bad boy even when we wish we didn't. I mean look at Javier from the Artists Trilogy by Karina Halle, or Barrons from the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. That's just to name a few. There are ways to make your bad boy be a real shit and still get people to accept it and like him regardless. Or make us love to hate him. Whatever. I just think if you're going for that, then do it all the way! Or else all you really have is another typical NA stereo-type, which is totally fine, but don't try and sell it for something more. Phew....sorry to get all ranty on you guys there!

The story line was interesting, I enjoyed the plot twists. I also enjoyed the setting, Crownover tried and succeeded in making the Point come across as almost it's own character. It was super seedy and you had the feeling that maybe it was the neighborhood that shaped these desperate delinquents. Either way it was clear that the Point left its taint on the characters. Dovie and Bax together were alright, I just for some reason couldn't bring myself to get invested in them. Honestly I found Dovie to be a little annoying at times. Mostly at the beginning of the story her whole I want him but he's a jerk, and I am scared of him got old. I also found it odd that she deemed most of the male race as not worth the trouble, but Bax and all his scariness and jerkish ways were apparently worth getting naked for, and pretty early on too boot.

I guess I was just hoping for a different story here. This was still a decent one, and clearly I'm in the minority because a lot of people seem to love it. Better When He's Bad just wasn't what I was hoping it would be.

3.75 stars

For a full review please refer to the blog....
http://bookwormcoalition.wordpress.com/2014/09/06/reckless-by-priscilla-west/


This book started out so ridiculous that I honestly was sitting here wondering if West was being serious or if this was actually a spoof making fun of NA romances. Some of these lines and scenes were so over the top that I just couldn’t help but to laugh my ass off. I’ll share just a few with you…

“The girl I passed earlier who was struggling against her boyfriend’s grasp squeezed past security, approaching the god from his right. Another girl approached from his left. They each latched onto one sleeve and yanked on the fabric. Within seconds, their panicking boyfriends were at their sides, tearing them away. But the girls held on tight and the god’s shirt split down the middle, one half going to each girl. He didn’t react, and his steps didn’t falter. He continued moving toward me, his dark eyes maintaining their hold on mine.”

The mental picture of this was just too much lol

“Rye you know I’m not trying to clam jam. I’m just concerned about you.”

Yeah….she really did say “clam jam”. That. Happened.

“He smiled at me. “Line up. I want a good look at each of you.”

“Huh?” Confusion swept over me. Did I miss something?

“You heard him.” Tiffany chimed as she lined up on my left, while Amanda stood to my right, leaving me sandwiched between them.

The rock god stood in front of us, assessing.”

Uh huh, you heard right. He lined them up like cattle and appraised them.

“I imagined that if the rock star thing didn’t work out, he could always make a living as a human cheese grater in a pizza kitchen.”

Trust me when I say that there is plenty more where this came from, I mean I am not even talking about the hot tub scene, let’s just say that there was a standoff of epic proportions and it didn’t involve any Mexican’s or pistols…..unless you count the
"love gun".

So yeah, I spent the first half of the book just rolling with the laughter. But then something started happening with the last half. Something different. It suddenly got kind of serious. All of the sudden I was wrapped up in the drama. I was getting to actually know these characters, and not just their top layers of cheesiness.

Riley was something of an enigma to me. She started out kind of cool, aloof, funny, baddass at times and then through a good chunk of the book remained rather naïve, insecure, slightly annoying, and meek at times. It was hard to accept that brazen as she could be at times, she could be equally as doormatish. You can just add “ish” to stuff and make it a thing, right? I still am not quite certain whether I really like her or want to punch her in the head. A little of both I think. **Which is funny considering I read another book by Priscilla West, Wrecked, and felt a lot of the same way about the main girl in that story as well. I am seeing a common thread here.*** It somehow ended up working for me though, there was enough of the badass Riley to keep me interested and want to see more of that.

Jax was equally as confusing as Riley was. He pulled a lot of douchey shit, especially in the beginning. But he had just enough sweetness in him too, so that balanced things out a little. Honestly I felt like we only just breached the surface with him in this book, and it really didn’t start to get serious until the end. Let me tell you, that ending was something else.

Seriously. That last 10% was something entirely else than what I had been reading this entire time. It was raw, it was painful, and it finally really made me see Jax as more than just some Rockstar Stud who had a hidden sweet side. He became real. This last 10% had me on the edge of my seat. Made it certain that I will be reading the next book when it comes out. I’m really quite curious how things will play out from here, there was a distinct feeling that Riley and Jax may have finally gotten themselves in a situation that was more troublesome than this duo could handle. It definitely felt like a shit storm was coming their way.

Reckless was something different. I may have thought it was a joke at first, but somewhere along the way I was truly invested in the story and the characters, and by the end I was eager to read the next book. Well Done, West. You got me, but I am on to your sneaky ways now!

I received this book from Blackbird Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Where She Went was the sequel to If I Stay. I really liked the first book, and was pleasantly surprised with this second book! It had been some time since I had read If I Stay so it did take me a little bit to get right back into the story. Especially with Where She Went picking up years ahead of where we last saw these characters, and in much different circumstances.


I love that this was told from Adam's point of view. His heartache, even years later, was so apparent and truly ruled his life. I was shocked by this. It was not at all what I had hoped for a young Mia and Adam. It seems that he took that tortured promise he made Mia back in the hospital in If I Stay to heart.


"If you stay, I'll do whatever you want. I'll quit the band, go with you to New York. But if you need me to go away, I'll do that, too. Maybe coming back to your old life would just be too painful, maybe it'd be easier for you to erase us. And that would suck, but I'd do it. I can lose you like that if I don't lose you today. I'll let you go. If you stay."


Well, at least in a physical sense. Emotionally I don't know if it would have even been possible for him to do so. It was so hard to see how Adam had become, and what had ultimately lead him there. I was grateful for the jumps between past and present. It quickly assimilated me fully into the continuation of a story I hadn't read in some time. It also enlightened me to how Mia and Adam came to be estranged and were on the paths they were. It was perfectly done.


I was absolutely in LOVE with the lyrics from Collateral Damage at the beginning of most chapters. It gave such insight to just how Adam was feeling after all he'd been through, and in such a beautiful way. I couldn't even imagine being Mia, out there in the world, hearing these heart-wrenching songs and knowing that it was all about her, or because of her.

I don't want to say much more about this book because I truly feel that it was so emotional that I just wouldn't even be doing it justice. It was a beautiful ending to an emotion filled journey. I am glad to have read it, and only wish that I would have read it closer to reading the first book so I could have experienced the effect of them both together fully.

The Daylight War is book 3 in The Demon Cycle series. I love this series. It is truly epic fantasy at it's best. Mr. Brett is am amazingly talented story teller. Beyond even the incredible fantasy element, the characters he writes are so multidimensional. He has proven to be a master at manipulation. I have seen some of the characters commit atrocities and loathe them with a fiery passion, just to have Brett turn things around and make me sympathize with these same people I believed beyond it. He gets me EVERY TIME.

These stories are hefty. They are usually 600+ pages, but he typically uses them all wisely. I say typically only because The Daylight Wars was the first book thus far that I actually found myself tiring of hearing about Krasian politics. It was almost overwhelming at times. The foreign words alone are a lot to keep up with (thank goodness for the Krasian Dictionary at the end of the book), add to that the seemingly never ending political scheming and traditions of ALL the royal courts in this book, and it was daunting at times. I was honestly just praying for some demons to start some shit just to have a break from it all.

Now as you know if you've read the other books in this series, Brett doesn't solely focus on just one character in each book, it's usually told from multiple perspectives. Even so, it's rather safe to say that The Warded Man felt mostly focused on Arlen, and the Desert Spear about Ahmann Jardir, and I would say that The Daylight War mostly Inevera's. Even more than that though, it felt like the women's tales, Inevera, Renna, and Leesha's, as well as a handful of other strong women that are spotlighted.

Brett ultimately pulled off humanizing Inevera to me, which at the end of The Desert Spear I thought would impossible. I'm not in love with her by any means, but I much better understand her and her motivations now.I still remain a big Leesha fan, and am dying to know what will happen with her next. She has gotten herself in quite the situation and I really have no clue how it is all going to play out. Renna I have to say is one of the only characters that I just can't seem to bring myself to care much about. She's tough as nails and brave too, which is mostly admirable when it's not her acting with more muscle than brains.I guess I really just never saw Arlen and her being together. I totally understand why they work, but I really thought Arlen better suited with Leesha. I think the most unsavory part about her to me though is the way she talks. It became so annoying to me. She sounded like such an idiot a lot of the time.

Even though the women were predominately featured here, naturally the men that we've come to know and love/hate were here too, with their many facets. Rojer, Arlen and Jardir were all their usual enchanting selves, always progressing and growing into more. I loved the changes in each of them. Jardir at times humbled by mere women was priceless, Arlen and a more human side brought out by Renna was great, as well as the surprising choices by Rojer. I really liked Rojer in this book. He was decisive, brave and more interesting in this book than I thought him to be in others.Maybe it was partly that he stopped being a whiney, pouty puppy dog following behind Leesha's heel. I enjoyed watching him turn into more of a man in this story. Rojer's interactions with Amanvah and Sikvah were superb. I actually quite like Amanvah, even though like most damaji'tings you never really know where exactly her loyalties lie and what she's thinking.

Getting to see some more of the mind demons was awesome. It was interesting learning more about them and the hierarchy of the demons. The fighting scenes in this book were by far some of my favorite parts. Unfortunately you don't get a lot of them until the last 20%. But that last 20% is FANTASTIC. I would gladly read another 300 pages of Krasian politics just to get to that last 20%, and that's really saying something. I am still reeling from that ending! That last paragragh was a KILLER and it will make the wait until the next book (not releasing until March 2015) a VERY LONG one. I can't stress enough how brilliant I think this series is, this may not have been my favorite book in it, but it was still great, and a don't miss for high fantasy fans!

4.5 stars

Could there be a more fitting title? I think not. I was completely enchanted with this story. It was this deep, thought provoking story that was told in such a vividly imaginative and unique way. I don't know if this same story could have been told in a more traditional way and accomplished the same results.

I loved the things this story made me think about! Even more so if you go in knowing that while this may be fiction, this author has an intimate knowledge on the material here from work that she had done previously. After reading this I think it's safe to say, I have a few misconceived notions in regard to the workings of a prison and the inhabitants in general. This was hard subject material to begin with, and even more difficult to make the reader stop and think about, and even sympathize with the unsavory characters in it.

I liked the connection that ALL these characters, the "bad", the "good" had with each other, and I LOVED the way that they were all broken down to more than the labels of such. They were all in this enchanted place together, and there were reasons for that. There were things that tied all of these people together. Take away the labels, bad, good, mother, father, son, whatever....and what you're left with is just a person. A human being, it's one thing everyone has in common. Sometimes we forget that even the people who commit horrible crimes have a story to tell. This book tells this in the best way too, without excusing the awful actions, and just telling their stories. It's oddly simple, and subtle, and beautifully done.

I could go on and on about this, but I refuse to ruin it for any future readers! I highly recommend this book! I hate to be overly vague here, but I think that this whole book was an experience and if I were to break it down and try and explain it, I just wouldn't be doing this story the justice that it deserves. So I guess I'll just say that I loved this! Honestly the only thing that made me give The Enchanted 4.5 rather than 5 stars was that it was a bit of a slow build. There was time taken in getting to the real "meat" of the story. BUT I can absolutely say that the pay out was worth the wait, well worth it.

I'm a little conflicted about how I feel after reading this book. I really liked the plot. This kind of jaded teenage girl, finding out she has cancer and is going to die, which in turn leads her to choose to live the rest of her days doing the things she wants to do and throwing caution and consequence to the wind. The real kicker comes after she uses this time more for revenge purposes than anything else, and after engaging in all these dirty deeds finds out that she really isn't going to die. So now she must face the things she has done and the very real consequences that come with them.

Sounds awesome huh?! I thought so too, unfortunately the characters leading this parade, Alice and Harvey (the boy who she drags through the trenches with her mercilessly) fell a little short for me. Alice can be a very hard person to sympathize with most of the time. You'd think it would be quite easy considering her tragic circumstances, but she ends up making it harder than you think. She comes off as pretty selfish, petty and shamelessly cruel at times. But there are also times when I thought Alice was very brave to actually act out things that most people only daydream of doing.

I found myself starting this book with excitement and intrigue, and then it lulled for me in the middle, and came back around to being engaging again in the end. I think the part in the middle was so hard for me to get into because Alice was so frustrating to me. I had a hard time understanding why she was so cold and detached from the few people that truly cared for her. It felt to me that she just used everyone to meet whatever ends were best for her with absolutely no regard for how her actions affected those people. Harvey was a sweet guy, he really stood by Alice, even when I wanted to shake him for doing so! It was hard to watch the constant blows to him and he just stood there through the storm with little thought of his own well being. In the end though the story did come back around and come to a very fitting resolution. I did appreciate the growth of the characters and the ending which I found perfectly fitting to this story. All in all it was an interesting story, but it wasn't exactly on par with my higher expectations of it.

This was a cute romance with a splash of magic. Kate and Slade were, at first glance, complete opposites. Kate was a hopeful romantic, who believed in true love and still held on to hope that her happily ever after was out there. She had a blossoming match maker business, so she even made her living off of finding other people their happy endings. Slade was a jaded divorce attorney, who had been scorned in the past by the notion of love and marriage. Then he watched his baby sister lose herself to the same notion.

When Slade's sister decides to pick herself up and start living again she moves to a new town, new job, and enlists Kate and her colleagues to find her someone special. Slade, overbearing as he is ends up furious and thinks she's being swindled by Kate and her company. To prove them fraudulent he bullies Kate into finding someone for him, even though he doesn't believe in love anymore. As you can imagine chaos ensues and the two, outwardly least likely people to fall in love with each other, end up doing just that....even when they deny it.

It's not exactly a plot line that hasn't been done before. The thing that really set this book apart from the others was the addition of Kate's magic touch. Her magical lineage was actually done rather subtly and added something unique and intriguing to the done before will they or won't they romance. The characters were cute, Kate's mom was hysterical! She was a comedic breath of fresh air, the story was better for her brief, but memorable, appearances. Anyone who likes romance stories, but is looking for some fun, subtle touches to make it a little different, will probably enjoy this story.

2.5 stars

I really wanted to love this book. I mean I love Colleen Hoover, and she's wrote some books that were easily 5 star reads, in my opinion. I was so excited to dive into this one. I hate to say that I was disappointed....but unfortunately that's ultimately how I felt. There were some things that I did enjoy, don't get me wrong, but I had high expectations and this just wasn't all I thought it would be.

Honestly I think most of my problems with this book can be summed up with one word....Tate. I hated that she put herself in situations with Miles that she wasn't comfortable in, and then just lied about it to him. The only credit I can give her is that she was mostly honest with herself about her wants, needs, and feelings, but it pissed me off that she wasn't honest with Miles about them.....until the bitter end. She excused not doing so with two of the saddest, most typical girl responses "He was so hot" and "I'll change him". I wasn't even mad at Miles, he was pretty honest from the get go, even if he was fooling himself, if Tate wasn't on board with no strings attached sex, than DON'T DO IT!

Miles was alright. I liked his story. He had a tragic past, and I enjoyed seeing him overcome that. I did find it a little weird that this book, when told from his perspective, read like a love letter to another girl. I found it odd to see Tate's feelings for Miles look kind of similar to Mile's feelings about his first love. I get why it was done this way, but it was still a little puzzling to see going on through damn near the whole book though. He was also a little obsessive and kind of weirdly poetic sometimes, which felt like a bad version of Slammed. Not my favorite CoHo book. I still think she is awsomesauce, but this was not the book for me.