Review: Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

Jekel loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

Genre: Mystery, Teen, Thriller

Format: Paperback

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Synopsis:

Jill Jekel has always obeyed her parents rules; especially the one about never opening the mysterious, old box in her father's office. But when her dad is murdered, and her college savings disappear, she's tempted to peek inside, as the contents might be the key to a lucrative chemistry scholarship.

To improve her odds, Jill enlists the help of gorgeous, brooding Tristen Hyde, who has his own dark secrets locked away. As the team of Jekel and Hyde, they recreate experiments based on the classic novel, hoping not only to win a prize, but to save Tristen's sanity. Maybe his life. But Jill's accidental taste of a formula unleashes her darkest nature and compels her to risk everything, even Tristen's love just for the thrill of being . . . bad.

Review:

Beth Fantaskey’s Debut Novel Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark side was the reason why I bought two more books she’s written. One of them being the sequel to the book I just mentioned and then this one, a unique twist to the classic tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The book is centered on the descendants of Jekyll and Hyde. A teenage boy (Hyde) and girl (Jekel) both suffering the darkness that was brought forward by their ancestors. I was really intrigued by the concept of the entire book. I’ve always wondered what the children of Hyde would be like and this book just answered it. Hyde’s descendants suffer from black outs and nightmares. They also go through murderous rages.

I’m actually disappointed in the book. Don’t get me wrong; I loved the plot and the mysteries behind deaths, murders, and insanity. But everything else seemed extremely forced. Jill Jekel is insecure and believes that a gorgeous guy like Tristen Hyde would never show any interest in her. There’s nothing unusual about that. But getting into her thought process and listening to her ramblings and teenage angst was just way over the top. There’s a fine line between angst that deserves to be angst and being pathetic. Jill was being pathetic half the time. And Tristen isn’t helping with his brooding, British self and his determination to use Jill to get the formula to the concoction that made his entire family line.

As much as I want to swoon over the entire book, I just found it forced, and unrealistic. I enjoyed the whole mystery and trying to find the antidote to the Hyde’s curse. The romance in between was just too – we just met but I think I love you.

Honestly, Beth Fantaskey could have done it better. I don’t know what changed but I know she could have written it a lot better than this. Authors have their ups and downs too.

3/5 Stars

Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Genre: Realistic Romance, Teen, Drama, Contemporary Romance

Format: Paperback

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Synopsis: 

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Review:

If I could count the books I’ve read that actually had realistic events, events about everyday life, and heartbreaking moments between family, friends, and lovers. They can be counted with both my hands. Yes, I tend to stay away from books that show you how life is for some people because well, I read to escape reality and to dive into fantasy and the supernatural. Because I know they’re not real and they rarely remind me of how hard life is for other people.

So, I took a chance and read Pushing the Limits, which is about Echo who almost lost her life to her mentally ill mother and Noah who is thrown into the foster system that separated him and his brothers when his parents past away in a fire.

Honestly, it’s refreshing to read something new once in a while, though this is still teen. But it's a book with depth and raw emotion. It’s not really teenage angst caused by petty things like a break-up with a week relationship. But real depression caused by memory loss, death, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

I loved the main characters, they were easy to like and form an attachment to. Then there are the antagonists they have in their normal lives, which were their parents, the foster system, teachers, etc.

The best thing about this book was that it was captivating. No matter how many times I had to put it down because of work or the need to sleep. I just couldn’t and the facts that held touchy topics like a bi-polar parent, death in the family, the foster system, mental illnesses and many other themes.

I absolutely loved the writing style; it was clean, crisp and had a perfect balance of detail and dialogue. The parts of the books that really touched me, was the scenes between Noah and his brothers. They were separated by the foster system and Noah wants nothing more than to take back his brothers from their foster parents before they force his brothers to forget about him. If I was separated from my younger and older sibling, I wouldn’t know what to do.

Overall, I loved the book. It was a Contemporary Romances that really stood out amongst hundreds that were released in 2012. It is heart-wrenching and beautiful.

4.5/5 stars

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
Buy: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository




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: The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

 

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Title: The DUFF
Author: Kody Keplinger
Genre: Teen, Young Adult: Contemporary Romance
Format: Hardbound
Buy: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository




Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

Somehow, I am oddly drawn by books that have female protagonists with a sharp tongue. They're haters, they complain about those around her and bottom line... She doesn't stick around people who are intolerable to her. Though these qualities can be very discouraging in real life. But in a book, the authors always make them not so bad and not so good. A combination that is almost too perfect that one can't help but keep on reading. Bianca Piper is that cynical protagonist I'm raving about.

Bianca Piper is the DUFF amongst her two best friend. The DUFF can be defined as a friend amongst a closed circle of girls who are so pretty that they over shadow this DUFF, or in full form, The Designated Ugly Fat Friend. It's a mean term but it's a term that is actually used in real life. Surprising enough, her friends are not dense air heads who only think about boys, popularity and being beautiful. Her friends Jessica and Casey are the sweetest bunch ever. This is a definite plus for me.

The book started off really quick two to three chapters and you will be hooked. I loved how fast-paced the book was, I loved it even more when it drove me off the railings here and there. Bianca is one impulsive girl and she will drive you nuts in a good way.

I've read a lot of teen books and by far, the realistic romances are my favorites. And The Duff definitely has this. Though Bianca might be using her romance with the schools playboy as a way to escape real life, I can't help but rave about that too.

I am so impressed with the authors writing style, she was 18 when she wrote this book and I adored her concept, characters and everything else that came along with the book. Only thing I would change about the book was how abruptly it ended. Maybe if that part was less predictable and more smooth, the book would have been even more amazing. Everything else about this book was absolutely addicting! I simply couldn't put it down. If I had the time and patience to read a book twice, I would do it starting with The DUFF.

Review: Easy by Tammara Webber

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Title: Easy
Author: Tammara Webber
Genre: New Adult, Young Adult: Contemporary Romance
Format: Paperback
Buy: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Rescued by a stranger.
Haunted by a secret
Sometimes, love isn’t easy…

He watched her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior…

The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he’d worked so hard to overcome, and the future she’d put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart.

Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth—and find the unexpected power of love.

Easy is an exceptional read. It is my first Tammara Webber book and it will not be my last. This book is one of the best Young Adult Contemporary Romances I have ever read. Books like these make me hope that there are many more like it out there, either from the same author or similar authors who have the similar writing styles.

What's different about this book is the fact that Webber chose to begin with an event that changes her characters life. And from then on, the reader is hooked. Keeping the balance between slow and too fast is difficult and can even drop the books level a bit. Webber had this slight problem. But recovered really quickly with yet another awesome addition to the plot.

The romance adds the spice and the realism of the story brings out the authors skills and ability to entertain their audience and communicate the message (if any) she's trying to give out. I loved all the characters. Each one of them made a significant part in the book, no matter how small of a character they seem to be.

Overall, Easy is an amazing read filled with heart-warming moments, romance, action and realistic college atmosphere. I'm looking forward to reading more from Tammara Webber.

Review: Always Me by Kelly Riad

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Title: Always Me
Author: Kelly Riad

Genre: Young Adult: Paranormal, Retellings, Paranormal Romance
Format: eBook from Author
Buy: Amazon

By the summer, Tatiana “Nicky” Roman must learn to trust Xander Day if she’s ever going to discover the origin of her violent hallucinations. But centuries of being repeatedly murdered by him on July 17th are a little hard to forgive.

Over four hundred years ago, Xander thought the holy man’s prophetic words were as crazy as his eyes—that Alexander and Tatiana were destined to be together forever. But Xander misunderstood the mystic. He knows now forever meant forever taking the other’s life. If they never break the bloody curse holding them prisoners of fate, there will be only one outcome: death.

It's amazing how the books you put off for awhile are the books that end up being the really great ones you nearly did not read at all. Always Me is one of those wonderful books that tend to get neglected.

This is a brilliant book that takes an old tale that is modernized with a paranormal twist to it. Though, I'm a little taken aback by paranormal books now-a-days. Always Me, makes me want to get back into it.

The main character Nicky is your average teen born into a rich family, with high standards and a proper decorum. One thing that makes Nicky not so average is her nightmares. She's been having them almost every night since she could remember. Now, our job as a reader is to guess why she's having these dreams and if the dreams are fragments of a memory or just some random hallucinations.

Nicky is a little bit irritating, she made me go "Come on, Nicky!" a couple of times. But hey! All main characters were written for the purpose of annoying their readers. Well, most of the time.

Xander, Nicky's love interest, is an okay character. I enjoyed reading about him a lot more than Nicky. He was just a mysterious cookie you'd like to find out a lot more about. But along the way, he started to scare me. And together with the main character, you started doubting every character in the book. That's a technique writers love putting into books, to keep a reader reading. It has definitely made me turn it's virtual pages until I reached the end.

The storyline is very intriguing. You can't help but continuously wander what will happen next and why certain things are happening. Oddly enough the plot reminded me a lot of the Fallen Series but at a whole different caliber (Always Me is better). The best part of the book and its plot is the fact that it was very fast paced and doesn't waste time with useless information and details. It's straightforward and it makes the book even more of an amazing read.

Always Me is hands down a page turner! And it's on a subject in history that I absolutely love. I can't get enough of stories like these and to be frank, I'm extremely sad that it had to end the way it did. But hey! All the great stories end with a BAM that leaves you asking yourself - Why?.

Always Me is a wonderful read about romance, friendship, and trust that is all centered around a unique plot, realistic characters and overall, excitement filled pages. An exceptional start to Kelly Riad's career as an Indie Author. I'm looking forward to reading more from her.

Author Bio:
 
Kelly Riad is an American writer who graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas with a degree in journalism. Because's she's always been a lucky little brat, her life has taken her all over the world from the hot, humid streets of Hong Kong and the crowded markets of Cairo, to the cobbles of Vienna and the ruins of Rome from where she has shamelessly stolen ideas and material for her stories.

She self-published her first young adult novel, Always Me, in September 2011. Other Novels include Return to Arèthane and Prince of Arèthane.

For more information on Kelly's young adult fiction, visit http://kellyriad.blogspot.com/

Follow and like here:
https://twitter.com/KellyRiad
http://www.facebook.com/ReturnToArethaneANovel


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Dec. 10 - Books Down My Pillow - Review, Giveaway Paperback Copy

Dec. 11 - Book Crook Reviews - Review

             - SnifferWalk - Review, Character Bio

Dec. 12 - Overflowing Bookshelves - Review

Dec. 13 - SupaGurl Books - Review

             - 5 Girls Book Reviews - Review, Guest Post

Dec. 14 - Mercy Amare - Review

             - Nomi's Paranormal Palace  - Character Bio

Dec. 15 - Unputdownable Books - Review

Dec. 16 - My Crazy Book Obsession - Review

             - Sweet Southern Home - Guest Post

Dec. 17 - **QWERTY** - Character Bio

             - Night Owl Reads - Author Guest Post

Dec. 18 - Pinkindle Reads & Reviews - Review

Dec. 19 - A Dream Within A Dream - Review, Excerpt, Paperback Copy Giveaway

            - Doodle's Book Blog  - Review

Dec. 20 - Megan Likes Books - Character Bio

Dec. 21 - Good Choice Reading - Author Interview

             - Step Into Fiction - Review

Dec. 22 - Reviewing Shelf - Review

Dec. 23 - I Know That Book! - Review, Character Bio, Paperback Copy Giveaway

             - Lovely Reads - Review  

Any thoughts on the books? :)

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.