Awake At Dawn - Shadow Falls C.C Hunter

 Now that I read that so quickly, practically devoured it, I'm not sure what to read.  I'm really glad I forced myself to finished the first one in that series.  :)  I sent a couple of free samples to my Kindle Fire so hopefully that will help me decide what book I want to read next...

Awake at Dawn by C.C. Hunter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The first book took me awhile to get into but I really ended up enjoying it.  This book was even better.  There was a lot going on throughout the entire book.



First of all was the mystery of Kylie, I was anxiously turning pages as the author kept giving more and more hints as to what Kylie could be.  Then there was the depth of the characters.  They all really grew and I love the chemistry between Miranda, Della, and Kylie.  Even the relationship between Kylie and her mom grew.



All of your favorite and least favorite characters are back including Derek, Sara, Trey, Frederika, Della, Miranda, Burnett, Holiday, Perry, etc.. plus a few new ones to keep things exciting! 



There was some kick butt fighting even Kylie got in on the action, there was romance and the ever popular love triangle only grew, and there was mystery.  Everything you could want wrapped up into one.  I love how much Kylie changed and became a strong female lead character.



This book was fantastic for fans of Shadow Falls, I am eagerly anticipating the next book!!! 



Just really good, 5/5.



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Fallen In Love by Lauren Kate

I finished Fallen In Love by Lauren Kate and was disappointed to say the least.  I didn't include spoilers in my review on Goodreads or Amazon but it wasn't all I'd hoped for and more...  Don't you hate when you are anticipating a book and it isn't that good?

I'm well into Awake At Dawn (Shadow Falls) by C.C Hunter.  I'm beginning to like this series of course now that I'm almost done and there's quite a wait for the next book!  :)  I'm not sure what I'll read next.  There's quite a bit in my to read list but I just don't know, I need suggestions.

Here's my review of Fallen in Love:

Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I bought this because I was excited to read the stories of the other characters.  I did not realize that this entire story just part of what took place in book 3, this all takes place in one of the past lives of Luce.  I forgot how much I missed the characters and how beautiful Lauren Kate's writing is. 

I rated this a 3 because I only really enjoyed 2/4 short stories and the extra point is because they were all written with beauty and skill that only Lauren Kate can provide.

Now the story I thought I'd like least was Shelby and Miles, which was really good.  The other story that was written amazingly beautiful was that of Luce and Daniel.  These two were by far the most "romantic" of the stories.

I found myself most excited to read the stories of Roland and Arriane.  Those two stories were the ones I felt fell the shortest.  They were both EXTREMELY short and depressing.  Almost filler and fluff.  I am thinking perhaps Lauren Kate provided them in the way she did just to show what the angels had been through.

Nonetheless if you are a fan you will enjoy the writing style and the stories of all four.  I enjoyed all four stories but was hoping for a little more.  It was a Valentine's Day special.  When you read it, you will understand.  Once you have invested as much time into the characters you want them to be happy.

The best part of the book is the fact that you do get to read the prologue and first chapter of Rapture.  Which was really good, and now I can't wait for that to come out!  It's still a solid 3/5.  I'm a huge Lauren Kate fan either way and for all fans this is still a good read.



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Born At Midnight - CC Hunter, Next Up Fallen In Love

I finally started and finished Born at Midnight by CC Hunter and now I'm going to read Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate.  Then I think I'll finish the Shadow Falls series...  :)

Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I started to read this book 3 times and then other books I wanted to read more came out.  Finally I had nothing to read and decided to delve into this one.  It took a couple chapters to get into and enjoy it because at first I thought Kylie the main character sounded like a brat.  But once I got into the story I realized she wasn't.  She was really interesting and so were all of her new friends from Shadow Falls Camp. 



The story is about Kylie who is 16/17 and her parents are getting a divorce and she suffers from night terrors and seeing people a "stalker" no one else sees.  Her friends are having promiscuous sex and she gets caught at a party covered in alcohol and is sent away to a camp for troubled teens for the summer.  The camp is really a camp of supernaturals though and Kylie doesn't think she is a supernatural.  No one can tell her what she is and she just wants to go back to her dad who doesn't seem to even want her.



I ended up having sympathy for Kylie and instantly loving her roommates.  She had a witch and vampire roommate and the chemistry between the three of them was really well written.  It was probably my favorite part of the entire book.  That and the shape shifter peeping tom.  :)  Kylie also had an ex boyfriend as well as a love triangle.  So there were many guys in her life but the love was only annoying and overwhelming at the beginning.



The book was funny and took on real life issues at the same time.  Definitely a good read!  I highly recommend it and would give it a solid 4 stars, maybe a 4.5.







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Hallowed - Cynthia Hand

I finished Hallowed by Cynthia Hand today and now I'll get back to Born at Midnight by CC Hunter until Fallen in Love comes out by Lauren Kate next week.  Here's my review of Hallowed:


Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I felt that the story picked up exactly where the first one left off.  A few things were missing, a lot of the romance with Tucker seemed to be lacking, the things that made you fall in love with Tucker were missing which made me sad.  I think the author was busy building a storyline and left a lot of Tucker out.  I understand the author did this to build a love triangle with Christian. 



A lot of the secrets from book 1 are revealed.  It's nice knowing more of what was left in the dark from book 1.  You find out more about Clara's purpose, Jeffery's purpose, and there is sadness and death in this book.  This is partly the reason I waited and took my time reading it.  I didn't want to know who was going to die and I'd read a spoiler that someone dies. 



A lot of people complained of Wendy, Angela, or Christian's characters and I honestly didn't really find a problem with any of them.  Wendy isn't hardly in the book, Angela is the same as always, and Christian is the only character who is frequently in the book.  The book is mostly focused on Clara and her family and her new visions and revelations. 



I think that the book left off nicely to lead into a saga or a third book.  I'm not sure if Cynthia Hand has a third book in mind or not but would love to learn more as she did leave it open ended with more questions left behind.







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Sleight- Jennifer Sommersby, Next Up Hallowed Cynthia Hand

 I finally finished Sleight, it felt like a really long book.  I'm not reading Hallowed the sequel to Unearthly by Cynthia Hand.  I'm excited about it, I've read the prologue and Chapter 1 so far... I'm scared to read it due to hearing someone dies.  :(  I'm team Tucker so far but I hear Christian gets in the way a lot in this one.

Anyways.  I am having problems with my kidneys so once I'm done with my homework for the week I should have plenty of time for reading!  :)  This is one I'll be anxious to finish quickly, and here is my review of Sleight, which is a good debut from Jennifer Sommersby, this is an Indie book.

Sleight by Jennifer Sommersby

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I keep going back and forth between 3 & 4 stars.  I would rate it a solid 3.5 if I could.  I stumbled upon this in a contest to rate book covers.  I voted for this one as most beautiful Indie cover amongst the ones in the contest and then read the information and thought the book sounded pretty good too.  I did enjoy the book but felt it was too long.  I found myself skimming and skipping pages that weren't necessary to the story.  I would say I skipped approximately 20 pages or so that I felt unnecessary and skimmed a few more than that.  It took me quite a while to get through this book.  That's why I gave it the lesser rating.

The book is full of quirky characters who work at the Cinzio Circus and are settling into a town to stay.  Gemma is your heroine.  Henry is a local boy, the hero.  There is magic and some action and blood and gore.  :)  There's happy and sad.

The parts that were good were amazing, for a first time author you can tell she LOVED her characters.  I really enjoyed the theme and the characters as well.  There weren't many plot twists, it was pretty straight forward which is fine.  The characters were likeable, Gemma was a sweet heroine and Henry was a hero that I found myself liking.  Gemma was soft hearted and a little bit weak but that's her character.  She was beginning to become stronger in herself the further the book came along.  Henry was a hero in every aspect of the word, saving the day in many ways.  I found him to be one of my favorite characters in the story.

There was a lot of sadness and many characters did die.  This is always sad.  The book did end on a cliffhanger.  I would read a sequel and am excited to see that this is titled "Book One" so hopefully that sequel is in the works!  I would say this is solid work and it can only get better from here.  I did even take time to read the acknowledgements in the back which is something I rarely do and found that I liked the author even more after doing so.

I give it a solid 3.5 and for the price recommend that everyone read it.  You can't beat a $2.99 e-read.  :)  Thanks for a great first book, looking forward to the sequel!!! 



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Demonglass - Hex Hall book 2 next in line Born at Midnight C.C. Hunter

Now Demonglass was pretty good too, I have to wait until May for book 3, Rachel Hawkins sure can right up a good novel.  Ugh!  Another long wait, along the plus side there's some good books coming out soon like on the 17th we have Cynthia Hands Unearthly but I read that someone she loves dies and it's been released in other places and people have been posting on her Facebook "How could you" and things like how sad it is, I'm almost afraid to read it, I don't want any of my favorite characters to die.  I believe I'll start Born At Midnight by C.C. Hunter next.  I've been holding out on my hard copy of Betrayed from Ednah Walters because it's so bulky and thick and I'm so spoiled from my kindle I love having something thin and sleek to just push a button to change pages.  Something my kids wont rip apart.

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


So I was a huge fan of book 1!  This book was also another extremely quick read and I always rate on the quality of writing as well as how quickly I wanted to get through the book.  I read this book in just a couple of sittings over a day and a half while still ding other work.  That's a pretty good sign.  There was yet again nonstop action and lots of twists. 

I said nearly as good as book 1 only because I missed the familiar setting of Hecate Hall as this book takes place over summer break at Thorne Abbey where Sophie went with her dad.  Sophie traveled with Jenna, Cal, and her dad for the summer to Thorne Abbey and there is a lot of action.  People are trying to kill her, there's other demons around, even Archer returns and we find out who Sophie is betrothed to!  You wont be disappointed in any of the action or twists and turns.

I enjoyed the cliffhanger even though I think the hints towards the end of the book have lead me to believe that I know what to expect at the beginning of book 3 and what the cliffhanger actually is.  And I'm okay with that.  It's actually quite brilliant and I'm hoping I'm right, now I just have to wait a few more months to find out.  These are the kind of books you look forward too.  The ones you want to read and are willing to wait months for to come out.

I rate this one a solid 4, possibly a little higher. 



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Finally - Hex Hall was EXCELLENT!

Hex Hall was so good!  I have other books on my kindle I've bought to read as well as a couple of hard copy books I've bought to read but what did I do, I bought book 2 in the Hex Hall series on my Kindle to start reading instead...  Gotta stick with it, guess you can add book 3 in that series to my 2012 to read list.  Today I'll be busy, attempting to make Manicotti for the second time in my life and reading Demonglass as well as taking care of the kiddos, one of which is teething horribly, so that should be fun.  I need to get on my reading to stick with my goals for 2012, I have CC Hunter in my Kindle ready to be read in my Kindle, hope those are good, and then I still have Betrayed by Ednah Walters, and some others I can't even recall the names of.  Oh yeah and school started today!  Woo hoo!

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I loved this book, there was so much going on that the book flowed together well and quickly.  It took me a few days to have the time to really get into it but once I did I finished it in 2 sittings.  I write a lot of reviews but I don't like to include spoilers as I feel they ruin the book for future readers.

The book was about our heroine Sophie who is a young with sent to Hecate due to a love spell gone terribly wrong for a friend.  Hecate is a school for Prodigum who are faeries, witches, warlocks, shape-shifters, etc...  But screw-up Prodigum get sent to Hecate.  Sophie was a fun female lead, she was very normal, she cried when crappy things happened, she wasn't a total kick butt heroine and she wasn't a total wuss.  She had a crush on the hot kid in school (who hasn't?) that was dating the mean girl.  She got teased and treated badly by students and staff together.  Also, there is no real "hero" or "boyfriend" character in this book.  Which is different than most YA paranormals.  Don't let that scare you off though, there is plenty of crush stuff going on to keep your romantic side happy.

My favorite part of this book was that the action started at the beginning and continued throughout the entire book.  It's a face paced book.  You can easily read through it quickly.  It wasn't gory or R rated and gross.  It was just action packed.  There were also so many twists because as I always say, there's nothing worse than solving an entire plot in the first few chapters of a book.  I was left on my toes shocked by plot twists up til the very last page.  Very good, I'll be reading the sequel and plan on trying to start that today.

I debated between 4 & 5 stars, I would give this a 4.5 so I rounded this one up due to the fact I was up until almost 2 reading it and then got up at 7 and finished it.  Excellent book.  Can't wait to see what happens with Sophie next.



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Goodreads & Hex Hall & My 2012 To Read List

If you have a Goodreads you can befriend me here: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6071463-sarah (I hope)... if not let me know.  I love that site, there's SO many books I never knew existed and the authors are on there too and many update with what they are reading.  There are also always many giveaways on there.  I think most people have a Goodreads account.

I'm still currently reading Hex Hall, only about 10% done, been busy unfortunately.  Major migraine one day and then Vampire Diaries was on last night...  But I plan on getting back into it and finishing it this weekend.

My 2012 books to read list has grown considerably and in no particular order:

Last Rite (Lisa DesRochers)
The Savage (Bree DeSpain)
Fallen In Love (Lauren Kate)
Rapture (Lauren Kate)
Hallowed (Cynthia Hand)
City of Lost Souls (Cassandra Clare)
Clockwork Princess (Cassandra Clare)
Toxic (Jus Accardo)
Covet (Melissa Darnell)
Book 4 in the Hush Hush Saga (Becca Fitzpatrick)

I'm sure there's more but those are the ones I can think of right now!  Plus I have 4 pages on my to-read list in Goodreads. 

The Reckoning - Kelley Armstrong - Darkest Powers Book 3

This one definitely wasn't AS good as the others but it was still good.  I just always have high hopes for the end of a good saga...  I am now reading Hex Hall book 1.


The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


So I read this trilogy in about a week hence the high ratings.  This book was the biggest disappointment.  I would give it 3.5 stars but I read it quickly and decided to round it up to 4. 

I did like that the kids grew into their characters even more and they got along really well and became such close friends.  I enjoyed getting to know Derek's character as well as Tori's.  I really enjoyed the villains and the action.  This book did not hold back when it came to action and there was more romance than in any other of the three.  It was G rated romance so definitely okay for all ages.

I felt that the ending wasn't completed enough.  For how thorough Kelley Armstrong was with her books and how well she writes I had expected a better ending.  I think she left it more open on purpose but I felt empty and that it was incomplete.  Knowing there isn't another book coming, I guess that's why I rated this lower.

Still, for a fan of the series, it is a good quick read.  The author writes with a lot of passion, her characters are easy to love and hate.  You feel as if you are with Chloe on all of her ventures.  3.5 overall on the third book.





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The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong... Darkest Powers Book 2

Wow this was a pretty good sequel since most sequels aren't that great when comparing them to their predecessors...
The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sequels make or break a trio in my opinion.  This sequel was written extremely well, and if I based my rating on how fast I read it, I would have given it 5 stars because I read it in a day and a half.  But I'm basing it more or less on how good I thought it was in comparison to the first in the series and in that case it wasn't as good as the first.  It was; however, still extremely entertaining.

All of our favorite characters are back and we find out even more secrets about the Lyle House and the Edison Group.  They are on the run throughout book two being chased by the Edison Group trying to find a safe place to stay and you get to know each of the 4 main characters a little bit better which include Chloe, Simon, Tori, and Derek.  My favorite characters are definitely Chloe and Derek but I did start to really enjoy Tori's character more and more throughout this book.

The ending leaves you hanging again, there is plenty of danger again, and lots of mystery.  Little romance but it really does not bother me in this series because the books are just not about romance and the storyline is fantastic without it.  The little bit of romance there is, is extremely innocent.  Smiles, flirting, that's about it.

I give it a 4-4.5 and recommend it to anyone who enjoyed book 1.  I'm currently halfway through the 3rd in the series and find it even better... keep reading on my friends!



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