Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

It took me awhile to finish this book!  I have been very busy!  I would like to mention I did send a tweet out saying I was reading this and Kendare Blake actually saw it and responded saying she hoped I liked it... I hope my review does not disappoint!  I don't typically read ghost stories or gory stories but lately I've grown to like them, perhaps because they are so different from my typical reads...

I've started another book it is called Until Next Time by Amy Lignor here is a photo of that (it's an angels book is what I know of it so far, I'm about 2 chapters in):
 

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Yes it took me a few days longer than normal to read this because I've had a busy week!  But here goes:



So Anna Dressed in Blood isn't my typical read but lately I've been reading books about ghosts and with all the great reviews I thought why not?  I really enjoyed that the main character is a boy so the story is told through him.  It's nice having a male protagonist.  Cas is a ghost hunter who moves around with his mom (witch) and cat (sees ghosts) to different cities to kill ghosts he receives tips on.



Cas meets his match in Anna, Anna Korlov is a female ghost who has killed every person to ever enter her home.  Until Cas comes along, for some reason she doesn't kill him and that's where the story starts to get really good.  Anna is a great character, there's a little G rated romance between the two, nothing serious.  There is more PG-13 rated stuff when it comes to the gore and descriptions of some of the killings and things that happen to the other ghosts.



I really enjoyed Cas' friends and family.  I thought the story was told with creativity, imagination, and it was really descriptive.  My favorite character was Anna who I believe is the real hero of the entire story.  Thomas and Carmel were also great additions to the group, there was a lot of depth to each character and you got to know all of them and I really enjoyed all of the characters.



This is a ghost story at it's best!  I would rate it between 3.5-4.  I like that the Kendare Blake was able to fit the entire story into one book which is extremely rare these days with sagas, trilogies, etc...  She left it open-ended enough to make a series out of it as well.  All in all it's a pretty good ghost story, perhaps a little gruesome.



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Update!

I'm currently reading Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake.  So far so good, I'm about 5 chapters in.  We were out of Internet the other day so I couldn't download a book to my kindle so I started on my ARC signed copy of Betrayed by Ednah Walters.  I got through a few chapters of that too...  I just find it so much more convenient reading off of my Kindle as of late.

I will say Ednah Walters is a great person to fan or friend on Facebook and Goodreads.  She does A LOT of giveaways.  I did not win a giveaway I am just a fan of her Awakened series and they are being reformatted for a grand debut soon by her new publisher and she knew how badly I wanted to read the sequel so she sent me the sweetest personalized book along with signed bookmarks and a t-shirt.

Becca Fitzpatrick also did a virtual signing recently.  I've met her in real life and also signed up for the virtual signing and got my book from her a week or two ago.

And lastly for Rachel Caine fans, go to her Facebook as she also does giveaways and sent out signed bookplates.  I received 5 and can now put them in some of my Morganville Vampire books!  :-) 

Lots of good deals out there if you look and a lot of these authors are extremely kind and generous.

Back to Anna Dressed in Blood which I like so far... very unique spin on ghosts.

Existence by Abbi Glines - READ IT NOW!!! AMAZING!

So wow...  I will reiterate something I wrote in my review, this book makes me want to lower every other book I've read by at least 1 star it is that good.  I recommend you buy it and read it now!  I have no idea what to do now...  I feel lost without Pagan and Dank :P 

Existence by Abbi Glines

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was instantly hooked to this book!  This book makes me want to take every other review I've written and drop a star from each one that's how good it was.  I was not going to read it because the characters' names were Dank, Leif, Pagan, Gee, all really strange besides Miranda.  But the reviews of the book were so good and I decided to go for the free sample, instantly I was attached to Pagan and the story and knew I'd be buying it.



Pagan is a really likeable girl, she cares about her friends and others feelings, she's someone you automatically sympathize with and befriend.  Her best friend Miranda is funny and quirky.  Pagan sees dead people but they've never talked to her before until she met Dank, but he's different.  Pagan is pretty and smart, she dates the star quarterback but her attraction to Dank the spirit that talks is unreal.



Okay I thought the plot sounded dumb, I'm older and thought who would fall in love with a ghost???  But Dank isn't your average hot dead guy.  I wont give anything away but I fell for him too.  The cover of this book is gorgeous.  I cannot wait for the next book, I did read this will be a trilogy last night when I finished it.



I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone, go read it now!!!  What are you waiting for, the reviews are amazing, don't wait like I did!!!  Did I mention I LOVE Dank???





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The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

I absolutely devoured the last half of this book!  I'm thinking of reading A Beautiful Dark next or possibly something else, it just depends on what sounds good at the moment while I'm looking.  I highly recommend The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin to anyone looking for something to read...  I had been in a rut for awhile looking for something amazing to read and I found it...  It had the best ending I've read in such a long time, review:

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Totally creepy and definitely not my typical read but here goes:



So I was going to rate this a solid 4 stars until the last paragraph which auto upped it to a 5.  This book was creepy and gave me goosebumps!  There was foul language which is fine by me because I'm not in the YA age group.  The book constantly had you wondering what was going on, what was real, what wasn't, and there was just so many disturbing parts to it.  This is absolutely NOT my typical type of book but after reading the free sample I decided to go for it.



I'm so glad I bought this, Mara Dyer is a very unique heroine.  She believes she's psychotic and has no idea what's wrong with her really.  She sees things, loses track of time, and when she pictures someone dying they die the same way she sees it.  Noah Shaw is a hero I instantly fell in love with.  He gives Mara so much attention and tries to tend to her every whim and need.  He puts up with all of her craziness. 



I loved the family bond in this book too, Mara has a strong connection with her brothers and there is a lot of family involved in this read.  There's also craziness, action, and paragraphs that you will have to read two-three times and still wont be able to comprehend.  This book is complete brilliance at it's best!



I cannot wait to read what comes next... and I hope it's soon.  That was an amazing cliffhanger/game changing ending...



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Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi...next up...?

I will start off by saying this was my FIRST dystopian novel.  I've tried reading a few others in the past but have never been able to really get into them.  I have a few samples and a couple paperbacks I'm stifling through now trying to decide what to read next...

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had been on the fence for a long time about reading this because I can never get into dystopian novels they aren't my thing.  I really enjoyed the main character Juliette and the hero of her affections Adam.  Juliette hasn't touched anyone in almost a year because her touch is lethal and she's locked in an asylum.



The book is almost written like a journal.  There are words, phrases, and even sentences crossed out.  Even on the cover, the first sentence at the top is crossed off.  The entire book goes on like this.  Some people have expressed it annoyed them but it didn't bother me.  I felt as if I were reading Juliette's journal during the majority of the book.



The action and plot was good and original as far as anything I've read lately.  This would probably be because as I said before, I don't read dystopian novels.  I would rate this a 3.5 but rounded it up because it is much better than the last book I read.  I will also add if you are a fan of paranormal books, this book wont disappoint you because there is a paranormal aspect to it.  Those are what I typically read.  Also, the book ended happy and complete with room for a sequel.  I do hope that we see a sequel in the future it would be nice to see what happens to Juliette from here.



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Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

 This was definitely not my favorite, but I try to save low ratings for books I really dislike.  This was "OK" in my opinion.  I'm going to read Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.  Hopefully that will be better...  :P  This book was just so far below my expectations I feel disappointed I paid for it.  That never happens!!!

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Twilight Cullens meet Carrier of the Mark DeRis family. 



So I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it.  I felt it was extremely drawn out, I found myself reading paragraphs over and over again.  It ended abruptly with no conclusions to anything.  I'm not sure if there is meant to be a series of this or not? 



The family immediately reminded me of the Cullens from Twilight but were obviously not vampires, they also reminded me a lot of the family from Carrier of of the Mark.  All extremely beautiful with amazing talents and skills. 



The premise of the story sounded amazing, but I think it fell short.  I find that in other reviews people either loved or hated it.  I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it, I found it mediocre at best.



I did like the main character Helen but I can immediately compare them to other people from other books, Hector was identical (to me) to Emmett Cullen, Lucas the hero and Helen's love interest reminded me of Adam DeRis from Carrier of the Mark.  The only thing different is that this book is about demigods. 



I'll give it a 2.5-3 star rating, because I read the whole book and some parts were really good.  This is a visual book, while reading it there is a lot of detail and sometimes lacks dialogue.  I hate writing reviews that aren't positive but I just didn't enjoy this book.



If you are a fan of Carrier of the Mark or Twilight, this book may be for you.





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Read or Write? Also Short Story from Shadow Falls Review...

I've had a heck of a time finding a new series or book to read.  I've been surfing goodreads, amazon, and even the bookstores.  I've read so much lately and I'm having a hard time finding something that grabs my attention!

I thought about writing more but revising and editing your novel can be so time consuming and when I start I notice errors and things that really don't please me so I've been purposefully occupying myself with other tasks.

I did complete a short story from C.C. Hunter, it's the story of Della, Kylie's vampire roommate and best friend.

Turned at Dark by C.C. Hunter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Della is one of my favorite characters from the Shadow Falls books so I was excited to see a short story about when she turned into a vampire.  You can really tell the author loves her characters to provide extras like this.



I wasn't disappointed in Della's story at all.  It was a great *short* addition to the series.  Della's story is well written and you get to learn more about her background and how she found out about Shadow Falls to begin with. 



If you are a fan, for this price *FREE* on Kindle you should definitely check it out!



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