Infinity (Chronicles of Nick 1) by Sherrilyn Kenyon

 

At fourteen, Nick Gautier thinks he knows everything about the world around him. Streetwise, tough and savvy, his quick sarcasm is the stuff of legends. . .until the night when his best friends try to kill him. Saved by a mysterious warrior who has more fighting skills than Chuck Norris, Nick is sucked into the realm of the Dark-Hunters: immortal vampire slayers who risk everything to save humanity.

Nick quickly learns that the human world is only a veil for a much larger and more dangerous one: a world where the captain of the football team is a werewolf and the girl he has a crush on goes out at night to stake the undead.

But before he can even learn the rules of this new world, his fellow students are turning into flesh eating zombies. And he's next on the menu.

As if starting high school isn't hard enough. . .now Nick has to hide his new friends from his mom, his chainsaw from the principal, and keep the zombies and the demon Simi from eating his brains, all without getting grounded or suspended. How in the world is he supposed to do that?

 <b>3.5 stars</b>

The beginning was a real let down for me. It was just an introduction to Nick's crappy life. I found his character kind of unbelievable. He's always trying to protect people. He absolutely loves his mom. He didn't do a single mean or rude thing throughout the book. No one's <i>that</i> good. I mean, if I try to put myself in Nick's shoes then I would've sometimes been a little embarrassed of my mom and I wouldn't have been going around broadcasting my poverty either. He doesn't even know Kiryan and he starts telling him about how they don't have a TV or phone and gives a whole speech about not wanting Kiryan's pity. I on the other hand would've just said ''There's no way my mom's gonna find out about it''. DONE.

Then we meet the Simi and major ass kicking starts so the rest of the book was really amazing, not to mention funny.

The other thing that slightly bothered me was the vagueness. Even at the end of the book we're not provided with details about Malachai and <i>where the hell did the greek Gods come from?</i> Up till now we've been introduced to vampires, shape shifters, zombies, demons, the Nekoda thingies, the Kiryan thingies and the Malachai? There's too much supernatural stuff and zero explanations. I get that this will be explained later on in the series and the author's just mentioned them to perk up the reader's curiosity ,but frankly it's just annoying.

Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout

"History is on repeat, and things didn't go so well the last time. "


Alexandria isn't sure she's going to make it to her eighteenth birthday--to her Awakening. A long-forgotten, fanatical order is out to kill her, and if the Council ever discovers what she did in the Catskills, she's a goner... and so is Aiden.

If that's not freaky enough, whenever Alex and Seth spend time "training"--which really is just Seth's code word for some up-close and personal one-on-one time--she ends up with another mark of the Apollyon, which brings her one step closer to Awakening ahead of schedule. Awesome.

But as her birthday draws near, her entire world shatters with a startling revelation and she's caught between love and Fate. One will do anything to protect her. One has been lying to her since the beginning. Once the gods have revealed themselves, unleashing their wrath, lives will be irrevocably changed... and destroyed.

Those left standing will discover if love is truly greater than Fate..



The only thing I can say after reading Deity is...OMG!  No seriously, if you've read the book then you know what I'm talking about. The ending was so AJKGHTUOYLPMV! Alright then! Now I'm going to try to suppress my emotions and write a coherent review.

Deity, like all other JLA books was amazing! We come back to a kick-ass, sarcastic and funny protagonist and a world of greek myths and mystery. Deity picks up right where Pure left off. Alex's awakening is just months away and she's dealing with the fact that she killed a pure. The Order is also trying to kill Alex in order to prevent the Apollyon from from becoming God Killer. And Seth has turned completely evil (this is not a spoiler because it says in the premise 'One has been lieing to her since the beginning' and anyone with a brain can figure out it has to be Seth). So there was a lot of intrigue and the second have of the book was filled with action. I liked Deity, I really did. There were some funny scenes, some sweet ones and some that were downright creepy but I felt that it wasn't as good as Pure or Halfblood. I'll sum up the reasons below.

•  I felt that there was just too much making out in the book. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the steamy scenes JLA creates, but it's better if these hot scenes come as unexpected treats rather then regular meals. It gets really annoying when the characters are making out a dozen times in each chapter. I felt that Alex was always making out with Seth, then making out with Aiden, then Seth and then Aiden, well you get what I mean. Instead I would've loved to see more of Deacon, Luke and Lea.  

• Alex appeared just so confused and helpless in this book. There's no scene where Alex gets into an awesome fight and kicks bad guy ass. She doesn't trust Seth yet she keeps defending him. She knows he's been lying to her, and everyone is warning her to stay away from him but she ignores all their warnings and goes ahead anyways! And look where that gets her! She completely forgets Grandma Piperi's prophecy and it's basically her actions that lead to all the destruction. 

• I was also pretty annoyed by the repetition in the book. I mean the colour of Aiden's eyes was mentioned....let's see, twice a dozen times! One moment they're liquid silver and the next they're thunderous grey. I kept losing track of what colour his eyes are suppose to be. There's also the constant mention of how tough Alex is, how gentle Aiden is with her, how Seth can be both vulnerable and charming etc.

I realize I'm hunting out minor flaws in the book, and these things might not even seem like flaws to many people but they just really irked me. BUT they do not change the fact that they cliff hanger ending left me all ADHEBTUC and need the next book now!

 

Blood of Eden

3.5 stars

As much as I love Julie Kagawa's Iron fey series I was a bit hesitant to try this. There are hundreds of vampire books out there, why should this one be any different? And I just hate that cover. Seriously, it doesn't look anything like the girl's crying more like a kid drew a line with a red marker. Anyways I read the book thinking Julie Kagawa wrote this, how bad can it be. And WOW, I was impressed.

Why I like this book

It presents Vampires as the blood thirsty monsters they really are, not as cute, cuddly, sparkly teddy bears.

I love Allison as a character. I'll admit she annoyed me at the beginning but she proved to be a fierce, loyal and strong person.

The world building was pretty good. I have a clear understanding of how everything works in this post apocalyptic world & The idea of vampires ruling the world just seems so awesome.

I really like the love interest Zeke. I know he seems like a flat character and it's irritating that he doesn't have any flaws but it's a pleasant change. He's not like the usual smirky arrogant jerks dominating YA these days.

Why it didn't get 5 stars

As good as this book is it lacks originality. We see the idea of vampires taking over the world in a lot of movies and books.

I'm glad Allie is not a soft Mary Sue but sometimes she just seems too tough and that is annoying in it's own way.

Allie, the main girl is a really developed character but the book could've been much better if the side characters were developed too like Kanin, Ruth and Jackal- the three just seemed so flat

The first part of the book really bored me. I acknowledge that all those explanations about vampire cities and Allie's human life were necessary but still they were boring.

But it was an entertaining read and I'm looking forward to the sequel:)

The Hobbit

The Hobbit is the first one of Tolkien's book that I've read; I haven't even read the Lord of Rings (a fact because of which I constantly suffer criticism). Anyways before I get into a triology I decided to give The Hobbit a try and let's just say I'll be reading LOTR soon.

If I was asked to define this classic in a sentence I would say 'a charming tale about friendship, adventure, treasure and discovering oneself, with beautiful poetry'. I think I might love the little poems this tale has more than the actual book itself. Here's an excerpt

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale, enchanted gold

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep
In hollow halls beneath the fells

Do you get what I mean? Look at the pretty, rhyming prose!

Anyways, the story is about a hobbit who lives a comfortable, ordinary life but then gets swept away in a quest for stolen treasure. At first the dwarves (who are hunting back their treasure) don't care much for small, fat Bilbo but along the way they have many little adventures and Bilbo proves himself to be a clever little fella. Truth be told I really don't know what to say about the book. I liked the story, it's the kind of book both adults and kids can enjoy. There's a lot of subliminal meaning behind the text e.g. Bilbo's greeting of 'good morning'.

But all the same I didn't quite enjoy the story as much as I thought I would. Tolkien was the one who discovered the whole world of high fantasy and I owe the guy a lot for all the books I've enjoyed. But after him there have been many high fantasy books and I'm sorry to say some of them may actually be better than the hobbit. The three main things that ruined the book for me were :

1) The lack of female characters. Except for a small mention of Bilbo's mom. there were absolutely no women int he story.

2) The info-dump. I felt that there was lot's of information being thrown around and I like the modern method of subtly providing the reader with information.

3) The descriptions. Tolkien's descriptions helped me picture the surroundings properly but most of the time they just made me confused. The countless descriptions of the land, trees, rocks, mountains began to annoy me and I found myself either rereading the paragraphs or just skimming the descriptions.

So it was a good book but not that good.

Child of the Prophecy

4 stars

Juliet Marillier is an amazing author. She's one of the best fantasy authors in the whole world. This book had all the good things Marillier's other books had. The same beautiful, poetic prose. The wonderful setting. The slow, complex romance. The high involvement of religion and family. And the unbelievably real characters.

Fainne is quite different from Liadan and Sorcha. She's not as selfless or brave or good. Rather she's awkward, shy and some of her actions are simply evil. Though I guess we can't blame her because she was under Lady Oonagh's influence but, it's still frustrating when your protagonist is going around lighting fires and hurting little kids. After Fainne finally sees the light the speed of the book picks up. The amazing thing about Juliet Marillier's books is that whenever you think you've reached the climax you find out there's still a whole adventure left. I'm still not exactly sure what the climax of the book was.

The male lead, Darragh is another awesome character. He may not be a vampire or sexy werewolf but he's loyal and loving and faithful and that just counts a lot more. His love for Fainne is so admirable. She tells him to leave over and over again, she's rude and mean to him but still he doesn't give up on her and keeps coming back. I just found the romance so sweet and touching.

The book was five star worthy but I just didn't like the ending. (spoiler ahead)  Living all alone on an island that has vanished from the face of the earth is just not my idea of a happy ever after. Plus I could see the plot twist from light years miles ahead.

The Warrior Heir

The warrior heir started of a bit slow for me but it quickly turned into the intriguing story it was meant to be. One reason I was really looking forward to reading this was because of the male lead, these days you don't find much YA with male leads and I was hoping it would be an adventure story without too much romance. The warrior heir fulfilled both these categories. The characters were likable, the pace was good though I believe this book is for a younger audience (of about 11-14?) . It has a little depth but not much intricacy. Good if your looking for a break after reading complex fantasies. The reason I really enjoyed this book however was because the author has set and amazing fantasy story in the contemporary world while still retaining the charm of second world fantasy.
All in All a great book.

The Magicians

I like to think of The Magicians as a combo of Harry Potter and Narnia. The world Grossman has created is intricate and the world of Fillory and the story of the Chatwins has this beautiful, magical feel to it. The pacing was a bit slow in the beginning but in Parts 2 and 3 the book speeds up and  became just so involved in finding out the mysteries of magical worlds. The last part is filled with surprises and all these plot twists that are just impossible to guess. The ending was great and all the loose ends are tied up but it still leaves you craving for more adventure.

 Even though I felt 'The Magicians' borrowed lots of stuff from other books, it was unique as well. For the first time I'm reading a book in which magicians are not portrayed happy people who wave their wand and get what they want. Rather they are miserable. They can get EVERYTHING with magic and so there is no purpose to their lives. They don't have any goals. Most of them just waste away their whole lives partying.

You may be wondering why I gave this book 3.5 stars if it was that awesome? The reduction in stars is owed to Queintin, our main character. He is a really flawed and miserable person, never content with all the things he has. He completely forgets his family and friends after becoming a magician, he's proud, selfish and arrogant and cheats on his smart, loving girlfriend. Even though I understood his actions and could sympathize with him, I never really liked him.