Author: Chelsea (Page 39 of 111)

BOOK REVIEW: The Demon King (Seven Realms #1) by Cinda Williams Chima

March 31, 2016 / Chelsea / 1 Comment

The Demon King (Seven Realms #1)
by Cinda Williams Chima
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Times are hard in the mountain city of Fellsmarch. Reformed thief Han Alister will do almost anything to eke out a living for his family. The only thing of value he has is something he can't sell—the thick silver cuffs he's worn since birth. They're clearly magicked—as he grows, they grow, and he's never been able to get them off.

One day, Han and his clan friend, Dancer, confront three young wizards setting fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea. Han takes an amulet from Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, to keep him from using it against them. Soon Han learns that the amulet has an evil history—it once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. With a magical piece that powerful at stake, Han knows that the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back.

Meanwhile, Raisa ana'Marianna, princess heir of the Fells, has her own battles to fight. She's just returned to court after three years of freedom in the mountains—riding, hunting, and working the famous clan markets. Raisa wants to be more than an ornament in a glittering cage. She aspires to be like Hanalea—the legendary warrior queen who killed the Demon King and saved the world. But her mother has other plans for her...

The Seven Realms tremble when the lives of Hans and Raisa collide, fanning the flames of the smoldering war between clans and wizards.

He called her Briar Rose, he said, because of her beauty. And her many thorns.

It’s not often that I find a YA fantasy series that enraptures me the way this one did. It’s no secret that I am very picky when it comes to reading these, as well. Needless to say, I’ve been side-eyeing this series for FOREVER, yet I have never taken the plunge. I’ve mentioned it to a couple of my closest friends and have felt there was something special about it for a long while. So why not leap right in then? I don’t know…because I’m stupid???

There comes a time when my cautious nature and blurred lines cause a lot of missed opportunities, and this one is by far one of the greatest. Had my great friend, Jen, not bought me this for my birthday (among many others, sigh, spoiled), it might have even been another year before I even considered it again. I go through phases, ya know? So, anyway, here comes my husband’s family vacation and I know I will likely have time to basque in the glory that is no drowsiness from work. Whatever should I read, I thought? Well, this one was on my list. My only mistake (besides having to listen to people incessantly talking in my ear 24/7 whilst I tried to cram read)? Saving this one for the end of the week.

Or was that a gift in disguise? It’s also no secret that I found another series I absolutely fucking adored from the minute I picked it up, enrapturing me for 90% of the trip, and for that I can’t say I made many mistakes. However, I do regret only having a couple days, in the end, of Han time. Because I waited, though, here I am getting to post a more coherent review than any of my poor Nevermore books did, and that breaks my heart, because there will never be enough time in my life to go back and re-write all those mini-reviews. I do plan to add quotes to them ALL, though, so be warned *pointy finger emoji*.

ANYWAY, my time is winding down even as I dawdle on meaningless chit chat. All I really wanted to portray in this review for my great friends is this: This story was addicting beyond words, creative beyond measure, and Han will steal your heart before you even realize the little thief has weaseled his way into your soul-He has an uncanny knack for such things. And, hey, even better, he hasn’t even fully developed into the hero I know (and hear, from a little snake/Dark Pup) he will become. I can’t even WAIT for book three and four (YES, I AM DONE WITH BOOK TWO).

He was not the sort to try and reconcile the warring souls that lived inside his body. There was Han Alister, son and big brother, breadwinner, deal-maker, and small-time conniver. There was Hunts Alone, who’d been adopted by Marisa Pines and wished he could melt into the clans for good. And finally, Cuffs, petty criminal and street fighter, onetime streetlord of the Ragger gang and enemy of the Southies. From day to day he slid out of one skin and pulled on another. No wonder it was hard to sort out who he was.

So why only four, you ask, while I wrap up this pitiful mini-review? I can’t be sure other than the fact that maybe I wanted a little more, in the end. For a fantasy, I found this book was not boring, but, in fact, unputdownable. From the beginning I was captured in it’s alluring web with no way out, and Han was nipping at my heels, making my heart beat faster than I could have possibly expected. But then, at the end (and maybe I was tired), I wanted more as the last 20% began to unwind. Oh yeah-I’m saving that last star for the last two books. Let’s hope they impress me in ways I can’t fathom, at this point.

Peril? Oh boy, this series is guna have it in spades.
Romance? I CAN’T EVEN.
World? What’s not to love?

I dunno. This isn’t what I wanted for ANY of my reviews in the last week, but at least this one got some more from me than just ‘oh my GAWD, I can’t even.’ *shrugs*

****************************** This. Book. Was. Excellent ! I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am that I loved this…I’ve been eyeing it for years and finally my lovely Jen took fate out of my hands and got it for me for my birthday…THANK YOU, LOVELY!!!! I ADORED this. HANNNNNNNNN.!!!! Onto book two…so frikkin’ excited I read this on my vacation. 😀 RTC! *fingers crossed* hopefully…

BOOK REVIEW: Oblivion (Nevermore #3) by Kelly Creagh

March 30, 2016 / Chelsea / 4 Comments

Oblivion (Nevermore #3)
by Kelly Creagh
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
This electrifying conclusion to the Nevermore trilogy takes one last trip to the dream world of Edgar Allan Poe to reveal the intertwined fates of Isobel and Varen.

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? —Edgar Allan Poe

The fine line between life and death blurred long ago for Isobel Lanley. After a deadly confrontation with Varen in the dreamworld, she’s terrified to return to that desolate and dangerous place. But when her nightmares resume, bleeding into reality, she is left with no choice. Varen’s darkness is catching up to her. To everything. Threatening to devour it all.

Isobel fears for her world. For her sanity and Varen’s—especially after a fresh and devastating loss. To make matters worse, the ghostly demon Lilith wants Varen for her own, and she will do anything to keep him in her grasp—anything.

Can Isobel ever find her happy ending? Worlds collide and fates are sealed in this breathtaking finale to the Nevermore trilogy.

*VACATION REVIEW*

“Paper girl,” he whispered, and she flinched when he touched her cheek, “in a paper play.” She placed her trembling hand on his sleeve, but no sooner did she touch him than her fingers disintegrated, flaking away to nothing in the same way the false versions of herself had. Isobel tried to speak, but she felt her throat cave in. His lips came close to hers, almost touching. “I thought I wrote you out,” he whispered.

I can’t even.

“She wants you,” he hissed. One of his arms looped her waist, and the Noc pulled her snug against him. “But then, “ he added, pressing his cold lips to her ear, “don’t we all?”

Epic. Beautiful. Heart-wrenching. Perfection. This series is just so addicting…I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. And this final books was everything the first book was and more. Everything I could ask for. Peril. Devastation. Heart-stopping romance.

Reliving her demise over and over, seeing her image all around him, frozen in the form of these cold, unfeeling monuments locked in eternal sleep-this had become his fate in this horrendous realm. His existence. This was his darkness. His hell.

I could go on and on…but I’ve been ranting about it all week already..and I could rant until next Sunday. I cannot wait to add quotes when I get home. I’m so obsessed. Just UGH.

“Item number two,” he said as he lifted his arms out to either side, “you should know that, as far as we can-the boy and I, that is-as much as we allow ourselves-“ “Don’t.” Isobel broke into a run. “We really do-“ “Pinfeathers, stop!” she yelled. “-love you.”

I can’t.

BOOK REVIEW: Enshadowed (Nevermore #2) by Kelly Creagh

March 28, 2016 / Chelsea / 3 Comments

Enshadowed (Nevermore #2)
by Kelly Creagh
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
True love takes a twisted turn in the second book of this modern gothic romance trilogy channeling the dark brilliance of Edgar Allan Poe.

Varen Nethers is trapped in a perilous dreamworld—a treacherous and desolate realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life. Isobel Lanley, plagued by strange visions and haunted by the nightmares of Varen's creation, is the only one who can save him.
Isobel knows that her only hope lies within a Baltimore cemetery. There, in the early morning of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday, a mysterious stranger known as the "Poe Toaster" will make his annual homage at the legendary poet's grave.
Only the Poe Toaster holds the key to the way between worlds. But great dangers lie ahead for Isobel. An ancient evil, draped in veils of white, is watching, challenging her for Varen's affections. When Isobel finally finds Varen, he is no longer the quiet and brooding boy who once captivated her, but a dark force, powerful and malevolent.
Could Isobel's greatest love also be her greatest adversary?

*VACATION REVIEW*

I keep telling myself That you’re just a girl. Another leaf blown across my path Destined to pass on And shrivel into yourself Like all the others. Yet despite my venom You refuse to wither Or fade. You remain golden throughout, And in your gaze I am left to wonder if it is me alone Who feels the fall.

Ahhhhhh this author is killing meeeee!! Why why whyyyyy do these things keep ending this way??? And the dreams…so damn terrifying. Though, I can’t help but to love every minute of this mix of dream and reality, never knowing where Isobel is and what she needs to do to save Varen.

All the attention made her feel so small, so helpless, like she’d somehow reverted to being five years old again. Only now her parents couldn’t tell her that nightmares weren’t real. Because she knew better.

And Varen…what a lost, poor, tortured soul-His story is a sad and desperate one. One where no matter how hard Isobel tries, he sinks lower and lower, slipping farther from her grasp. I am so beyond invested in this story that it’s sickening. Consuming my every thought on vacation, including on the beach, I am lost within this story just as Varen and Isobel are. Lord help me. I don’t think I can handle this lol.

BOOK REVIEW: Nevermore (Nevermore #1) by Kelly Creagh

March 25, 2016 / Chelsea / 3 Comments

Nevermore (Nevermore #1)
by Kelly Creagh
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Cheerleader Isobel Lanley is horrified when she is paired with Varen Nethers for an English project, which is due—so unfair—on the day of the rival game. Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look.

Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life.

As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares.

His life depends on it.

*VACATION REVIEW*

“Isobel?” Varen called to her in a whisper. “Hold on,” she said. “Hold on and wait. For me.” She turned away from him, toward the direction of the screaming, which came now between bursts of a pounding sound like someone beating their fists against a bolted door. She began to run. “Isobel!” “I’ll be right back, I promise!” These last words echoed through the passageway around her. I promise, she thought, repeating her vow over and over in her mind. I promise.

Omg this book…it was beyond words spectacular and out of this world amazing. I don’t know why I’ve never read this one before, but for my vacation it has been PERFECT-mesmerizing. Sitting on the beach (even at this moment), not knowing the difference between dream and reality…just breathtaking. Creepy, deep, and addicting, I am officially hooked. This series will consume my whole time in Florida lol.

The Nocs The Nocs They live in the floor The Nocs The Nocs They knock on your door The Nocs The Nocs Where there’s one, there’s more.

And Varen…just ugh. What an interesting, complex, and tortured character. I adored this book from beginning to end, and I still haven’t decided if I rated high enough. I’ll let you know, though ;). Until I post a mini-review again… Latas ♥

BOOK REVIEW: Yellow Brick War (Dorothy Must Die #3) by Danielle Paige

March 24, 2016 / Chelsea / 4 Comments

Yellow Brick War (Dorothy Must Die #3)
by Danielle Paige
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
In this dark, action-packed third book in the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series, Amy Gumm—the new girl from Kansas—must do everything in her power to save Kansas, kill Dorothy, and make Oz a free land once more.

Amy Gumm’s mission to take down Dorothy Gale is not going according to plan. Dorothy has found a way to bridge the worlds of Oz and Kansas, and if the power-hungry dictator of Oz has her way, Kansas will be destroyed forever. Now, Amy has to team up with the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked to save her home, restore the balance between the magic and nonmagic worlds, maybe get the guy—and kill that not-so-sweet Kansas farm girl once and for all.

In the third installment of the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series, Danielle Paige’s twisted versions of beloved Oz characters are back, including the biggest, baddest, most famous of all: the Wicked Witch of the West.

Welcome to the other side of the rainbow. Here there’s danger around every corner, and magic shoes won’t be able to save you

I couldn’t help but wonder: What if, that afternoon in the trailer, my mom had decided just that once to take care of me? To drive me to safety-somewhere both of us could ride out the storm together? What if she had finally done the right thing? Was what I’d gained in Oz-strength, power, respect, self-reliance-worth what I’d lost?

I think by far my largest disappointment stems from my epic love of book one, the epic heartbreak of book two, and my obsession of the series as a whole. But slowly, surely, my heart was torn to shreds as I saw this story unraveling before my eyes. It’s not so much that it was a bad story-It wasn’t. It’s more that this series should have been a duology-at most.

Part of me felt way too old for that now. No, not even too old. Too tired. Too experienced. I’d fought in a war. I’d seen too much of the world to believe in any of that crap, even for an hour.
But at the same time, being back home, and seeing my mom like this, was doing something funny to me. It was like everything that had happened in Oz was drifting away. It was like I was waking up and looking around and realizing, slowly, that it all had just been a weird, terrible dream.

And I don’t blame the author for her decision to make this what I thought was a trilogy. I really don’t. I absolutely ADORED the cliffhanger in book one, was a mess after the cliffhanger of book two, and I thought perhaps book three would follow suit…but when I picked up this story it was only 288 pages long. And I’m sorry but come on….that’s like a long novella. And I HATE novellas, if you didn’t know that about me.

“Of course, once you weren’t around for a while-you know, I almost missed you. Almost. This is Dustin Jr., by the way.” She patted the baby, who made a burbling noise. Madison’s baby was downright ugly. Then again, I guess most new babies are. He looked like a little old man who couldn’t find his dentures. His cheeks were too fat and his face was squashed-looking, as if someone had stepped on his head. Plus, he was bald as an egg. But I felt bad for him. It wasn’t his fault that his mom was the biggest bitch in Kansas-well, second biggest, now that I was back.

I guess there’s nothing wrong with novellas, per se, but it was not one of this story’s attributes. Every scene, every chapter, every moment felt a bit rushed, and as the pages progressed (each page flipped causing the percentage read to rise by, like, 3% each page) my heart slowly began to fracture-I began to see that the book I’d waited a YEAR for was not even close to what I wanted it to be, and it wasn’t going to end like I’d have wanted it to…and then I found out there is a FOURTH book. WHAT??! This is a horrid thing…or maybe it’s good. If this author, who’s writing enraptured me from the moment I opened her first story and became a forever fan, can make things right, make the story longer, more fleshed out, etc, I will be the happiest person in the world. I just don’t see how that could happen.

“You,” she said, her voice more exhausted than angry. “It always comes back to you, doesn’t it.”

I’m serious-I’d have rather read a 1000 page Dorothy Must Die book and called it a standalone than to be disappointed in this manner….but it is what it is. And, not to be totally negative. There were a lot of things I loved, too! And I must say…..90% of the things I was in love with centered around one name: NOX.

I closed my eyes again and lost myself in the sensation of the kiss. He shifted his weight and grunted with pain, and I started to laugh again. After a second, he laughed, too. His mouth moved to my neck, and then my ear. “Amy,” he said softly, his voice rough with emotion. “I am so not supposed to be doing this, but-“

I just…ugh. From the moment I met him in book one with his asshole-ish warlock (NOT A WITCH! Bahaha) attitude, he had my heart. The way he looked, treated, and secretly liked Amy warmed my soul and made me an obsessive fangirl (I mean, duh, it’s me). And I missed him dearly over the last few months…VERY VERY VERY much. He was everything I could want in this story with his raspy voice during the more heartfelt and gut wrenching moments, his loyalty, his protectiveness of Amy, and the aspect of forbidden love that was thrown in (not that it wasn’t before, but even more so now). But, and it pains me to say this…he can’t be the only thing that I love about a story. He just can’t. He may be close to perfection, but it doesn’t hold a candle to my level of disappointment scattered throughout the story.

“Yeah, I know,” he replied. “But you know what I liked about it?”
“What?”
“It reminded me of you. Everywhere I looked, I couldn’t stop thinking, This is where Amy’s from. This is the dirt that she walked on. This is the sky that she grew up under. It’s the place that made you who you are. And that’s what made me like it.”

For instance: Amy. What. The. Fuck??? She acted like a total bitch. A whiney asshole. A lovelorn teenager. She became somebody I didn’t recognize. Gone was the girl who was a total badass, the girl with pink hair and an attitude that stretched as long and wide as Kansas. She was a wisp of the girl I had obsessed about from the beginning (And I never get obsessed with girls in a story so this was by far the largest disappointment of all). And, ya know, she got better near the end and realized how naïve and young she was acting…but by that point it was by far too little, too late. And that made me so tragically sad.

Suddenly, I thought of my mom. Magic for me was as destructive as pills had been for her. The same addiction-and the same results. I’d fallen in love with power the way she’d fallen in love with oblivion. I’d hated her for what her addiction had done to her-to us-but was I really any different?

So, ya know, all in all I loved visiting her home and meeting her mom. I loved the addition of old characters that we were taught to hate becoming allies we could grow to love and admire, making the cast of people to obsess over a little larger (her mom and a couple unexpected surprises 😉 ). I really enjoyed seeing Amy and her mother becoming a little closer before things began to crumble, disintegrate, turn to ash. These are the things (AND NOX BOY!) that almost made me love and rate higher out of loyalty. But, then we have the broader side of the spectrum where I feel I was cheated as a reader and a rather unwavering fan. The writing was rushed-there’s no way to hide such things-and that was one of the things that I had loved most about this series-the beautiful writing and unflinching and unabashed way of strangling the breath out of you, causing you to choke and sputter and start crying out of nowhere as one of your characters becomes perilously close to death (aahhhh that peril-she does it well :P). The writing seemed like it was a chore, like this was a book that had long since been put on the backburner. So, yeah. This sucks. I hate rating lower than four, and I hate feeling like I’m betraying one of my favorite series ever. I could go on and on about what I wish was different, but that’s not what I’m about. So, as much as I love and adore this series, this book was a major letdown…and I’d be lying if I said otherwise. Ugh.

**************
So this was…..disappointing. *sad face* I will have a full review when I get a chance. Also…..Am I the only one who didn’t know this series had four fucking books?? Yes??? Just me then…. *Frowns*

RTC

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