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BOOK REVIEW – The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2) by Rick Yancey

BOOK REVIEW – The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2) by Rick YanceyThe Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2)
by Rick Yancey
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

 You say you know how we think? Then you know what I’m going to do. I’ll rip your face off with a pair of tweezers. I’ll tear your heart out with a sewing needle. I’ll bleed you out with seven billion tiny cuts, one for each one of us.
That’s the cost. That’s the price. Get ready, because when you crush the humanity out of humans, you’re left with humans with no humanity.
In other words, you get what you pay for, motherfucker.

Pulse-pounding, heart-throbbing, intense, brutal perfection. Not a moment passed where I wasn’t 100% enthralled in this crazy world where literally no one is immune to death and there is no sanctuary. I must admit that I was terrified I wouldn’t love this book. I read the first book, what, like over a year ago? I was obsessed with it. Consumed by it. But then a year passed and, like with all great book series and movies, I couldn’t see myself falling for the characters so easily again. It’s so hard to do, anymore. But then, this book. This goddamn book. From page one, I was swept into the spellbinding pages of death and destruction, of utter hopelessness and despair. I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that no matter how it ended this time I would not doubt Rick Yancey’s otherworldly ability to capture my soul for the next novel.

The Others understood that, understood it better than most of us. No hope without faith, no faith without hope, no love without trust, no trust without love. Remove one and the entire human house of cards collapses.

This book….was beyond words. I see that some people were disappointed with the length of the novel…why? It was absolutely fantastic in the number of pages given, can’t we just enjoy what we have while we have it? Don’t we want to make this world prosper and last? We don’t want it to perish even faster, do we? Well, I don’t. I don’t want everyone to die all at once because the story is pro-longed, I want to see his masochistic brain work to it’s full potential and to spread it into as many books as he damn well pleases. I just don’t know what everyone wanted-if he kept going, he’d surely have had to confirm or deny some deaths and probably even slash some more….nah. He’s waiting. He’s biding his time-he’ll wait to kill them all. I don’t know who is going to make it (I have my suspicions) or who will die a horrible death (Again, damn those suspicions), but I know this author is biding his time. He’s toying with our emotions…and I love it.

Onto his stomach. Then knees. Then hands. His elbows quivered, his wrists threatened to buckle under his own weight. Self-centered, stubborn, sentimental, childish, vain. I am humanity. Cynical, naive, kind, cruel, soft as down, hard as tungsten steel.
I am humanity
He crawled.
I am humanity.
He fell.
I am humanity.
He got up.

Did I mention….that the peril in this book was astounding? I read a lot of books with a lot of peril, but this is the harshest, cruelest world I’ve read about in a while. It tore my soul to pieces and sucked the life right out of me. It’s not so much all that happens, it’s more how the characters react, handle, endure every situation. Their reactions have the ability to make you care or not care, feel or just sit motionless….I guess it all depends on how much you love these characters and how attached to them you are. For me, that tiny seed of hope for each individual character was planted in book one, and now I would be devastated to lose any of them (okay, okay, aside from a couple).

Virtues are vices now, and death is the cost of love. Not the death of his body. His body was the lie. True death. The death of his humanity. The death of his soul.

I don’t want to give a single thing away, so I’ve been studiously avoiding the plot. I think I’ll just focus on the relationships. The relationships formed and severed in TIS were what tied me, even more than the perilistic plot, surprisingly, to this story. Friendships are formed, old enemies are forced to work in close quarters, and loyalty is tested in the truest sense of the word. Everyone had me guessing their loyalty, aside from the main characters that I know really well, from the very beginning. I’m ashamed to say, also, that I made an incorrect assumption about a certain person that I have never been able to pin down on morality…my face burned with shame at a certain point in the story. The bravery brought forth by these wonderful characters in a world where nothing you hold dear is without it’s consequences was astounding to me. They all had such strength in spirit, and that fueled them when all was lost….but even the strongest of mind can break.

The uncertainty of my own experience is crushing. I am drowning in an infinite sea. Sinking slowly, the weight of the lightless depths forcing me down, forcing the air from my lungs, squeezing the blood from my heart.

Promises. This story was fueled by promises-made and kept, lost and found. The idea that a promise, in a world like this, is all that keeps humanity intact-the last shred of humanity that alters the line between being a ruthless, cold-blooded killer from a person doing what it takes to survive, to live-on, to keep your goddamn promises. Rick promised me brutality and angst-he promised no mercy and little hope….and that’s a promise he kept to me, as a reader. No nose went uncrunched if the situation permitted, bone was shown, blasted, obliterated…oh yes, he delivered. The brutality in this story made me giddy with delight, and I can’t wait to see who what else he blasts into oblivion in book three.

When the game is fixed, how do you avoid losing?

So, again, here I am waiting, without answers, without an idea of who will end up with whom (I suck at the who/whom thing-spare me), who will live, who is still living, if certain people will be okay…and it kills me. It kills me I have to wait another year, maybe more. It’s brutal. Unfair. Cruel. But, being the masochist I am, I don’t care. Because, in the end, I enjoyed the ride while it lasted. And now, when book three comes out, I know I won’t have anything to worry about. It’s calming despite the inner turmoil boiling inside me. On the inside I’m a tsunami just circling the island, about to unleash my fury on those who stand in my wake. But on the outside…on the outside I’m a serene lake, hiding all my emotions deeply underneath the surface. Because from what I’ve seen of the last two stellar books, there’s an infinite sea (nudge nudge) of possibilities.


People die. Love endures.

One last thing-Mr. Yancey?? Can (view spoiler) live??? Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease…..

 

AMAZON SALE-Just One Night (Sex, Love & Stiletto #3)

Just One Night (Sex, Love, & Stiletto #3) is currently on sale at Amazon and iBooks for $0.99.

 

Synopsis:

In Lauren Layne’s sizzling Sex, Love & Stiletto series, New York’s hottest “sexpert” has been living a lie—and it’s up to one man to keep her honest . . . all night long.

Riley McKenna knows sex—good sex, bad sex, kinky sex. Her articles in Stiletto magazine are the publication’s most scandalous—and the most read. But when Stiletto’s fiftieth anniversary issue requires her column to get a lot more personal, Riley is forced to confront a long-hidden secret: Her own sexual experience is limited to one awkward college encounter. Now Riley is about to call in the favor of a lifetime from the one man who’s always held her heart.

Sam Compton knows two things about Riley McKenna: She’s the only woman for him. But as his best friend’s little sister, she’s also completely off-limits. Sam shouldn’t even consider her proposition: to have a one-night stand in the name of research. But the thought of another man putting his hands on Riley is more than Sam can handle, and soon he’s agreeing to one night with New York’s resident sexpot. But Riley’s full of surprises, and what starts as “one time only” soon becomes “just one more time.” And then one more. And before they know it, Riley and Sam learn firsthand that when it comes to love, there’s no such thing as just one night.

Purchase on Amazon and iBooks

BOOK REVIEW – Where She Went (If I Stay #2) by Gayle Forman

BOOK REVIEW – Where She Went (If I Stay #2) by Gayle FormanWhere She Went (If I Stay #2)
by Gayle Forman
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

 *If the name of the book isn’t clue enough that there will be spoilers for book one, I’ll say it now: There will be spoilers from book one…*


She left for Juilliard the day after Labor Day. I drove her to the airport. She kissed me good-bye. She told me she loved me more than life itself. Then she stepped through security.
She never came back.

Don’t you just LOVE when your master plan comes together?? Like, you aren’t sure if it’s even going to work, but you sure as hell try anyway? I always take these totally random gambles where I think a second book in a series looks amazing…but I had never ever planned to read book one because it looked like everything I hate in a story, but I just have to read book one because that damn second book looks so good, I can’t resist being a part of it’s awesomeness. It almost never works in my favor, because, well, if it looks bad, and it is bad, then the second will be just as bad, most likely. Yeah. Well. This time my gamble worked out. This. Book. Was. Amazing. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.

My first impulse is not to grab her or kiss her or yell at her. I simply want to touch her cheek, still flushed from the night’s performance. I want to cut through the space that separates us, measured in feet-not miles, not continents, not years-and to take a callused finger to her face. I want to touch her to make sure it’s really her, not one of those dreams I had so often after she left when I’d see her as clear as day, be ready to kiss her or take her to me only to wake up with Mia just beyond reach.

Mia stayed in the last book. Adam’s final plea and exploration of her favorite music brought her back to our plane of existence….whether she wanted to come back or not. But what they don’t tell you at the end of story one is that she doesn’t actually stay. No, this bitch up and leaves Adam after he literally brought her back to life. She packed her shit, left for Juilliard, and never was to be seen or heard from again (okay, okay, they stayed in contact for a bit). All this leads to is Adam asking why? Why, after all they’ve been through, does she up and leave him, fracturing his heart into minuscule little pieces? He was devastated as she lay dying on the table. He was a mess. But he also made her a promise-a promise that if she just stays, he’ll let her go. He can lose her like that if he doesn’t lose her like this. If she stays. But what he didn’t know when he made that promise was how much more devastating this would be, how she would crush his soul to the point where he couldn’t breathe when she moved on. Couldn’t function. Could barely live. And here we are, in his POV, living in his head as he trudges day by day through his unhappy and overwhelming life….without the one person he will always want by his side.

People are swarming around and their gazes are lingering a little too long on me. I can’t deal with being recognized right now. I can’t deal with anything. I don’t want this. I don’t want any of this.

I absolutely adored this novel. It was beautiful. It was breathtaking. It was raw. It stole my heart and didn’t give it back until the final page, and even then I was a giddy mess. I guess I didn’t realize what all we would see Adam go through. We are three years from when this all started (Another thing I hate-large time lapses between books), but not once in the flashbacks did they feel forced or misplaced. And I suppose I wasn’t expecting to hear about other *cough* women, but that wouldn’t be realistic, would it? He does have a platinum album, eh? But I actually didn’t hate Adam at any point. His heart was is shattered, and he is coping the only way he knew and knows how-not well, even three years later.

My entire body is shaking. I’m losing it. A day might be just twenty-four hours but sometimes getting through just one seems as impossible as scaling Everest.

This book touched me on so many levels that I never expected it to. The angst, the build up, the absolute anger and hatred-it was so powerful and heart-wrenching. He still to this day can’t understand how, after two years together, she could just leave him behind. It fuels every lyric he writes and every ballad he sings. It has taken him over, even if he thinks he is past it. It broke my heart to see how broken he is, but it also connected me to him in the most emotional and powerful way. I felt his pain to the depths of my soul and in the pit of my heart, and that’s not an easy thing to do-To make his pain mine.

Whoever said that the past isn’t dead had it backward. It’s the future that’s already dead, already played out. This whole night has been a mistake. It’s not going to let me rewind. Or unmake the mistakes I’ve made. Or the promises I’ve made. Or have her back. Or have me back.

So many issues were explored in this story. Like, would it have been easier to actually stay or go? What’s holding you to earth when your whole family is no longer a part of it? Morals. Success. Life. Love. Jealousy. And my favorite of all-second chances. When they have a ‘chance’ encounter, and decide to hang out for the rest of the night before they leave for their respective tours, it is a chance to heal. To mend, to have closure. But as the night dwindles away and it’s time for goodbye, will what needs to be said actually be spoken aloud? Or will they part ways again never really knowing how the other feels? What happened? And will they actually be able to say a final goodbye this time?

Letting go. Everyone talks about it like it’s the easiest thing. Unfurl your fingers one by one until your hand is open. But my hand has been clenched into a fist for three years now; it’s frozen shut. All of me is frozen shut. And about to shut down completely.

Mia was not a favorite of mine in book one-Anyone who read my review knew that. She was whiney, petulant, difficult, and altogether a little drab. I didn’t understand why Adam loved her, so. But, and I never thought I’d say this, I loved her in this one. She was so vibrant, full of life, funny, sweet, charismatic, down-to-earth, funny….loveable. I understood why Adam loved loves her. I really connected with her in ways I never thought possible, but I still didn’t like what happened to them. I think it was cruel. It was tragic. I know she was going through things, but there was no reason for her to handle it as she did….and I think she knows that. So I forgive her lol.

My favorite part-(view spoiler) Just. A-dor-a-ble.

Wow. Just…wow. I don’t know really what else to touch on other than how much this story out-shined the first. Maybe it was being in his head, maybe it was just the amount of hurt, betrayal, lost love, angst-but whatever it was, I loved it. I hate that there was a book in front of this, because it totally tarnished recommending this one. Not everyone is a psycho who will read a book they don’t want to just to get to the second, but, hey, it worked out so well, ya know?? His flashbacks had so much more impact than Mia’s and they touched me so deeply. I really got to see the good side of Mia and why he fell in love with her. And, for me, that’s more than enough, and, in fact, all I ever wanted in the first place.


But I’d do it again. I know that now. I’d make that promise a thousand times over and lose her a thousand times over to have heard her play last night or to see her in the morning sunlight. Or even without that. Just to know that she’s somewhere out there. Alive.

BOOK REVIEW – Day 21 (The Hundred #2) by Kass Morgan

BOOK REVIEW – Day 21 (The Hundred #2) by Kass MorganDay 21 (The Hundred #2)
by Kass Morgan
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads


**ARC kindly provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

They had been sent to Earth as living test subjects, the first people to set foot on the planet in three hundred years. But they were mistaken.
Some people had never left.

This book is…no. Just no. Everything I enjoyed about book one was the glaring problem in book two. It’s like everything amplified until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

It started up somewhat like the other, but this time, they were already on Earth. I liked this. It made me happy that they were somewhat used to the land and were able to just move forward instead of that stagnant fear that kept them from doing too much in book one. But OMG I just could. Not. Do. The Relationship. Drama in this one. Like…Clarke-You JUST met this dude. The title of this book is literally Day 21 and you LOVE him??? Oh, and he can just say whatever he wants to you…right? Then, because it was said in a moment of passionate fury, it’s okay. Hmmm. Riiiiiight. I lost all my respect for Clarke. All of it.

We aren’t born for ourselves alone.

So, that makes it official: The only original characters I like are Wells and Glass. And the only story I cared about was Wells’s. He is still my favorite character and really the only reason I carried on.

Wells knew that even the greatest leaders make mistakes.

Now, that isn’t to say I won’t read book three or say that the television series wouldn’t be perfect with all the drama, but as a book? No. My mind has whiplash from the lukewarm to boiling to freezing feelings. And my biggest problem with the WHOLE book? The blame. My God, the blame. Bellamy, that douche (I REALLY edited that-on a sidenote), blames EVERYONE at least once. Could he be any whinier?? Sheesh. And Clarke-Wah. Call the WAHmbulance. Just wow. I can’t even.

So. Wow. I can’t believe how angry I began to get near the end of the book. How can the first book’s beautiful portrayal of love lost and betrayal and hope be turned into this convoluted mess of teen angst and soap opera drama? There were so many good things that were touched on: eerie, creepy ideas that will make a good sell in the next book, Wells’s new interest (LOVE HER), and even the idea that everyone will likely be reunited in book three…..but even that creepy storyline I mentioned didn’t overshadow all the fail for the rest of the book. So, aside from the fact that I think all this would be awesome on TV and that I’ll likely seek out book three eventually, there really were no remnants from book one that were held sacred in this one. So….that’s it. That’s my spiel…

OH! And I mean, look at that cover!! How awesome is that?? How can a book cover be so cool and the book…not. Ugh.

AMAZON SALE-Torn from You (Tear Asunder Book 1)

 Torn from You (Tear Asunder Book 1) by Nashoda Rose is currently on sale at Amazon for $0.99

Synopsis:

Love is like an avalanche. It hits hard, fast and without mercy.

At least it did for me when Sculpt, the lead singer of the rock band Tear Asunder knocked me off my feet. Literally, because he’s also a fighter, illegally of course, and he taught me how to fight. He also taught me how to love and I fell hard for him. I mean the guy could do sweet, when he wasn’t doing bossy, and I like sweet. Continue reading

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