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BOOK REVIEW: Black Heart (Curse Workers #3) by Holly Black

BOOK REVIEW: Black Heart (Curse Workers #3) by Holly BlackBlack Heart (Curse Workers #3)
by Holly Black
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

In a world where Magic is illegal.

Cassel Sharpe has the most deadly ability of all. With one touch, he can transform any object - including a person - into something else entirely. And that makes him a wanted man. The Feds are willing to forgive all his past crimes if he'll only leave his con artist family behind and go straight. But why does going straight feel so crooked?

For one thing, it means being on the opposite side of the law from Lila, the girl he loves. She's the daughter of a mob boss and getting ready to join the family business herself. Though Cassel is pretty sure she can never love him back, he can't stop obsessing over her. Which would be bad enough, even if her father wasn't keeping Cassel's mother prisoner in a posh apartment and threatening not to let her leave until she returns the priceless diamond she scammed off him years ago. Too bad she can't remember where she put it.

The Feds say they need Cassel to get rid of a powerful man who is spinning dangerously out of control. But if they want Cassel to use his unique talent to hurt people, what separates the good guys from the bad ones? Or is everyone just out to con him?

Time is running out, and all Cassel's magic and cleverness might not be enough to save him. With no easy answers and no one he can trust, love might be the most dangerous gamble of all.

Girls like her, my grandfather once warned me, girls like her turn into women with eyes like bullet holes and mouths made of knives. They are always restless. They are always hungry. They are bad news. They will drink you down like a shot of whisky. Falling in love with them is like falling down a flight of stairs.What no one told me, with all those warnings, is that even after you’ve fallen, even after you know how painful it is, you’d still get in line to do it again.

Awwwwwwww!! I cannot believe how perfectly perfect that ended. I really wanted to write this super long review and make it an absolutely amazing ending to my reading spree of this series but…I dunno. It kind of feels right to just put down a few quotes and call it a day. After all, I don’t want to beat a dead horse, right?

A few closing thoughts:

Cassel is unbelievably, undeniably, without even the slightest doubt the cutest conman ever. Loyal, in love, terrified to make the wrong decision….and utterly hopeless. I would follow his story anywhere-he’s adorable.

“I thought you wanted us to be good guys.” He grins a too-wide grin. He’s enjoying needling me, and my reacting only makes it worse, but I can’t stop.
“Not if it means hurting her,” I say, my voice as deadly as I can make it. “Never her.”

The perilistically (my new word, you like?) pleasing ending. WOW. I did NOT expect that. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, I was paralyzed because of how scared I was for Cassel. I couldn’t see any possible positive outcomes for my favorite little liar at the end of this one.

If I have to die tomorrow when the Feds come for me, then this is the last request of my heart. This. The sight of her lashes brushing her cheek as her eyes flutter closed. The pulse in her throat. Her breath in my mouth. This.

Cassel…oooohhh errrr awkward….But wait! His heroic actions were amazing and they made me fall in love with him even more. I’m utterly obsessed with him, the unreliable little shit.

I think of not knowing what compelled me to strike a gun out of the hand of a killer. Of how satisfying it was to hit Kevin. Of how I want to do it again and again, want to feel the bones snap and blood smear. Of how it felt to stand over him, my skin on fire with rage.

The Romance. Ahhhh not much to say, but can I just express my undying shipping of Lila and Cassel?? ‘Cuz I caaan’t stooooop, I wooon’t stooooop… Hmmmm….anyway….

I love love LOVED this installment and I am so sad it’s all over. It’s beyond depressing that I will never read about Cassel and his fucked up life again. I put my Ipad down last night and felt a pang of sadness after I finished this story because I was smiling so big and so overwhelmed with happiness and it was just over. But it ended where it should have and all is right in the world. I won’t mess with that. I am so glad I picked up this random series, because it was amazing and so unlike anything I’d ever read. I will never forget it and I hope you give it a chance, too. 🙂

Now I know why people are afraid of transformation workers. Now I know why they want to control me. Now I get it.
I can walk into someone’s house, kiss their wife, sit down at their table, and eat their dinner. I can lift a passport at an airport, and in twenty minutes it will seem like it’s mine. I can be a blackbird staring in the window. I can be a cat creeping along a ledge. I can go anywhere I want and do the worst things I can imagine, with nothing to ever connect me to those crimes. Today I might look like me, but tomorrow I could look like you. I could be you.

FRIDAY STARS–Your Weekly Must Knows 03/06/15

 

Friday Stars

Click book covers for ordering.

Happy Friday!  Below you will find the current giveaway…there’s only a few days left to enter.  What we just finished and loved.  What we are planning to read next.  Upcoming releases in the next week that we are extremely excited about!  And of course the latest sales and freebies, which we have either read or have on our to-read lists.  Enjoy!

Giveaways

Enter to win 5 signed copies of RIGHT KIND OF WRONG by Chelsea Fine Click Here

 

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Just Finished and Loved

The Well of Ascension: Book Two of Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson – 5 Stars! The story continues….in Mistborn – In a world where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, an evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. The future of the empire rests on the shoulders of a troublemaker and his young apprentice. Together, can they fill the world with colour once more?  In Brandon Sanderson’s intriguing tale of love, loss, despair and hope, a new kind of magic enters the stage – Allomancy, a magic of the metals. Chelsea’s Review

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Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta – 5 Stars! Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, Taylor Markham, now seventeen, is finally being confronted with her past. But as the reluctant leader of her boarding school dorm, there isn’t a lot of time for introspection. And while Hannah, the closest adult Taylor has to family, has disappeared, Jonah Griggs is back in town, moody stares and all.  In this absorbing story by Melina Marchetta, nothing is as it seems and every clue leads to more questions as Taylor tries to work out the connection between her mother dumping her, Hannah finding her then and her sudden departure now, a mysterious stranger who once whispered something in her ear, a boy in her dreams, five kids who lived on Jellicoe Road eighteen years ago, and the maddening and magnetic Jonah Griggs, who knows her better than she thinks he does. If Taylor can put together the pieces of her past, she might just be able to change her future. Anna’s Review


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Red Glove (Curse Workers #2) by Holly Black  – 5 Stars! The story continues….in White Cat #1 Cassel comes from a shady, magical family of con artists and grifters. He doesn’t fit in at home or at school, so he’s used to feeling like an outsider. He’s also used to feeling guilty—he killed his best friend, Lila, years ago.  But when Cassel begins to have strange dreams about a white cat, and people around him are losing their memories, he starts to wonder what really happened to Lila. In his search for answers, he discovers a wicked plot for power that seems certain to succeed. But Cassel has other ideas—and a plan to con the conmen. Chelsea’s Review

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Reading Next

Best Kind of Broken (Finding Fate #1) by Chelsea Fine – Pixie Marshall wishes every day she could turn back time and fix the past. But she can’t. And the damage is done. She’s hoping that a summer of free room and board working with her aunt at the Willow Inn will help her forget. Except there’s a problem: the resident handyman is none other than Levi Andrews. The handsome quarterback was once her friend-and maybe more–until everything changed in a life-shattering instant. She was hoping to avoid him, possibly forever. Now he’s right down the hall and stirring up feelings Pixie thought she’d long buried . . .
Levi can’t believe he’s living with the one person who holds all his painful memories. More than anything he wants to make things right, but a simple “sorry” won’t suffice–not when the tragedy that scarred them was his fault. Levi knows Pixie’s better off without him, but every part of him screams to touch her, protect her, wrap her in his arms, and kiss away the pain. Yet even though she’s so close, Pixie’s heart seems more unreachable than ever. Seeing those stunning green eyes again has made one thing perfectly clear–he can’t live without her.

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Upcoming Releases

Confess: A Novel by Colleen Hoover(Releases 3/10) At age twenty-one, Auburn Reed has already lost everything important to her. In her fight to rebuild her shattered life, she has her goals in sight and there is no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn’t expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmatic artist who works there, Owen Gentry.
For once, Auburn takes a chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is keeping a major secret from coming out. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything important to Auburn, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it.
To save their relationship, all Owen needs to do is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin.

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Sales

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Anna’s Review
 

 

 

BOOK REVIEW: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

BOOK REVIEW: Jellicoe Road by Melina MarchettaJellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

In this lyrical, absorbing, award-winning novel, nothing is as it seems, and every clue leads to more questions.

At age eleven, Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother. At fourteen, she ran away from boarding school, only to be tracked down and brought back by a mysterious stranger. Now seventeen, Taylor's the reluctant leader of her school's underground community, whose annual territory war with the Townies and visiting Cadets has just begun. This year, though, the Cadets are led by Jonah Griggs, and Taylor can't avoid his intense gaze for long. To make matters worse, Hannah, the one adult Taylor trusts, has disappeared. But if Taylor can piece together the clues Hannah left behind, the truth she uncovers might not just settle her past, but also change her future.

Review:

Jellicoe Road was not for me.  I’m not one for stories where every single thing is shrouded in mystery.  Where nothing makes sense and I am left stumbling through the dark.  Where at 40% I can only understand a few things and then thankfully by 50% I can stop looking at my notes for who is who.  That in itself kept shocking me.  I don’t think I’ve ever had to make notes for characters or could not for the life of me remember the heroines name.  I kept trying to find something, anything that would suck me in.  That would make me feel!  That would snare me and make me become enraptured.  But besides liking one character, I couldn’t find anything to connect with.  Everyone else loves this book and I’m clearly not in that camp.  So here I am, knowing sadly that yes, this book was definitely not for me.

This is a story about a girl, Taylor Markham.  She lives at a boarding school and not only has she been placed in charge of her fellow classmates, but she also overseas a territory war against neighboring schools/students.  She has been abandoned by her mother and the rest of her past is well, the best way to describe it is hazy.  But then again, so are the people around her.  Hannah is the closest person to her, and I couldn’t understand their friendship or interactions at all.  I know that we aren’t supposed to understand everything.  That this book is filled with mystery and I probably should have found beauty in that.  But sadly, I just couldn’t.  All I know is that I couldn’t connect to the storyline or Taylor.  She was so angry, self-centered and immature for her age and it kept rubbing me the wrong way.

Honestly, I kept contemplating a DNF.  But I loathe doing that because I’ll always wonder what if.  What if the future pages of the book could suck me into the story?  So I trudged along and FINALLY at 60% the storyline got interesting.  I’m not sure if it was because of Jonah or if I finally got a strong grasp on what everything was about?  Either way, I’m thankful that I got to that mindset.  Now Jonah, for me, was an amazing character.  He is a military student who in any other book would become one of my book boyfriends.  He was that sexy, amazing and tons of other descriptions that I don’t want to say because his highs and lows are better left to find out for yourself.  But unfortunately, Jonah and his interactions with Taylor could not make me become invested.  I’ve never been more disappointed that I couldn’t love a book that others do.  So, well,  it’s safe to say that this style of book was definitely not meant for me.

BOOK REVIEW: Red Glove (Curse Workers #2) by Holly Black

BOOK REVIEW: Red Glove (Curse Workers #2) by Holly BlackRed Glove (Curse Workers #2)
by Holly Black
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

The cons get craftier and the stakes rise ever higher in the riveting sequel toWhite Cat.

After rescuing his brothers from Zacharov’s retribution, Cassel is trying to reestablish some kind of normalcy in his life.

That was never going to be easy for someone from a worker family that’s tied to one of the big crime families—and whose mother’s cons get more reckless by the day. But Cassel is coming to terms with what it means to be a worker, and he’s figuring out how to have friends.

Except normal doesn’t last very long. Soon Cassel is being courted by both sides of the law and is forced to confront his past—a past he remembers only in scattered fragments, and one that could destroy his family and his future. Cassel will have to decide whose side he wants to be on, because neutrality is not an option. And then he will have to pull off his biggest con ever to survive….

The smell of Lila’s skin, the way her eyes shine with mischief, the low rasp of her voice. It hurts to think of her, but I can’t stop. It ought to hurt.
After all, hell is supposed to be hot.

Hmmm. Well, I just have to say it-If you, for whatever reason, have to put a book on pause and you come back to it and feel like you are still strongly a part of that book’s world…then you have an excellent book in your hands, folks. I have had a busy few weeks, book wise. Blog tours, catching up on a favorite series for said blog tours, keeping up with ARCs…and now here I am with a little bit of ‘me’ time on my hands. So why not pick up where I left off in this wonderful little story?? It was so much easier than I ever expected and I didn’t once feel like I didn’t know what was going on. It’s such a fun, wonderful, dark story with loads of heart seeped onto every page-you can’t help but to fall in love with Cassel and all his shenanigans.

I jump up and take off toward her, yanking the panty hose down over my face. That slows me down some, because there is no way in hell these things are sheer. I can barely see.
People start yelling. Yeah, because a guy with hose over his head is never the good guy. He is, in fact, the stereotype-maybe even a archetype-of a bad guy.

I can’t say this was better than the first, yet I rated it a solid 5. Why is that??? I think it’s because my enjoyment level skyrocketed after my hiatus from the series. As soon as I began to read from where I’d left off, my mood was instantly uplifted and I felt a sense of peace and contentment. I started to laugh and smile like a deranged loon. Reading about Cassel never gets old and certainly never gets boring. He’s a sweethearted con who only wants to do good…but always ends up doing bad. But he’s getting better! Or, at least, he’s trying to.

I wonder if that’s my future. Bad choices. It certainly feels a lot like my present.

And that’s where we are in this book. Something terrible has happened in the first book. (view spoiler) Which means that no matter how tangible, how wonderful, how real it seems…it isn’t. It’s a con. And there lays the dilemma: How can Cassel possibly fight the one good thing he’s wanted his whole life?? It’s right there on a silver platter….All he has to do is reach out and take it. But he can’t. He won’t. And that’s why he is, ultimately, good. It wouldn’t be right and it wouldn’t be fair, but it’s sure hard to fight.

I should stop, but there’s no point in stopping. Because I’m not strong enough-eventually, I won’t stop.
I thought the question was “Will I or won’t I?”
But that’s not the question at all.
It’s “When?”
Because I will.
It’s just a matter of time. It’s now.

That’s why this book is so so heartbreaking. I love Cassel. He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s sarcastic, and he just wants to be accepted for who he is. And I love him for it. He has lived a fucked up life surrounded by fucked up people, yet he tries to stay above it. And, more than that, he would do anything for them. He’d cover up any number of their crimes just because he loves them. Yet, they still try to hold him under their thumb even though he’s 50 times more powerful than they’ll ever be. It tore me to pieces each and every time he would resist (view spoiler) because how could that ever really be true?? How could (view spoiler) It broke my heart.

At the window to my room, I catch my reflection in the glass. Shaggy black hair. Sneer. I look like a hungry ghost, glowering at the world I am no longer fit to be part of.

The relationships formed in this book were probably my favorite part-it was so heartwarming to see Cassel embrace his new friendships he began to form at the end of the last book and to begin to trust them enough to accept their help. But, then the writing is a close second favorite thing about this story. Black’s writing leaps off the page and sucks you in so you don’t ever want to stop reading. Simplistic, witty, and sarcastic tones seep off of every page and you can’t help but to smile at how dire the situations are that Cassel gets himself into. I don’t know how he does it, but somehow he is always in trouble and it is always funny, for some reason. I don’t quite know why I find such humor in this dark little series, but I do and I love it.

I sink down to the grass. It’s damp with dew. I feel sick, but self-loathing has become a familiar sickness. I was a monster before. A monster with the excuse that he didn’t know details so he didn’t really have to think about it.

So….There’s much more I can say but it would be very spoilery to do so. Do you know how hard it is to write a review for such a mysterious series without spoiling anything? Well, I’ll tell ya-it’s hard. So I will stop here and let you make your own judgements. Cassel is a wonderful character to follow: flawed, insecure, but somehow cocky, we have quite the enigmatic character. I only hope you can give this wonderfully weird series a chance-it’s excellent.


Only a monster would do this, but I already know I’m a monster.

BOOK REVIEW – Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

BOOK REVIEW – Jellicoe Road by Melina MarchettaJellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

At age eleven, Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother. At fourteen, she ran away from boarding school, only to be tracked down and brought back by a mysterious stranger. Now seventeen, Taylor's the reluctant leader of her school's underground community, whose annual territory war with the Townies and visiting Cadets has just begun. This year, though, the Cadets are led by Jonah Griggs, and Taylor can't avoid his intense gaze for long. To make matters worse, Hannah, the one adult Taylor trusts, has disappeared. But if Taylor can piece together the clues Hannah left behind, the truth she uncovers might not just settle her past, but also change her future


Territorial War buddy read/reread with Chelsea, Jennifer, Jen, Laura & Harriet

What happens when you reread this incredible book? What? You fucking cry, what do you think?

Well, you have seen me gushing frantically obsessing over this book for a while now, so you know you have to brace yourself because this book? It possibly became my favorite. Ever. That kind of means something when we read a million book a year, right?

“I fall in love with these kids over and over again and my heart aches for their tragedies and marvels at their friendship”.

This book. This fucking BOOK.

Why is it so special to me? You mean, except from the fact it’s written by Marchetta and contains Jonah Griggs in it? Apart from that?

Well, what you need to know is that few authors manage to change my perception of myself as a reader.

Yet if there’s something I learnt this year, that’s Melina Marchetta’s books are written in a way that makes me want to create a stamp which would say –

That says it all. The reason I rarely cry when I read is the fact I hate feeling manipulated. I loathe it when I can see through the author’s intentions and I’m pretty sure that’s why I never succeeded in finishing The fault in our stars. Melina Marchetta’s books show me something I was eager to learn, because even if I knew it deep down inside, I was seeking out the moment I’d unravel all my doubts : No, I’m not a cold-hearted reader.

I was just longing for stories which really speak to me, because, never, ever again I want to find myself thinking ‘oh, I think I’m supposed to cry right now’. The beauty of her books lies in the surprise they never fail to create in me : I could express it with a single word : suddenly.

And that emergence of unexpected feelings? I live for that shit.

But this book. This fucking BOOK.

Jellicoe road takes us into the life of characters so strongly convinced of the uselessness of their life that we want to fight for them. We want to tear the appearances out, and above all that, we’re grateful to Melina Marchetta because her characters are so relatable and real that we can find pieces of ourselves in them. Pieces of our friends. Pieces of our family. Pieces of my heart that broke for Jonah Griggs over and over again.

“Please don’t be crazy, Taylor,” Griggs whispers, leaning his head against mine. “Please don’t be crazy.” He kisses me, holding my face between his hands, whispering over and over again, “Please”.

Therefore don’t worry if you’re confused throughout the 100 first pages, I swear to you, there must surely come a stage when you’ll find yourself utterly captivated by Taylor’s journey. Moreover, after reading it a second time, I can assure you that this experience was even more emotional and that Marchetta wrapped her plot brilliantly – I noticed some things I couldn’t see the first time and WOW. Just WOW. This structure? Incredible. Everything has a sense. Everything has a purpose. Nothing’s useless. Nothing.

But this book. This fucking BOOK.

This is a tale about where we belong. Is it a place? Is it a person? Is it love?

Can we stop belonging somewhere?

Can we earn the right to belong or is it something we have in our heart no matter what we do?

Can we allow somebody else to be our everything? Because what happens, I’m asking I’m yelling, what happens if our everything disappears?

*whisper* Do we disappear as well?

Now, I don’t want to scare you how that’s too late? and I can assure you that Jellicoe Road isn’t the kind of book that makes your eyes ache all long without never releasing the tension. No. That’s just life, you know? So prepare yourself for a ride – you’re going to laugh, to be pissed, to be desperate at times, to lose hope and then fight to find it again –

You’re going to live and feel and smile.

“Go on, admit it. When he hits the ground and the blood went flying and you knew in your heart his nose was broken, didn’t you just want to jump for joy and stomp on his ugly face?”

But this book. This fucking BOOK.

I don’t want to talk about the plot. Damn, I just can’t and I’ll say only one thing : even if I guessed some parts of the mystery pretty fast, following Taylor and Jonah was an experience I’d have been sad to miss and that captivating and splendorous story will linger in my heart and in my thoughts for a very long time.


You know what you have to do.

“I reach the bottom and smash into him with my fists as hard as I can. He falls and I can’t believe he goes down that easy, caught off balance.
“You care about nothing, you piece of shit!”
I’m on the verge of tears, like I always seem to be these days, and I hear the catch in my voice and I hate myself for it. He throws me off him and I can tell there is a fury in him.
“Never,” he tells me in a tone full of ice, “under-estimate who or what I care for.”

PS : I have a million quotes to write, a million stories about Jonah, Webbs, Tate, Narny, Jude, Fitz, Taylor, Jessa to tell. But I won’t. I won’t because this is a book which must be savored blind. I won’t even if Jonah Griggs is certainly one of the characters I will never forget. Just meet them, and if that’s already the case, go reread it. That’s even better the second time around, trust me.

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