Spell Bound - Hex Hall Series - Rachel Hawkins

I paused my Soul Screamers series because 2 books I've been waiting for came out today!!!  So I read one really fast... (Spell Bound the end of the Hex Hall series) and plan on reading the other one tomorrow...

So I don't put spoilers on my reviews on Amazon or Goodreads and I will try not to here either but I want to say I am SO mad at what Rachel Hawkins did to my favorite character in this entire series...  Ugh, I wanted to scream WHY at her!!!!  Okay...  Here's my review:

Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


So here's the deal... I refuse to give spoilers away but I am SHOCKED at what Miss Rachel Hawkins did with this book!!!  Let's go back, I stayed up til 1 AM reading this.  I'm now writing the review while it's fresh in my mind.  I am disappointed but this book is an excellent ending to the saga.  All of our favorite characters are back plus new ones so you have Cal, Archer, Sophie, her parents, Jenna, Elodie, the Casnoff sisters and their demons, etc... Some new characters include the Brannick family (Aislinn, Finley, Izzy, and a surprise too).



What I loved, Jenna & Sophie's friendship.  Cal's love and devotion for Sophie.  I honestly just LOVE Cal and could never understand why Sophie was so devoted to Archer.  I will tell you that the love triangle ends with the saga.  You will have a definitive answer on who Sophie ends up with. 



Another thing I really enjoyed was that Elodie went into Sophie's body many times to help as well as mess around and I found the comedic humor in Sophie's head and the arguing between the two girls to be quite funny and I really grew to like Elodie's character.  I also believe she may find love, even in the ghost world.



I really liked Izzy, the 14 year old Brannick sister.  As well as the man in the mirror, I believe his name was Torin.  :) 



The book begins EXACTLY where it left off.  Sophie has just woken up out of the Itineris and has no idea where she is.  She has no powers and she must work with her loved ones to stop the Casnoff sisters from turning every student at Hecate (Hex Hall) into demons.  I think the most emotional part of the story is when they literally go into the underworld or "hell" and you see devastating moments from the past and future.  This is where I want to give you the spoiler, but I cannot and will not you have to read the book for yourself to see what happens.



:)  4 Stars for being a good end to the saga.  I would have given it a 5 had there been a few changes to the ending.  I did hear a rumor of a spinoff of this series and I'm guessing it would be Izzy's story?  I can't think of any other character who would have a spinoff.  I do hope this is true and cannot wait to read the next book published by Rachel Hawkins. 



And just for you Rachel Hawkins... WHY DID YOU DO THAT??????????????????????



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Soul Screamers Series - My Soul To Lose .5 - Rachel Vincent

I haven't forgotten about you I've been busy!  Not reading much :(  But I finally found a series I like right when 2 books I want to read are coming out.

Next week in fact The Savage Grace: A Dark Divine Novel by Bree DeSpain comes out.  I believe it's the last in the trilogy!!!

The 3rd book in the Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins comes out next week as well.  This one is called Spellbound. 

I'm really excited about both of these and of course now I just started a series so I have to read through it quickly so I can get to the books I've been waiting for!!!

SO, I started the Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent I have only read My Soul To Lose which is the first novella, .5 in the series.  I'm reading book 1 now, they had an amazing deal on Kindle for My Soul To Lose, My Soul To Take, and My Soul To Save all in one book called Soul Screamers Volume 1.  It was only $5.99 on Kindle which is much cheaper than buying all 3 separate.

Here's my review of My Soul To Lose:
My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is an amazing hook for the series, it is an extremely short Novella that leads you into book 1.  Right now Amazon Kindle even has a special where you can get this along with the first 2 books in the series at an amazing price.  :)  We start off with Kaylee going to the mall with her best friend and then having a "panic attack" which happens when she sees shadows and knows someone near her is going to die.  The "attacks" cause her to scream the loudest most insane horrifying scream imaginable.  This lands her in a psych ward for teens. 



It ends with her being sent home to live her life and go back to school which is where book 1 starts.  This is probably the best Novella intro for a series I've ever read.  I knew after reading this I wanted to read the series.  Really good!



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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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