Review: On the Fringe by Courtney King Walker

On the Fringe by Courtney King Walker

Genre: Coming of Age, Young Adult

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Claire is struggling to overcome the murder of her childhood friend and secret crush, Daniel. Everyone else seems to be moving on with their lives, but she's still trying to cope. The fact that she finds herself alone and drowning on her 16th birthday isn't helping. Neither is thinking she sees Daniel's face in murky water as she mysteriously resurfaces. But something happened during those four and a half minutes that will make her realize it was not just her imagination. As Claire and Daniel try to grasp a possible reconnection, other grudge-holding beings have plans of their own. Now, the two of them have to decide if their fleeting relationship is worth the possibility of Claire being trapped on the fringe forever. Beautifully told, On the Fringe intertwines fresh ideas about devotion, revenge, and the consequences that come with life and death.

Many readers categorize this book as Paranormal but though it did have ghosts and the paranormal element. I found it more about a book with a moral about friendship and how it’s one of the greatest things in this world.

Claire is part of a group of four, her older brother, his best friend Daniel and Daniel's little sister. The four are childhood best friends and were inseparable. Until the day Daniel is murdered and their troupe of four shatters as Claire’s older brother drowns himself in College work, and Daniel’s sister finds it hard to look at Claire without crying about Daniel.

One day, Claire finds herself drowning and dies for a few minutes before Daniels ghost saves her. This lets Claire into a place they call “the Fringe” where she can see things that weren’t there before. In her struggle to fight the loneliness and the loss of her secret crush and best friend, Daniel. She is haunted by his killer.

The book itself, isn’t the in depth paranormal type with a back story about how ghosts came to be or anything like that. This is the mildest form of paranormal and comes with a beautiful story about overcoming a best friends death and the hardship of going back to the way it once was.

4 out of 5 date trees

Review: Clockwork Prince (Infernal Devices #2) by Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Genre: Steampunk, Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy

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Synopsis:

In magical Victorian London, orphan Tessa found safety with the Shadowhunters, until traitors betray her to the Magister. He wants to marry her, but so do self-destructive Will and fiercely devoted Jem. Mage Magnus Bane returns to help them. Secrets to her parentage lie with the mist-shrouded Yorkshire Institute's aged manager Alyosius Starkweather.

Review:

Well, Cassandra Clare has been hitting it big with her recent movie franchise of the Immortal Instruments, City of Bones and then she writes a spin-off she calls, the Infernal Devices, where we are told the story about Shadowhunters during Victorian London. Okay, so, I was very reluctant to pick up this book. But thinking back on how I read and loved Clare’s other books and the first book of the series, I convinced myself that it’ll take me awhile to ‘fall in love’ with the characters. And when I finished this book. I felt both love and hate. I hated the characters. Tessa, Jem and Will, especially. I hate love triangles and I don’t understand why writers find the urge to always include it in their books. I hated how naive Jessa is and how easily it was for everyone to fall in love with each other. I’m hoping so much that the third book will help me change my mind about the main three characters.

What I did love about the book was the plot, the action, the machines, the controversy in The Clive (the Shadowhunter Government), the cat and mouse chase to find Mortimer (the antagonist) and overall, Magnus Bane (the warlock). He always likes but always denies helping Shadowhunters when they need someone healed or just to summon a demon when they have a question or two to ask them.

To sum it all up, I am very conflicted about this read. I loved it and at the same time I hated it. Now, I’m pondering whether or not it’s worth it to pick up the third installment that may be the only thing that’ll tip the scales and help me make the decision of whether or not I loved the series or hated it.

3.5/5 Stars

Review: Hex Hall (Hex Hall #1) by Rachel Hawkins

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Series: Hex Hall 

Genre: Teen, Paranormal Romance

Format: Paperback

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Synopsis:

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.

By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.

As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

Review:

I’m not one for witches. I think they’re extremely lame. Especially, when they have to recite lame poems that rhyme and expect something magical to happen. If they used words like Stupify or something similar to gibberish like in Harry Potter. Then maybe, I would like some witch books a lot more.

And surprisingly, Hex Hall wasn’t all that lame at all. It was teen, light and was filled with humor that entertained me to no ends. I adored the main character, I disliked the antagonists and was left on my toes as the plot thickens and thins.

Hex hall is extremely fast paced. There are no dragging details in the beginning; everything was simple, crisp and clean. That is one thing I love about Rachel Hawkin’s writing style. Then she throws in the humor. This book is hilarious; the main character Sophie has a wit of the best type of person and friend. She’s a character you can easily ease up to the moment you finish the first chapter.

What really got me into the book was the sense of mystery that lingers at this magical boarding school. There was a murder but no one knew who or what killed the poor victim. I loved how well Hawkins writes the progression between plot twist to plot twist. And even worse when I’m at the near-end of the book and she leaves us with a grueling cliffhanger.

In short, Hex Hall, has ghosts, fairies, vampires, and of course witches. It even had cults and ghosts being mischievous. Then there was romance, mystery, plot twists, action and a whole lot of humor. The book was quick, fun, and all together a wonderful read.

4/5 Stars

Review: Lucid by Natalie Roers

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Genre: Paranormal, Young Adult

Format: ARC from Author
$4.99 only this month!

Buy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

Travis Hunter is about to start his senior year of high school. Disfigured at birth and ostracized at school, Travis dreams of acceptance and secretly yearns for the affection of a beautiful young woman named Corrine. When a mysterious doctor promises to help Travis through something called lucid dreaming, Travis suddenly finds himself ushered into a secret dream world where limitations do not exist.

Travis also discovers he is able to bring Corrine into his dreams where an unlikely romance sparks between the two. With the doctor serving as their guide, Corrine and Travis must embark on a painful journey of self-discovery in order to unravel the secrets behind this fantastic unconscious world. The plot thickens when a destructive outside force uncovers their abilities and will stop at nothing to steal their powers.

A non-stop roller coaster ride with twists and turns at every corner, this story will keep you up all night and excite you for the dreams that will surely follow.

 Review:

Lucid is the debut novel of Natalie Roer's, and I must say she's a very confident and roaring voice. And I read her first book expecting something a lot more captivating than it really is.

Travis is a teen who grew up without friends. He was born disfigured and the rejection that came with this flaw had him craving for other human contact aside from his parents. I liked Travis, he wasn't the kick-ass sort of main character he was normal. Just like the rest of us. This may be something a lot of young-adults can relate to.

Travis loves to read and always finds himself in a book store and crushing on the cashier. But she barely notices him and that crushes him. As usual, there's always another 'guy' contending for the girls heart.

Slowly throughout the book, Travis starts Lucid dreaming, and the dream-like place Roers has written is completely magical and beautiful. The concept of Lucid dreaming in a paranormal young adult book is a first (for me) and I am glad I got the chance to read something like it especially from a writer like Roers.

As much as I loved the concept, and the descriptions. I found that the book lacked the 'wow' factor that captivates a reader, the ending was too predictable. The book wasn't as page-turning and the storyline and characters are the usual types. I felt that maybe with a little more depth and a string of different events that keeps the readers on their toes, the book could have been better. Overall, Natalie has done a great job with her first book. I know she'll improve each time she releases a new book. For now, Lucid was a good read, entertaining but not something that would entice me to read again.

 

Natalie Roers is a veteran writer, voice artist, and on-air personality. A journalist by trade, Lucid is her first work of fiction. She is busy at work on her second novel and hopes to raise money and social awareness for worthy causes with each book she writes. Natalie plans to donate a portion of every sale of this book to her favorite anti-bullying organizations. She lives with her husband Cory, and son Austin, in Columbia, South Carolina.

Review: A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

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Title: A Shade of Vampire
Author: Bella Forrest
Genre: Young Adult: Paranormal, Paranormal
Format: eBook from Author
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USA, paperback | USA, eBook | UK, paperback | UK, eBook

On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake.

A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood.

She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine.
An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains.

Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince.

Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night.

Will she succeed? ...or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?

 

At last! A book with a synopsis that I actually remembered! I did know what to expect when I started reading the book. First off, I’d like to thank Bella Forrest for gifting me a copy of this book to review.

Vampires now-a-days are extremely overrated. But writers still take the old and worn out concept and try so hard to make it their own, whether it’s a short story like this one or a full length novel. A Shade of Vampire is one of many vampire short stories and unfortunately, I wasn’t at all fascinated by it.

In all fairness, I did get really enthralled by the synopsis and I liked the thought of the kidnapper falling for his captive and eventually, keeping her from safe from his fellow “kidnappers”. But when I read the book, it really wasn’t what I expected. The “captive”, Sofia was very whiny and her whininess literally started from when the book began till it ended. She whined, self-doubted herself, thought herself as nothing, and all that no self-esteem nonsense. Maybe if there was more character development, I would be able to understand and tolerate Sofia better. But sadly, I didn’t and I went on reading with my eye twitching trying to tolerate her. Fortunately enough, she did have her shining moments that made her a little bit more likeable and even sweet at times.

As Sofia was kidnapped to be part of Derek Novak’s Harem, Derek notices her first amongst many girls in his Harem. Why? Because she held more courage and compassion than the rest of the human girls around Sofia *face palm*. Everyone knows what comes next; he immediately falls in love with her and then they go through a few trails together and then the book ends happily with them in each other arms.

Yes, I don’t like the characters very much but on there is a bright side. I really liked how well constructed the world of The Blood Shade Island, which is a secluded sunless paradise for vampires being hunted. The description of the place and how everything worked was spot on and beautiful in a simple sort of way.

The short story was very predictable, the characters were barely tolerable, the concept and scenario were wonderful and with a little bit refinement, depth and realism to the characters. I think Bella will be able to make this short series even better. I won’t give up on the series because I have hope the second book will be better.

 

Review: Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles #2) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

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Title: Beautiful Darkness
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Genre: Young Adult: Paranormal, Paranormal
Format: Paperback
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Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

Frankly speaking, I found the first book (Beautiful Creatures, now, a big movie franchise) too much of a drag to read mainly because of how prolonging it was. I wasn't planning on reading or listening to the rest of the series anytime soon. But thanks to my eldest sister's audiobook, I managed to finish it within 3 days. Best thing about this is that I get to listen to it while I worked. I call it 'double productivity' and with that double productivity, I actually grew to love the series!

When the book started, I groaned and I did it because the author(s) reuses the same plot from the first book and renames it 17th Moon instead of 16th Moon. Then they begin to write circles and differences around it. But you've got to hand it to them, they did write a damn good book!

Ethan (the main character) is a sweetheart and in this installment, the poor guy goes through heaven and hell for Lena (his female counter part). Man, I hate Lena. She's such a victim I can't stand. Even worse are the decisions that she makes, and the fact that she completely doesn't confide in Ethan, like they used to, makes me groan some more! I even rolled my eyes at her a couple of times. I am so happy I don't have to deal with her as the main character. I wouldn't want to get stuck in that head of hers.

In the end, my favorite character is Link (Ethan's lame best friend) instead of Ethan. He's one of those dorky characters that will make you cry and laugh at the same time. He can even be considered as the "Ron Weasley" of the whole series.  He is very much linked to the end of this installment that will literally blow your mind with it's awesomeness!

Likewise, we've got the adversaries of Ethan and his gang. The mastermind of the whole evilness reminds me too much of the bad guy in The Hunger Games. But then again, nothing is really new out there.

Now, for the beautiful yet gothic land of Gaitlin, South Carolina. So dark, so mystical. I just want to move into this fictional town and spend the rest of my life doing the things I love with the people I love. Of course, I'll only live there if the fictional characters of Gaitlin weren't. If you dislike the characters, you sure won't dislike the town they live in (minus the people). Gaitlin isn't just a home for humans but also Witches or Casters as they like to be called. The world Stohl and Garcia creates for the Casters is so dark and haunting, you can't help but call it beautiful.

Undoubtedly, I adored the book. The writing style is flat out written for not only the teens but for mothers, fathers, older brothers, etc. Some characters will surely keep you glued to the book while the storyline remains with the same foundation but still has the ability to keep the reader going, and most importantly, the book encompasses the Beautiful Darkness that continues to draw me even closer to the characters and overall, to the entire series. 

And with that, I quickly moved to the 3rd book and I'm half way done with the book!

Review: Devour (Warm Delicacy #3) by Megan Duncan

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Title: Devour
Author: Megan Duncan
Genre: Young Adult: Paranormal
Format: eBook



You never know how strong you are until something makes you choose between humanity, and the beast.

As Claire descended deep into the ancient tomb; laying to rest the bodies of the fallen, she wondered if time healed all wounds, would an eternity be long enough? Still recovering from a brutal attack that nearly killed her, she refused to let evil win. Pain and destruction glared at her everywhere she went. Nothing and no one would ever be safe until Baal was not only defeated, but destroyed. Fueled by her thirst for revenge, she traveled with her father to the ‘old world’, seeking the aide of a long forgotten ally. Will their quest for help lead to their salvation, or is it only the first step in their annihilation?

It's been three books already and I'm still with the series. That truly says something about how good these books are. Although, I'm having a little falling out with Young Adult Paranormal. Let's just say, I'm getting tired of the endless loop of the same thing. But I didn't feel it when I read this installment from cover to cover.

The book starts with a funeral. Not an ideal beginning but hey! It's got to start somewhere. All throughout the beginning, Megan puts in little bits and pieces of the previous books to remind us what is going on. And trust me, I needed those reminders. I'm one of those people who read more than 100 books every year and I only remember fragments of each book I've read.

In this installment, we go on a journey with Claire as she learns how to control her rage and hatred towards the one man who took many friends and lives away from Claire. Claire is intolerable in the beginning and once you get used to her again. You begin to like her and agree with the decisions she makes though my favorite character was Bennett and Robin. Even I started to grow a soft spot for Liz (Claire's Best friend). Every time a new/old male character meets Liz, I wonder which one of them will end up with her. It's a hard one to guess, that's for sure!

Megan's writing has progressed so much since the first few books I've read of hers and I absolutely loved how constructive and pro she is now. The dialogue and terminology is unique as Megan created a whole different world just for this series.

The plot is thick and filled with all kinds of plot twists and thrilling moments that seriously keeps you hooked until the very end of the book. If I had a dollar for every swear word I said throughout the duration of the book. I would be rich! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. I can't help it. It was really that thrilling.

Overall, Devour is an amazing installment to the Warm Delicacy. It was filled with depth, sadness, rage, thrilling and romantic moments that really keeps you reading till the end of the book. Now, I'm left wondering. What is next for Claire?

Megan Duncan is a YA Author, professional nerd, oddity enthusiast and paranormal junkie. She is continually fighting her addiction to chocolate, and living in her overactive imagination.

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Review: Souled by Diana Murdock

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Title: Souled
Author: Diana Murdock
Genre: Young Adult: Fantasy, Young Adult: Paranormal
Format: eBook from Author
Buy: Amazon

Love. Power. Control.

The lure of having it all is strong, and when 17-year-old Seth is given the opportunity, how can he say no? And why should he? With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Seth is an easy target for the evil that invades his soul.

But love is a powerful force, and despite everything, Dani knows that the boy she fell in love with is hiding somewhere behind the darkness in his eyes, and she’s not about to give up so easily.

Time is running out and instead of having control, Seth is quickly losing it. Dani must rely the truth in her heart to pull the dark force out of Seth. But will the power of love and faith be enough to conquer evil? Or is it too late for both of them?

One boy.
One girl.
One 1500-year-old soul determined to come between them... permanently.

At first look, Diana's Souled looked like a warrior book based somewhere in Scotland. Though a little bit misleading, the contents of the book took you on a roller coaster ride! And no, not in Scotland.

I didn't remember what the book was about when I started reading it. And sometimes, that's one of the things that keeps a book interesting. It makes a book a lot more surprising and less unpredictable if you avoid allowing the blurbs to cloud your imagination.

Souled began with a beautiful Poem. And ended with a good ending that makes you yearn to read more. In Souled, Seth is an okay character though he reminded me too much of a girl that I sometimes forgot that I was reading from a males point of view. I guess, I'm too used to reading from a females perspective. The female protagonist, Dani, on the other hand, I didn't like much. She is Seth's girlfriend and immediately I sided with him more than her. Seth loves her way too much and her feelings towards him felt dull and unbalanced. Like she was confused.

The plot was very enjoyable. It's something different though all the other elements are straight from the typical YA Paranormal Formula. The best part of the plot was the fact that it was fast paced and straight forward. No strays, and no confusing details.

I really liked Souled but not the concept of having another soul take over your body. That really freaks me out. *shivers*

Souled has all the elements of a YA Paranormal Romance but with a twist. Very enjoyable and a recommended read for all YA paranormal readers.

Review: Beautiful Creatures (Beautiful Creatures #1) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

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Title: Beautiful Creatures (Beautiful Creatures #1)
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Genre: Young Adult: Paranormal, Teen
Format: Paperback
Buy: Amazon / The Book Depository / Barnes & Noble

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Beautiful Creatures is indeed an epic read that is dark, mysterious and everything like the cover. I honestly, did not expect to like this book at all and expected very little from it. From my past experiences with books that everyone's hyped up about. I always ended up indifferent to it. But this one was an exception that I actually liked, not as much as I wanted to like it. But I liked it enough to give it four stars.

Kami and Margaret wrote the book in such a way that it always seemed gloomy and dark. The atmosphere in the book gave me the creeps. A lot of it. The book had your usual new girl, who has special powers and town boy falls in love with her. Despite that basic Young Adult Paranormal structure, the authors managed to surround that with tons of originality that pretty much filled the entire book till it reached 530 pages.

Lena and Ethan were okay characters that honestly did annoy me sometimes. I even face-palmed myself once in awhile. But they were sweet together and they made me go "aww" sometimes. I was even surprised when the book was told in Ethan's perspective and not Lena's. I'm glad it was the hero this time. It made the book feel really refreshing.

When Lena moves into town, she is immediately disliked and shunned when they all find out that she is the niece of the town shut in. She is bullied not only in school by the students but also by the student's parents. I admired Ethan's tenacity for sticking up for her especially when he is putting his reputation in jeopardy.

The plot and other minor characters were so beautifully built with enough detail and a lot of dialogue to paint the perfect image in any readers mind. I'm amazed at how easily you can go through each page, not only because of the content but because of how easily to read the formatting was. It wasn't one of those books that love squishing a hell lot of paragraphs in one page. This was more breezy and simple.

Overall, I liked Beautiful Creatures, it had dark voodoo magic, magic in general and interesting mythologies that keeps a reader captivated. Despite the length of the book, I still managed to flip through pages and that is a perfect sign of an entertaining and enjoyable book.

Review: A Breath of Eyre (Unbound #1) by Eve Marie Mont

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Title: A Breath of Eyre (Unbound #1)
Author: Eve Marie Mont
Publisher: K Teen
Genre: Young Adult: Contemporary Romance, Young Adult: Paranormal, Young Adult: Historical Romance, Teen
Format: Paperback
Buy: Amazon / The Book Depository / Barnes & Noble

In this stunning, imaginative novel, Eve Marie Mont transports her modern-day heroine into the life of Jane Eyre to create a mesmerizing story of love, longing, and finding your place in the world... Emma Townsend has always believed in stories-the ones she reads voraciously, and the ones she creates. Perhaps it's because she feels like an outsider at her exclusive prep school, or because her stepmother doesn't come close to filling the void left by her mother's death. And her only romantic prospect-apart from a crush on her English teacher-is Gray Newman, a long-time friend who just adds to Emma's confusion. But escape soon arrives in an old leather-bound copy of Jane Eyre...

Reading of Jane's isolation sparks a deep sense of kinship. Then fate takes things a leap further when a lightning storm catapults Emma right into Jane's body and her nineteenth-century world. As governess at Thornfield, Emma has a sense of belonging she's never known-and an attraction to the brooding Mr. Rochester. Now, moving between her two realities and uncovering secrets in both, Emma must decide whether her destiny lies in the pages of Jane's story, or in the unwritten chapters of her own...

Jane Eyre is my all-time favorite novel. It was the only thing that kept me company when I was in my pre-teens. It was the book I relied on. I couldn't get enough of the movie and tv adaptations that I decided to search around for retellings and re-adaptations of the novel and I found A Breath of Eyre. I was ecstatic and thrilled about my find that I bought it immediately. The moment it arrived, I started reading it and I knew I couldn't stop.

Emma Townsend is a lonely teenager who confides herself in Jane Eyre's world. And when disaster strikes in reality her whole world turns upside down and she's thrown into the fantasy that is Jane Eyre's shoes (literally). She lives out Jane's life for her. She teaches Adele, chats with Mrs. Fairfax and falls in love with her employer, Mr. Rochester. Her image of reality and fantasy slips a little the first time she makes it to Jane's world. But when she returns to reality, she wants nothing more than to escape back to the illusion of Jane's world. By illusion, I don't mean Emma is crazy and is seeing things. Each time she's in Jane's world, she's in a coma in reality. As she explores her feelings in Jane's shoes, the author changed my whole outlook of my childhood best friend Jane and my childhood crush, Mr. Rochester.

She portrayed Jane Eyre as a feminist that stupidly fell in love with a controlling monster who married his wife, Bertha for money then drove her into a state of loneliness and depression. This eventually drove her so insane and violent that he locked her up like an animal just because he didn't want to deal with her. If I think about it long enough, it may look that way if we sat in Bertha Mason's place. But honestly, what happened to the bi-polar-ness that drove every female in Bertha's family insane? Bertha Mason is self-destructive, and Rochester did what every man would do in that era: lock her up because they were afraid of a mental illness that they did not understand. I see no harm in Mont's perception of Jane Eyre, after all everyone is entitled to their own opinions. And this particular opinion can be a real eye-opener and I tip my hat to Mont for her concept twist.

The unique twist, the emotional and dark characters, the romance, the fights and interactions that were realistic, brought this book together pretty well. Despite all the copy-paste from the original Jane Eyre book, I still found myself loving this book, if not whole-heartedly but sincere enough to say that I adored the message that came with it: Appreciate and be grateful of the people who love you in reality because people in fantasies are just scripted, unreal and well... an illusion. Nothing beats reality, even if reality beats you.

Review: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (Jessica #1) by Beth Fantaskey

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Title: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (Jessica #1)
Author: Beth Fantaskey
Publisher: Harcourt
Genre: Young Adult: Paranormal Romance, Teen, Young Adult: Romance
Format: Paperback
Buy: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository 

The undead can really screw up your senior year ...

Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war—and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction.

The first impression I got from this book was how humorous and funny it both sounded and looked. The title itself sounded way more sarcastic than serious. So I wasn't expecting a book with too much plot and depth.

When I picked up the book (finally). It was exactly what I expected until the story got deeper and the plot began to drip with more depth. Some may say that this book was just like all the usual vampire books but for me, it was Dracula with a new twist. A new twist that was captivating enough to keep a reader up all night.

Jessica's confused and distressed when she finds out that she's vampire royalty and has been betrothed to a vampire Prince since birth. You find yourself following Jessica as she walks the road of self-discovery, denial and sometimes anger. I liked Jessica, she was a great character to follow and she was easy to connect with. She had her flaws and I didn't agree to all her decisions but hey! She's not me.

Lucious Vladescu (her counterpart), on the other hand, is brooding, tall, dark, Romanian and 100% vampire. Lucious was the perfect male counterpart, he wasn't lame and annoying like the male protagonists in "certain" vampire romances that I won't mention. He was extremely dark that any reader can tell that he was coming from a harsh and violent background that tailored his good manners and demeanor. I pitied him a few times and definitely wondered what in the world was he thinking when he did certain things in the book. Tsk.

Jessica and Lucious' relationship was realistic. She didn't immediately fall for him even though she found his charm and looks irresistible. They started out hating each other, then friendship and finally, at the very end, they began to realize how strongly they felt about each other. Though I didn't appreciate what happened near the end of the book.

I enjoyed learning how vampires operate in this book. The author writes it up pretty well, even though it was used before. This version of how vampires operate work fits the story so well that I don't see why anyone would complain about it.

Overall, I loved the unique and clean writing style, the snarky and dark characters and finally, the plot that captivates a reader enough to keep them from putting the book down. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel and more of Beth Fantaskey's books (especially, Jekel loves Hyde).