The Beautiful Ashes by Jeaniene Frost

Genre:  Adult Paranormal Romance

Broken Destiny Series, Book 1

Jeaniene Frost's website

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Description (taken from Jeaniene Frost's website):

In a world of shadows, anything is possible. Except escaping your fate.

Ever since she was a child, Ivy has been gripped by visions of strange realms just beyond her own. But when her sister goes missing, Ivy discovers the truth is far worse—her hallucinations are real, and her sister is trapped in a parallel realm. The one person who believes her is the dangerously attractive guy who’s bound by an ancient legacy to betray her.

Adrian might have turned his back on those who raised him, but that doesn’t mean he can change his fate…no matter how strong a pull he feels toward Ivy. Together they search for the powerful relic that can save her sister, but Adrian knows what Ivy doesn’t: that every step brings Ivy closer to the truth about her own destiny, and a war that could doom the world. Sooner or later, it will be Ivy on one side, Adrian on the other, and nothing but ashes in between…

Ivy has lost every one she's ever loved.  Somehow, she ends up in the town where her sister was last seen before her disappearance.  With nothing left to lose, Ivy is working her way through the town trying to see if anyone's seen her sister recently.  But when evil wants disappearances buried, it'll make sure it stays buried.

Cue enterance for hot and hunky hero.  Adrian has a sinister past with a fate laced with betrayal.  So he tries to fight it.  And somehow he ends up saving Ivy.  Ivy, the girl with a quick wit and determination who also happens to be a part of the fate he's running from.  But as everything is tied together and they try to save Ivy's sister, something more seems to happen between them.

Gah.  Trying to give a nice summary of the plot without giving anything away sucks.  And I feel like this series is something new enough to step away from the vampire genre but still similar enough to keep those paranormal fans interested.  I really enjoyed it.  And all of the twists as they came.  I don't really have anything negative to say.

Jeaniene Frost fans won't be disappointed.  And it's a definite read for paranormal romance fans.

Unraveled by Gennifer Albin

Genre:  YA Dystopian

Crewel World, Book 3

Gennifer Albin's website

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Note:  Reading anything below without having started this series could ruin plots from earlier books.

Description (taken from Goodreads):

Autonomous. Independent. Dangerous. They tried to control her. Now she’ll destroy them.

Things have changed behind the walls of the Coventry and new threats lurk in its twisted corridors. When Adelice returns to Arras, she quickly learns that something rotten has taken hold of the world and Cormac Patton needs her to help him reestablish order. However, peace comes at a terrible price. As the Guild manipulates the citizens of Arras, Adelice discovers that she’s not alone, and she must let go of her past to fight for mankind’s future. She will have to choose between an unimaginable alliance and a deadly war that could destroy everyone she loves.

After spending a couple of months on Earth, Adelice is back in Cormac Patton's clutches.  And she's headed back to Arras where two years have passed.  Enough time to change how things are done.  But the world Adelice enters isn't the one she once left.

When Adelice agrees to go back to Arras with Patton, she believes there's a way to still save Arras and Earth.  But Patton's got something else up his sleeve.  He's not about to let Adelice get the upper hand, ever.  So Adelice must pretend to be the docile creweler that the world will look to for inspiration.  But with all of this suffocation, can Adelice really accomplish what the Whorl is destined to achieve?

Honestly, the second book was my favorite because of all of the explanations.  This one only stated that Arras was worse off than before, but there wasn't enough proof of that.  It was more having Adelice moping about in the Coventry until the action comes along.  And I felt like with trying to have an epic grand finale, so many details and readers' hearts were lost.  I guess what I'm saying is the Adelice in this book did not feel like the same Adelice from the previous two books.

While I'm glad I finished the series, I feel like this is another series where the third book lets me down.  I need something with an epic ending that makes sense and leaves me dumbstruck.

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Genre:  YA Paranormal Romance

Daughter of Smoke and Bone Series, Book 3

Laini Taylor's website

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Note:  If you haven't started this series yet, then don't read any further.  Go pick up the first one and get reading!

Description (taken from Goodreads):

By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?

A love story from past lives: Karou and Akiva.  As former enemies come together to defeat the tyrant empire, we finally see some form of the dream coming to fruition.  Just maybe Karou and Akiva will get that happily ever after they've been wanting.  But reality has something else in store for them.

This story picks right up from the last one where Karou is deceiving the chimaera into forming a tender alliance with the Misbegotten.  And while Akiva tries to come up with plans to stop Jael and the angels who have gone to Earth for weapons, the two opposing sides begin to do the unimaginable: they get along (after some small squabbles).  But back on Earth, the apocalypse has come: angels are upon us.  And a stranger is realizing she knows something about the angels that no one believes.  But when fate brings the right people together, it seems nothing can stop Akiva and Karou from getting their hard-fought-for peace.

I have to stop right here, and ask if there was something in the second book that foreshadowed any of this that happened?  Or was it all over my head?  Because I felt like this book took a left turn after left turn after left turn until I was all sorts of confused.  I felt like once we hit an acceptable climax, the story took a new and weird turn.  It was like the author refused to let the story end.  And about that ending?  Gah!  I'm opposed.  And the whole fact that it's totally open for another part to the story (even if it's not told from Karou and Akiva's points of view).

Am I the only one who thought this was the worst book of the series?  It just didn't jive well for me...  And now the story is over (well for now)...

manda-rae's Haul

Stacking the Shelves consists of books we received in the last week, hosted by Tynga's reviews.

I think I just realized this week that I'm not sure I'm going to meet my reading goal for the year.  It's very true that I've been badly slacking for the last couple of weeks.  And I'm just not sure I want to get back into my reading like I once was.  I guess I'm in a reading rut...

From the Library:

• Trust me, I'm Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer
• Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads
• This book sounds like a lot of cat and mouse.  But the cover's what got me...
• The Beautiful Ashes by Jeaniene Frost
• Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads
• Jeaniene Frost is one of my favorite authors.  Maybe this book can help get me out of my reading rut.

manda-rae's Past Week

Reviews:

• Sunshine by Nikki Rae

Giveaways:

• Gratitude Giveaway (book of choice - ends 30Nov)

Gratitude Giveaway

Welcome to my stop for the Gratitude Giveaways!  What can we win today?  Well, how about a book of choice from Amazon/TBD (not to exceed $15).

Image taken from Google Images.

How it works:

1. This contest is open to everyone (international included - as long as Book Depository/Amazon ships to you).
2. Entrant must be 13 years of age or older.
3. Giveaway ends on Sunday, November 30. 
4. You can enter via the Rafflecopter form below. You must follow my blog via GFC/Bloglovin in order to enter.
5. Winner will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to respond with logistics.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunshine by Nikki Rae

Genre:  YA Paranormal Romance

Sunshine Series, Book 1

Nikki Rae's website

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Description (taken from Goodreads):

Sophie Jean is pretty good at acting normal. She can pretend she’s not allergic to the sun. She can hide what her ex-boyfriend did to her. She can cover up the scars she’s made for herself. Ignore anything. Forget anything.

Then Myles enters her life, and he has more than a few secrets of his own. Sophie discovers that when she's with him she is feeling too much. Remembering too much.

It’s one thing covering up her own dark past, but does she really need to worry about people finding out just how much Myles likes her? Or that despite how much she doesn’t want to repeat past mistakes, she kind of likes him back? Not to mention the fact that she now has to conceal that Myles drinks blood-that he says he’s about four hundred years old.

But Sophie can deal with this little glitch, no problem. Even if she’s putting the few people she loves at risk. Suddenly, those who were monsters before are just people, and the monsters? They’re real. Now being a normal human being is the least of her problems. Now she has to stay alive.

Sophie is just your average musically-inclined teenager who's allergic to the sun and hiding something from her past.  Wait a second?  Allergic to the sun?  Kind of makes me think of vampires, right?  Well, there are some vampires in this novel, and they're not as allergic as she is.  But anywho, you've got Sophie trying to survive high school, her mom's crazy ideas for normalcy, and this weird attraction to the new guy.  But the new guy's definitely got her attention.

This story begins with Sophie trying a new 'cure-all' drug that will help keep her sun allergy at bay.  With her mom trying to keep everyone on the normal page, Sophie (aka Sunshine) has to work twice as hard to hide the weirdness.  But then Myles shows up at school as the new guy.  And Sophie's friends are dying to meet him and set him up with Sophie.  Maybe making a new friend wouldn't be so bad.  But Myles has a secret.  And Sophie's got a past that's she's trying to protect.  But when the monsters appear, all hell seems to break loose.

This is a classic young adult vampire romance that introduces mystery in the interactions.  And I feel like there's a subtle mystery hidden between the lines that might be explained in the later books; so yes, expect that mystery all the way through to the end.  But we get to deal with a character that's trying to survive life, and she's growing through various interactions.  Really I had only two problems with this novel.  One - I couldn't connect with the main character and wasn't a fan.  Dissing your parents is a major turn off for me (although I'm pretty sure my teenager self wouldn't have this issue).  Two - this book follows a typical theme that we've seen before (except these vampires don't sparkle).  However, this story becomes different when we explore the depths of the characters.

This is a book for the vampire-romance lovers.  I might even say it'd go well for YA romance lovers as well.  Check it out.

Thanks goes to Nikki Rae for providing me a review copy.

manda-rae's Haul

Stacking the Shelves consists of books we received in the last week, hosted by Tynga's reviews.

It's Saturday!  We watched UW Hockey lose last night.  And now I have zumba and frisbee today.  It's going to be a cold day outside.  But afterwards, I'll have the day to myself and my book...

Purchased:

• The Body Electric by Beth Revis plus swag
• Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads
• Ever since Across the Universe, I've been a Beth Revis fan.  I may have received this weeks ago, but I've been absent from my blog.  Anywho, what makes this absolutely awesome is the artwork post cards I received with the book.  They all contain characters/scenes from the books.  Gah, I've got to read this one stat.

From the Library:

• Unraveled by Gennifer Albin
• Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads
• I need to finish the series like yesterday.  This has been a read that keeps me on my toes dying to know what happens.  And soon I'll know the ending...

manda-rae's Past Four Weeks
(Yes, I've kind of been missing for a bit...)

Reviews:

• Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman
• The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco
• The Bodies we Wear by Jeyn Roberts
• The Girl with the Windup Heart by Kady Cross