Afterwords

If you asked me to chose between Meyer's Twilight series and this lone (currently) story of the Host, I'll tell you without hesitation that The Host wins hands down. It's without a doubt my most favorite book of Meyer's, and one of my all time favorites in general. 

The Idea of this book is so very intriguing and unique. We have an alien invasion on our hands; only the aliens seem to be... better than the humans?! They don't have any violent tendencies, equality is their motto, there's no thievery or crime or sickness. Sounds like the perfect (albeit boring) world, doesn't it? 
Well, mix in some human rebels and things start to get a lot more interesting. One does have to wonder, though, if the alien's really aren't better for this world. 

The Beginning 
I'd like to spare an entire section to the first 100 or so pages of this book, because those will be the most difficult for you to read. In all honestly, the first time I read the book I had a really hard time with it because not much happens during those 100 pages and the action is scarce. Wanda lives her life, and that's it. It's important, don't get me wrong, but you'll need to overcome those first pages to get to the really good bits.
The thing is, the second time I read the book? I couldn't quite figure out why I had so much trouble with the opening. It's quite ...

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You might notice the big contrast between my rating and the fact I've previously mentioned the Twilight Saga is one of my favorite series. In truth, New Moon is not a bad book. In fact, I enjoyed reading it very much indeed. At first, I even intended to give it 4 stars! But then I just had to lower it.
Here's the deal: 

this book is gripping, a page turner and a fast, good read. But after some serious consideration resulting from a three hour long session of me ranting about Bella in this book, I decide this was a two star. Because in terms of plot, had it not been one of the only books I've read at the time, I would've probably thrown the book against the wall in a raging fit. 

As said before, I'm not a Twi-hater; I love this story for what it is, not for what it isn't. It's not Harry Potter and it's not the Hunger Games. And I don't think I should fault it because of that. So, yeah, I love it. I read this book in the series about 5 times, possibly more. And yet I gave it a low rating; probably because I loved Twilight so much and due to that couldn't compromise and forgive the annoying bits--wait, it's all annoying bits. Oh boy...

This book made me hate a character I previously loved, and thy name is...

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Touch of Frost was a fast paced, interesting story set in a curious world with a nice cast of heroes and a likable "voice". It was good enough that I "stole" pages in class; reading in the middle of it because I wanted to know what happened next. But I also found myself frustrated at the book many times. 

Gwen Frost is the main character and the voice of this story, as it is told from her POV. I liked her enough as a character; she likes comic books, she's funny, intelligent and she is the "normal" girl in quite an abnormal surrounding. 
However, her indecisiveness at times, lack of self confidence and the way she pretty much put herself at the bottom of the food pyramid were parts of her I cared little for throughout the story. 
I was also very frustrated with her because she didn't believe in all the gods and mythical wars, when mythical creatures literally walk the walls of her school and, gasp, she's one of them!
How is it possible not to believe in all that when you see and practice magic everyday?
And then, there was the fact it took Gwen too long to figure out things. I, for one, figured out who killed Jasmine--

--a little bit after Gwen felt nothing of the body and found the ripped photo. 
Now, that would be fine because sometimes the reader is meant to figure things out before the hero, except...

The Trouble with Lucy is a fast, short, easy romance about two people who are attracted to one another, but never seem to have the right timing. 

The first thing that attracted me to The Trouble with Lucy was the beautiful cover. I find it just gorgeous, so naturally I had to check it out. The summary fairly obviously stated it's a romance book, and really - I'm a romance kind of gal, so I requested it on NetGalley... and got it! 


I felt very conflicted about the characters as I read the book... I half liked, half hated them. 
I mean, Tom's sweet and Lucy's nice, but at times they were completely infuriating!

Lucy has a boyfriend--a "jolly fine" boyfriend at that. But she's madly attracted to one blue eyed farmer... what's more, she doesn't want to marry her year long boyfriend, doesn't seem to harbor any real feelings toward him and sometimes wonders why is she with him. 
So, you tell me, why isn't she breaking up with him, instead of having to remind herself every few seconds that he exists so she wouldn't kiss a certain blue eyed farmer? 

Tom has had his fair share...

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Back when I first read City of Bones, I picked up City of Ashes. I opened the book, read the prologue, closed the book - and never opened it again.
I can't even tell you what went wrong; as best as I can figure out, I simply wasn't in the right mind frame for it. But whatever it was, it nagged in my head for a long time afterwards, and made it difficult opening the book again.

But this weekend, I decided I've had enough of it. I took City of Ashes, and City of Ashes only, with me for a short vacation with my parents, thus guaranteeing I'll read it. 
Turns out, I needn't have worried - I didn't need much initiative to read the book once I started.
In fact, despite it being a very busy weekend filled with shopping and outdoors activities, I still managed to read about 100 pages a day!

City of Ashes, for me, was a lot better than City of Bones. Can't even put my finger on exactly how, but that's how I feel. 

I got to like Clary better in this book. I never hated her, but I was never sure I liked her, you know? ...

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The Twilight series is one of my favorites. I have a lot of issues with the following books, but that doesn't change the fact I enjoyed all books immensely and that they are one of those series I read and re-read many times.

If anything can be said about Twilight - is that it got me back to reading after a couple dry years. It reminded me why I liked reading so much and sent me flying back in, and for that I owe it a lot.

The first book of the saga is my favorite, and the only one in the series I gave 5 stars to.

It was the simplest, purest of the four, and therefor my favorite.

The heroine of the story is Bella Swan, and the story is told from her point of view. I find her very likable in this book; she's smart, active, knows what she wants and pretty much goes after it. One might say she's pretty courageous as well--even though sparkling vampires are not really the most frightening creatures one can think of.
My impression of Bella changed drastically...

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This was another fast, fun read by Sally Mackenzie.
I have not reviewed the first book of the series because I felt I didn't have much to say about it, but this one generated a need in me to write down my likes... and dislikes.

After reading THE DIVINERS, desperately needed a light book that I didn't have much expectations about, because I knew scarcely nothing could compete with Mrs. Bray in writing until I had some time to get over the shock of her amazing style, so I decided to pick up the Naked Nobility Series, a group of books sure to be fun, light and fast - and that's exactly what I got. 
I finished THE NAKED DUKE (Naked Nobility #1) and THE NAKED BARON back to back in one sitting, thought this review would only refer to the latter.

Despite the misleading synopsis, this book deals with two stories and two sets of characters; 
The first, Lady Grace and Baron David Dawson. 
The second, Grace's aunt Kate and David's uncle Alex. 
I thought it was interesting to read two different stories about different age groups in the same book, intertwining together.
I enjoyed...

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Every other page in Beautiful Bastard included some sexual scene. And that is notan exaggeration. I literally mean every other page, or at least every-time the two met. Take out the sexual scenes and you're left with approximately 20% of just plain story. 
But don't get me wrong, those were extremely hot scenes, like...

Finding Sky was one of my favorites of 2012. I think a friend recommended it to me, and I thought; what the hell? Always loved stories about super-humans, so I picked it up.
It was surprisingly enjoyable... not because I thought it'll suck, but because so few people read it I didn't know what to expect. Well, I'll tell you what to expect; a well written, sweet and interesting story which will grab you and won't let go. 

The plot was unique, to a degree. You still had that familiar "girl-moves-into-a-new-city-and-manages-to-catch-the-attention-of-hot-and-wanted-boy" drill, but from a certain point in the story it felt to me, at least, fairly unique. Pretty much since the moment Sky was SPOILER kidnappedEND SPOILER, really. It didn't go as I thought it would, which was nice. 
This book did have what I call a 'weak start', though. It wasn't that it wasn't interesting, but it just didn't manage to grab me and I found myself wondering from the story, often having to read one paragraph twice. After Sky met Zed things picked up and near the end they becamesimply great.

The choice to use Sky as the story's voice was a good one. While it did take me a few chapters to get used to her narration, as it was very different from the characters I read about in that time period with all the metaphoric language and imaginative images in it, I think shespeaks kind of beautifully, and there were some metaphors I pretty much swooned over, such as;

"Prisoner in the room through the mirror; an Alice who never made it back through the looking glass."

Sky...

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THE WRITING

Update: I've read 3 other books by Redmerski so far. I loved her writing style in those. I think that because this is one of her early works, the writing wasn't that good, but she is a fantastic writer today.

Anna was a normal girl until she was attacked by a werewolf and changed violently and against her will into one, even though changing someone against their will is illegal. 
Anna knows nothing about being a werewolf; her pack kept her ignorant to keep her obedient, abusing her. The things Anna goes through are cruel, evil and terrible, but on the bright side, we don't witness any of it first hand. 
The thing which makes Anna different than the rest of the werewolves? She's an Omega - a wolf outside the rank structure of the pack who can also calm the other werewolves. 

Charles  is the Marrok's son (the alpha of all north american wolves) and enforcer. He's the one the Marrok sends to take care of troubles; put down Alphas' that have gone crazy, remind the Marrok's subordinates of the rules and making sure no one breaks them. Everyone is scared of Charles, both for being the enforcer and for being one of the strongest Alphas in north america, and he rarely shows tender emotions; unless Anna is involved.
He's an old werewolf, the only one in existence born werewolf rather than made. 

The Writing for the entire series is crazy good, and I just love it! something about it is just so engrossing and capturing. 

The story really begins on Alpha and Omega/On the Prowl, a companion novel to the series...

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This week was a bad week for me; I was sick (still am, but I'm much better - thanks for asking) and for the first time in a long time I simply didn't feel like reading anything.
I opened maybe four books this week, closing all after two or three pages, and it was driving me crazy!
And then I found LET'S MAKE IT LEGAL. Let's just say I never expected it to be so good.

LET'S MAKE IT LEGAL is not a complicated, overly dramatic story. And that's probably what was so charming about it; because it was a story that didn't need to make heaven and hell happen to capture the reader and it's heart. A story that didn't need to be action packed and keep sending problems every few pages or so to keep us hooked. The simplicity and honesty of the book did it enough.
Simple yet Sweet, as I'd call it.

The Characters in the book were easy to identify with and easy to like. They were just a couple of people; one a driven woman with self confidence issues when it comes for her looks, having been raised by her father as the son he never had, the other a caring man who after his wife's death pretty much hid away from the world and did everything in his powers to be with his children as much as he possibly can, including opening a business from their own house.
John and Sydney were...

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The world Tanjlisa created in CODENAME FAIRY GODMOTHER: REASSIGNED was so unique, like nothing I've ever read before. It was so complex yet easy to follow. Truly, world-wise, this book is a five star. 
But, there were some things that bothered me and prevented me from giving it a four or higher, and the last two chapters really ruined Thunder (the heroine) and the story for me. 
But more on that later.

As I said in the beginning, I found the world of Codename Fairy Godmother absolutely fascinating and unique. I can safely say I've read nothing like it. 
Those fairies? They're not like the ones you read of in normal books. They grant wishes for kids--for a small price; the child needs to give another kid the same as he was given before his 32nd birthday, if I remember correctly.
The fairies have a planet of their own; one where it's always night and sand stretches for as far as the eye can see. 
There are only females on that planet, and they feed on Fairy Dust - no food or drink otherwise. They all live and breathe their jobs; be it to grant wishes, or make sure adult humans pay back their debt. 
And those fairies? They don't understand love, remorse... their emotional capability are very limited--or so they are led to believe....

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