Tag: Science Fiction (Page 25 of 38)

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

September 11, 2014 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

Day 21 (The Hundred #2)
by Kass Morgan
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
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.

BOOK REVIEW – The 100 (The Hundred #1) by Kass Morgan

September 9, 2014 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

The 100 (The Hundred #1)
by Kass Morgan
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

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

Well, that was not what I expected-at all. This has such a low rating and only a small amount of people liked it. I find that I am in the group that found enjoyment out of this. No, it wasn’t a completely action packed dystopian and no there wasn’t a TON that went on, but I guess, for once, the romance was enough.

It would be better to lie. His father would have an easier time believing that Wells had been carrying out a dare. Or perhaps he could try to pretend he had been on drugs. Either of those scenarios would be more palatable to the Chancellor than the truth-that he’d risked everything for a girl.

Some people immediately disregard ARC reviews because they likely feel that we are stretching the truth so we can receive more copies in exchange for our ‘honest’ thoughts-well, I can assure anyone who reads this-I am always honest. I may sometimes not 100% know which solid star to stick with, because there are a lot of gray areas for me, but I always say what I feel in my reviews-I have rated so many books five stars only to add a couple paragraphs of what bothered me with the story, because not many stories are perfect.

BOOK REVIEW – Obsession by Jennifer L. Armentrout

September 7, 2014 / Jen / 2 Comments

Obsession (Lux #4.5)
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
He's arrogant, domineering, and... To. Die. For.

Hunter is a ruthless killer. And the Department of Defense has him firmly in their grasp, which usually doesn’t chafe too badly because he gets to kill bad guys. Most of the time he enjoys his job. That is, until he’s saddled with something he’s never had to do before: protect a human from his mortal enemy.

Serena Cross didn’t believe her best friend when she claimed to have seen the son of a powerful senator turn into something...unnatural. Who would? But then she witnesses her friend’s murder at the hands of what can only be an alien, thrusting her into a world that will kill to protect their secret.

Hunter stirs Serena’s temper and her lust despite their differences. Soon he’s doing the unthinkable breaking the rules he’s lived by, going against the government to keep Serena safe. But are the aliens and the government the biggest threats to Serena’s life...or is it Hunter?

Review:

I always thought everything was black and white while reading the first four books in the Lux Series. Arum are the bad guys and the Luxen are of course the good guys. How could it be anything else? But after reading Obsession, my little world has been shaken around and everything isn’t black and white anymore. It is all a huge shade of gray. So of course my mind is backtracking, re-thinking all of those scenes where the Luxen and Arum interacted in the previous books. It’s not how I thought it was at all. I’m so glad we got to meet Serena and hear Hunter’s story so we could understand the “bad” alien’s plight.

“Are you done acting like a psychotic, cracked-out Muppet baby?” he asked, and I could tell by the way his fingers spasmed around my wrists, he really wanted to shake me. “Or do you need a couple more moments to return to sanity? I have all day. And you actually feel kind of good under me, so take your time.

Serena’s best friend confesses that the guy she was seeing is an alien. Not only did she overhear him and his brother arguing about Daedalus and Project Eagle, but she saw them turn into light bulbs. She’s desperately afraid that they are after her because she knows their secret. After a turn of events, Serena no longer thinks her friend is so crazy. She watched her friend get brutally murdered by one of those “light bulbs”. Scared out of her mind and thanks to the DOD she is ends up being stuck with Hunter as her protector. Because who would be the best person err alien to protect her from a Luxen? An Arum of course!

Hunter – I smiled then – a big, toothy idiotic smile – and Serena didn’t see it. Her eyes were closed, which was good, because I was turning into one big vagina.

Hunter was inappropriate in so many different ways and I couldn’t help but love him for all of his flaws. He was cocky, demanding, horribly blunt, never understood personal boundaries, patience would never be one of his virtues, and he had to have the dirtiest mind on the face of the planet. Wait, that last one is absolutely not a flaw! Hunter was seriously obsessed with anything and everything related to sex and his internal thoughts always cracked me up. But he had such a dark side to him. It almost felt at times as though it would swallow him whole. And during those times, I ached for him as he tried to fight his true nature. As he tried to fight the coldness that lived inside of him, the coldness that would try to overpower him and force his human side to slip away. But he tried his hardest to be good for Serena. The times where he would fight his inherent nature, oh wow, he was amazing! There’s a scene where he gently puts a tshirt on Serena and I couldn’t help sighing out loud. He had so much potential and I kept hoping that he would win the battle to fight his demons so we could see what would happen between the two of them.

Serena – High-stress situations amplified emotions. I knew this, and yet I’d allowed myself to fall for the extraterrestrial asshole.

I couldn’t help but like Serena. She reminded me so much of Katy. Her sassiness, spunk and ability to stand up to Hunter had me applauding for her. I don’t like my heroines to be doormats and Serena definitely had it in her to always throw it right back in Hunter’s face when he was being I’m-the-most-amazing-specimen-on-the-face-of-the-planet. And the chemistry between the two of them was hot! Sometimes a little too hot for my liking, I’m still getting use to stories having A LOT of steam in them, but I still enjoyed every moment that Hunter and Serena were together.

Hunter – Somehow, in the relatively short time I’d known Serena, she had wiggled her way into my cold body. She was my light, my warmth and I wasn’t ready to let her go.

I am anxious to see how Serena and Hunter will fit into the final book. Will they help or hinder Katy and Daemon’s plans? I have some ideas of how they will appear in the final book, View Spoiler » but only time will tell. I am extremely happy this book was added into the Lux Series. Understanding the history and learning more about the Arum was fascinating. I’m so glad I got to learn that the battle between the Arum and Luxen isn’t as black and white as I originally thought. There will always be good and bad within each race. And I can’t wait to see how their future unfolds.

Reading Order & Links: Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
Shadows #0.5 Reviews: Jen	Obsidian #1 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Onyx #2 Reviews: Jen Chelsea
Opal #3 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Origin #4 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Obsession (Companion novel) #4.5 Reviews: Jen Chelsea
Opposition #5 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Oblivion #Companion Novel OBSIDIAN, ONYX & OPAL Told by Daemon Black Reviews: Jen

BOOK REVIEW – Origin (Lux #4) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

September 3, 2014 / Jen / 0 Comments

Origin (Lux #4)
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything. But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on? And will they even be together?

Review:

*Spoilers if you haven’t read the previous books in the Lux Series*

Another gripping, action packed, heart-wrenching story by Jennifer Armentrout! I was addicted from the very first page and I never wanted to escape Katy and Daemon’s world. The fourth installment of this series adds a new element that I thoroughly loved, alternating voices. I loved hearing the story in both Katy and Daemon’s voices but I became enamored listening to Daemon’s intoxicating, bad-ass, sexy self. Listening to both Katy and Daemon’s hearts breaking while they faced struggle after struggle added a potent level of becoming lost in their lives. The world around me easily faded away into nothingness. Well, until that ending. That ending left me petrified for how this series is going to conclude.

Katy – I had no idea what was going to happen from here on out, and even thinking about it scared the ever-loving crap out of me. Tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed. Neither were the next couple of hours. My breath caught with that realization, and I stiffened. The next minute was unknown to us, and it might not even come.

Katy wakes up still trapped in her nightmare. While helping to break out Beth and Dawson from Mount Weather, Katy was caught in the process. Daedalus has transferred her to the state of Nevada and she is petrified of what will happen to Daemon when he does the same thing she would do for him, rescue her. Daemon is on a suicide mission to rescue Katy and no one can stop him. Not the whole Luxen community, Dawson and certainly not Dee. How can you be rational when you are flooded with a million and one emotions? How can you be rational when you know the one you love is being tortured, just like Bethany was. You can’t. From here, you get taken on a dark and twisted path of betrayal, heroism, torture, true love, and sacrifice.

Daemon – She burrowed into me, her fingers clutching the strands of hair at the nape of my neck. The tears…they kept coming, and my heart was shattering at the raw sound of each of her breaths. Never in my life had I felt more useless. I wanted to fix this, to make her better, but I didn’t know how.

One of the many reasons I love this author so much is that not only is the storyline enthralling but the couples she builds are mesmerizing. The love they feel for each other, the moments that make you sigh out loud and the happiness they create within you adds to the fact they are real. Well, at least they are in my mind. In Origin, we get to watch Daemon and Katy’s love for one another grow to epic proportions. In the end, they always knew that they had each other’s love to build strength from. When Katy was at her darkest place, when not even sleep but nothingness becomes an unanswered prayer, she knew she could find strength in Daemon’s love for her. They are truly a couple that you could get lost thinking about. And their self-sacrifice to protect one other is absolutely beautiful. I will forever love this couple.

I caught the tear with a kiss. “And I’m not going to let you do this by yourself. You’re my everything, Kat.” At the sound of her soft inhale, I smiled again. “Come on, Kitten, did you really expect anything less from me? I love you.”

I’m a little obsessed about this series, can you tell? I’m addicted to Daemon, Katy, Dee and a new character you will get introduced to in this book. I’m dying of anticipation to figure out how this series is going to end! Will the final installment allow the Lux Series to stay at the top of my list of my all-time favorite series? I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and hope for YES!

Reading Order & Links: Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
Shadows #0.5 Reviews: Jen	Obsidian #1 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Onyx #2 Reviews: Jen Chelsea
Opal #3 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Origin #4 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Obsession (Companion novel) #4.5 Reviews: Jen Chelsea
Opposition #5 Reviews: Jen Chelsea	Oblivion #Companion Novel OBSIDIAN, ONYX & OPAL Told by Daemon Black Reviews: Jen

BOOK REVIEW – Branded (Sinners #1) by Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki

September 2, 2014 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

Branded (Sinners #1)
by Abi Ketner, Missy Kalicicki
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

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

Out of all the ARCs I was given, I believed Branded was going to be the best. All my friends loved it, it had great reviews and quotes, and it seemed like it had a strong synopsis. And while it started out well with a strong heroine and a sexy, protective hero, it soon started to show signs of all the things I hate in novels: cheesiness.

The beginning started out with the heroine, Lexi, being captured and ‘branded’ as an adulterer, or rather, as one of the seven deadly sins: lust. People judge and chase ‘the branded’, taunting and hoping to gain from that person’s weakness. But what if her Branding is wrong? What does that mean for the Branding system? Once captured, she is supposed to be looked after by a soldier so she isn’t killed or harassed. Cole, while very aware of what she is labeled and tried as, is her mentor-but he grows a soft spot for her. We all know how THAT goes ;).

So….I really wanted to love this book. I tried really hard. I loved Cole, I even liked Lexi at first-I thought she was going to be a very relatable, likable character at first. She was strong-willed, a fighter, and altogether very funny and not easily broken. But then I started to notice her dialogue and inner monologue shifting. It went from ‘normal’, to odd, to annoying. Not horribly so, but enough that it made me cringe and roll my eyes. And then there was Cole. He was so sexy and broody at first, and then all of a sudden his dialogue started to make me angry as well. It’s not so much that it wasn’t believable, it was more that it wasn’t natural.-it felt forced and contrived and it made me sad because I loved his character. It’s like Lexi could speak normally, but Cole’s dialogue just never once worked-it was always so unnatural and unlike what a boy his age would say. I’d even go so far as to say his dialogue was juvenile.

So all in all this just didn’t work for me. The story never fully drew me in and I never could make myself pick this up after I had put it down. I’d long for something else to read and practically had to skim to even get through the chapters. I figured I had picked up a dark read, but not once did I feel the darkness begin to pull me in. So, while this story may have worked for most of the people I know, it didn’t for me. This makes me sad, because there were two awesome characters that deserved way better: Cole and his adorable, loyal dog, Zeus. I just wish I could have enjoyed this one way more.

Purchase on Amazon

Tag: Science Fiction (Page 25 of 38)

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

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.

We aren’t born for ourselves alone.

Wells knew that even the greatest leaders make mistakes.

BOOK REVIEW – The 100 (The Hundred #1) by Kass Morgan

It would be better to lie. His father would have an easier time believing that Wells had been carrying out a dare. Or perhaps he could try to pretend he had been on drugs. Either of those scenarios would be more palatable to the Chancellor than the truth-that he’d risked everything for a girl.

BOOK REVIEW – Obsession by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Synopsis:

Review:

Hunter – I smiled then – a big, toothy idiotic smile – and Serena didn’t see it. Her eyes were closed, which was good, because I was turning into one big vagina.

Serena – High-stress situations amplified emotions. I knew this, and yet I’d allowed myself to fall for the extraterrestrial asshole.

Hunter – Somehow, in the relatively short time I’d known Serena, she had wiggled her way into my cold body. She was my light, my warmth and I wasn’t ready to let her go.

BOOK REVIEW – Origin (Lux #4) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Synopsis:

Review:

I caught the tear with a kiss. “And I’m not going to let you do this by yourself. You’re my everything, Kat.” At the sound of her soft inhale, I smiled again. “Come on, Kitten, did you really expect anything less from me? I love you.”

BOOK REVIEW – Branded (Sinners #1) by Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki

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

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.

We aren’t born for ourselves alone.

Wells knew that even the greatest leaders make mistakes.

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BOOK REVIEW – The 100 (The Hundred #1) by Kass Morgan

It would be better to lie. His father would have an easier time believing that Wells had been carrying out a dare. Or perhaps he could try to pretend he had been on drugs. Either of those scenarios would be more palatable to the Chancellor than the truth-that he’d risked everything for a girl.

Share this:

BOOK REVIEW – Obsession by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Synopsis:

Review:

Hunter – I smiled then – a big, toothy idiotic smile – and Serena didn’t see it. Her eyes were closed, which was good, because I was turning into one big vagina.

Serena – High-stress situations amplified emotions. I knew this, and yet I’d allowed myself to fall for the extraterrestrial asshole.

Hunter – Somehow, in the relatively short time I’d known Serena, she had wiggled her way into my cold body. She was my light, my warmth and I wasn’t ready to let her go.

Share this:

BOOK REVIEW – Origin (Lux #4) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Synopsis:

Review:

I caught the tear with a kiss. “And I’m not going to let you do this by yourself. You’re my everything, Kat.” At the sound of her soft inhale, I smiled again. “Come on, Kitten, did you really expect anything less from me? I love you.”

Share this:

BOOK REVIEW – Branded (Sinners #1) by Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki

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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.