Wings by Aprilynn Pike

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful--too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

Jillian’s Review:

This was an okay read. The characters weren't really believable and the story was a bit slow. I can't stand it when the kids get into a mess and go to some boy (or girl) they've barely met instead of their kind, supportive parents. Doesn't make sense except to progress the romance... and the romance factor in this was pretty lame as well.

These kids barely know each other, not to mention the fairy Laurel meets for five minutes and can’t stop thinking about even though I forgot about him the moment I turned the page. He does get better on closer acquaintance, however we don’t get to read enough about him to enjoy his character as I believe Pike wanted us to.

Sadly lacking.

Wings by E. D. Baker

Wings by E.D. Baker

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

There’s always been something a little unusual about Tamisin. Her freckles look more like sparkles, and the full moon makes her want to dance.

But nothing could have prepared her for the day when real, working fairy wings sprout from her back. At school there’s a new guy names Jak, who seems to know something she doesn't. As her world get stranger by the minute Tamisin finds out more about herself and the fairy world.

Jillian’s Review:

This was really a cute story, with great detail, but it became silly (my nice word for stupid) when the fantasy land came into play (e.i. during a battle between goblins and fairies, the fairies throw pixie dust on the goblins which makes then grow really big noses, or shrink, or some such nonsense).  This is a middle grade novel which would explain the silliness, I guess.

That being said, I did enjoy the characters and Baker’s descriptions are wonderfully visual, I especially liked the description of the emerging of Tamisin’s wings.

I do think younger girls would enjoy this one a lot more than I did.

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's.

Jillian’s Review:

Amazingly beautiful cover, probably the most beautiful cover I've ever seen… but the story—megh—not so much. I hate it when books go back and forth from the past to the present, especially when it feels like we're just waiting for the train-wreck to happen.

Also, there was way too much "telling" instead of "showing" and even one paragraph described how we were supposed to have perceived the main character, Nikki, at the end of the book that I didn't get at all.

Nikki's epiphany was pathetic... it took her more than half the book to realize that the emotions she felt for one guy were artificially produced and that the other guy was the right choice. Not a whole lot of growth for this girl.

The one redeeming quality in this novel was the guy, Jack. He was strong and unbelievably faithful. I loved everything about him. If only we could pluck him out of this horrible story and place him with someone who deserved him and with a storyline that we could tolerate. Don't get me wrong, I think Ashton is a great storyteller. Her scenes and characters are realistic, I would just didn't enjoy to story or Nikki and the gross Cole.

And just one more thing; Cole was nowhere near “smoldering” as described in the synopsis. He was just a chain-smoking jerk. Ugh.

Sad waste of a great cover.

Warped by Maurissa Guibord

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

Tessa doesn't believe in magic. Or Fate. But there's something weird about the dusty unicorn tapestry she discovers in a box of old books. She finds the creature woven within it compelling and frightening. After the tapestry comes into her possession, Tessa experiences dreams of the past and scenes from a brutal hunt that she herself participated in. When she accidentally pulls a thread from the tapestry, Tessa releases a terrible centuries old secret. She also meets William de Chaucy, an irresistible 16th-century nobleman. His fate is as inextricably tied to the tapestry as Tessa's own. Together, they must correct the wrongs of the past. But then the Fates step in, making a tangled mess of Tessa's life. Now everyone she loves will be destroyed unless Tessa does their bidding and defeats a cruel and crafty ancient enemy.

Jillian’s Review:

Tessa was an OK character. I didn’t quite get her. She was supposed to be kind of artistic, but didn’t think like an artist (apparently a common problem in YA novels). She lost her mother and sometimes seems to still be mourning that loss, but other times she seems perfectly fine.

Too much detail is given in the beginning of the book so that the reader already knows pretty much what’s happening and what’s going to happen. I like more mystery in my books.

Will, “the guy”, was stuck up and frustrating and I didn’t get why Tessa would fall head-over-heals in love with him in two days. It drives me nuts when characters fall in love within a day or two, even if they supposedly have some sort of reincarnated past with each other. At least the romance was clean, though, there was a bit of swearing.

The story itself was, although not well written, interesting and kept me interested. But I basically just glanced over the last quarter of the book to get through it. It’s interesting, but not enough that I would recommend it and certainly not enough to want to read it again.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

Jillian’s Review:

I was really excited about this book when, by the first page, I was hooked. The first chapter got me even more excited and then it plummeted to the ground. Mara, who I thought would be an enjoyable character, turns out to be a foul-mouthed, annoying psycho. She’s supposedly an artist, but doesn’t think like one (meaning, she doesn’t notice colors, or shading, or the shapes of anything). She sees ghosts and hears things but doesn’t really do anything about it. [Spoiler alert] She thinks she’s able to kill things with her mind, but by the end of the book I’m still not sure if that’s what’s really happening.

This had a great plot and I assume it is well written—the story is so enthralling that I didn’t notice if the writing was good or bad, which is a really good thing. This could have easily been at least a four star book had Mara not been cussing up a storm the entire time.

And then there's the guy. Ick. First off, he doesn’t sound hygienically pleasing—wearing nasty, ratty clothes and smoking half the time, not to mention his “history” with all the girls in the school. Gross. And his mouth is just a foul as Mara’s. I couldn’t believe how many times they dropped the F-bomb in this! But the worst were the sexual innuendos. Really? Did you really have to put all that trash in what could have been a really great read?

And last, but not least, the ending was horrible. It didn’t end. There was no resolution, [spoiler alert] just Mara screaming her head off in a police station. Such a disappointment.

Despite the gorgeous cover (which actually never happens in the book—so annoying!), I have to give this one 2 ½ stars. And those stars are for the great story, if Hodkin had just kept out the filth. No teenager (nobody for that matter) needs to sift through all that garbage to get to the good stuff.

Wolfsbane (Nightshade, Book 2) by Andrea Cremer

Synopsis (from Goodreads.com):

When Calla Tor wakes up in the lair of the Searchers, her sworn enemies, she’s certain her days are numbered. But then the Searchers make her an offer—one that gives her the chance to destroy her former masters and save the pack—and the man—she left behind. Is Ren worth the price of her freedom? And will Shay stand by her side no matter what? Now in control of her own destiny, Calla must decide which battles are worth fighting and how many trials true love can endure and still survive.

Jillian’s Review:

I was sadly disappointed in this second book of the Nightshade series. Most of it was wood shaving-filler for a story who wants to be a real book. About ¾ of it was background story for a whole new set of characters that could have been cut down to one chapter and left room for a plot and action. I can’t count how many pages there were of people just standing (or sitting) around talking. There was some good action but it was few and far between and that’s pretty sad coming from a book about human/wolf shape-shifters trying to form an alliance with their former enemies.

And then the romance… so, I’m a huge romance fan. I think there should be some in every novel; it keeps me turning the page. But for YA, this one went too far on detail. Seventeen year old Calla was smart enough to know she was too young to get married (you’ll have to read the first one for the scoop on that), then why didn’t she know she wasn’t ready for the reproductions of having sex with a guy who she earlier insisted wasn’t her boyfriend? I hate it when these teenage characters - whether in books, movies, or TV shows – sleep around! I can’t believe how everyone seems to think it’s OK to have teenagers having sex in their materials. I remember being a teen and thinking, “I know I’m not the only one who’s not doing it. Why do they have to make everyone have sex with everyone else?”

ANYway, enough of that rant. Had Cremer cut out most of the filler she would have had room to write an ending instead of leaving it completely unfinished. I do want to know what will happen to these characters, they’re real enough for that, but I don’t want to wait a year just to read another “to be continued” disappointment.

(Because the characters were real-ish and I want to know what will happen to them, and because of the the action bits, which were pretty good.)