Marina's 5 Loveys Review: Scarlet {Lunar Chronicles #2} by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer 

The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth...

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

• Release Date:  February 5th 2013
• Publisher: Feiwel and Friends 
• Author's web site

* Minor Spoilers

In “Scarlet” the second book of the Lunar Chronicles we find yet another fairy tale princess in another controversy role. 

Scarlet is a girl living in a farm in France with her grandmother who just disappeared and Scarlet will use every means possible to retrieve her which includes a street fighter with extremely luminous eyes named Wolf (!!!), while a thousand miles away in New Beijing Cinder is escaping the high security prison Emperor Kai put her for high treason with the help of charming Captain Thorn (!!!).

What I found fascinating in this book is the complexity and diversity of the main Characters; Scarlet and Cinder are unique yet  so very different, Cinder is still young and naive while Scarlet is down to earth and determined; they both fight with passion and are completely loyal to their friends.

But most of all I loved Wolf and Thorn, discovering those two guys was my absolute reward for reading these books, a gift from the author all for me. Wolf was born in Luna, was mutated and had his head violated over and over again in order to be an assassin by the devious Queen Levana, Thorn is a beautiful thief full of himself and with an extremely witty tongue. 

I loved the open-heartiness of Thorn: 

“A relieved grin filled up Thorne’s face. “We’re having another moment, aren’t we?”

“If by a moment, you mean me not wanting to strangle you for the first time since we met, then I guess we are.” 

The inner turmoil of Wolf:

 “I knew they would kill me when they found out, but…” He struggled for words, releasing a sharp breath. “I think I realized that I would rather die because I betrayed them, than live because I betrayed you.” 

The stories of the two girls intertwine and while the one runs for her life and the other runs for her grandmother ultimately their paths are meant to cross.

                                                   

    
                                                   

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Marina's 5 Loveys Review: Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer 

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

• Release Date:  January 2012
• Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
• Author's web site

* Minor Spoilers

After the end of WWIV the world is a bit different than we know it. In Eastern Commonwealth the streets of New Beijing are filled with humans and androids but they hide terror and desperation too.

Around the world a plague is ravaging the population a plague that no one has managed to find the cure.

Our heroine Cinder has spent all her life hiding her true identity from everyone, she hides her hands with gloves and her leg with cargo pants but she can't hide her differences from herself. 

Young Prince Kai is terrified of his father’s death, he isn’t ready to face being an emperor but most of all he isn’t ready to face Queen Levana, the Lunar Queen who is trying to find excuses to invade Earth and destroy Earthens forever.

This remake of the classic tale of Cinderella is a truly unique book, the world-building is fresh, the characters are matured from the misfortunes and hardened by the war, and the twists are so beautifully woven that you almost forget what if follows a certain pattern.

All the side characters are amazing, wicked Stepmother and Sisters are strategically positioned, the android Iko with the dry sense of humor and the girl’s insecurities, and I especially loved Dr. Erland as a fairy-god-mother.

The romance between the main MC is going to trouble us in the following books and I am comforted by the thought that is a slow build instead of love-at-first-site especially since Cinder is very young.

I really enjoyed this book while reading it took my mind from reality and introduced me to a new fairy tale world.

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Sarah's Reviews: Death of the Mad Hatter by Sarah J. Pepper

The Jack prophesied: If the king loses his head, then the Queen with a Bleeding Heart would rule the Red Court until Time ceased to move forward. When a second carried on for infinity, every creature in Wonderland would tip their Hat to the misfit girl with a Boy’s name (or was it a boy with a Girl’s name?) who’d end the Reign of Terror. However, it all hinged on the One-Eyed Hare being able to convince an uninspirable Heir that the impossible was indeed possible—like stopping time—and that Love was worth a Beheading.
Heads would Roll…
Hearts would Break…
In the end, would it matter who Reigned?

Release Date: November 29th 2013
Publisher: CreateSpace
Author Website

Buy the Book:

You'll be aware of the original story, whether it's from the book or maybe the Disney version or maybe the one with Johnny Depp in it. Either way you must be vaguely aware of the story.

It is actually really difficult to review the book without giving away spoilers and I definitely do not want to do that. I would describe the book as different take on the original, it keeps you hooked on the story and think about Johnny Depp's version but with a lot more flair.

I was a little apprehensive before I started reading because "What if I hated this version?" and "What if it made me feel different about the version I knew". It turns out that I really need not have worried, the book is a great addition to what you already know and I love them both. I think with Sarah's version because I knew so much before reading this that it made this book even better, if that makes sense.

Wonderland is already a weird and wonderful place but Sarah has managed to make it EVEN more so. I'd read this book over and over again and would definitely recommend it to those that have loved the original and to those who love to dream. Beautiful, disturbing and wonderful and I loved every single page.

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Sarah's Reviews: Wanted by Annika James

Attacked as a young witch and left for dead, Ashlinn is deathly afraid of being bitten again. Having survived until she’s almost eighteen without donating blood to any of her vamp friends, Ashlinn figures she’ll continue to live bite-free. After her crush reveals how powerful she is, however, the Vampire Council declares she be claimed as a familiar, which requires biting. Ashlinn doesn’t want to be owned, even by hot vamp, Conor. Luckily, her best friend, Matt, volunteers for the job. She is given one week to choose her protector, and the list of willing biters keeps growing. Will she go with best friend Matt, hot vamp Conor, or someone else to protect her? Will she be able to get her power under control by then? Will she overcome her phobia of being bitten? And who says she needs to be protected, anyhow?

Release Date: January 17th 2013
Publisher: MuseItUp

It might surprise you to know that this book is actually really steamy and has lots of hot male vampires. Although I do like the cover and I do like the decision to not maybe sell the book in that way - it's missing the selling trick!

Witches and vampires are featured in this YA book. I was totally convinced that this book works as a single edition, I do think a series would have been better as it was very to and fro, almost confusing but not quite. It just managed to hold onto it's values and synopsis without getting into being too random for me to follow. I liked the love triangle but it felt very teenage angst with all the indecisions, which I know is what teens relate to.

A good but quick read but it left me wanting more from it than it did offer sadly :(

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Sarah's Reviews: The Gypsy Thief (Talisman Trilogy #1) by Kellie Bellamy Tayer

The Gypsy Thief is set in modern day Rhode Island and is the story of Laura Calder and her love for two boys: Andrew Easton, a descendant of King George the First, and Miguel Dos Santos, a mysterious gypsy who has royal ties of his own. More than 300 years previously, a dying Portuguese princess named Gabriela cast a gypsy curse on King George the First who issued a royal decree to counteract that curse. In the spring of 2012, the time has come for the decree to be fulfilled: Miguel Dos Santos must die by the hand of Tristan Easton, the eldest son of the Duke of Easton. But when a tragic accident befalls Tristan, it is up to his younger brother Andrew to carry out the decree, a situation complicated by the fact that Miguel once saved Andrew's life. Andrew's father, the Duke of Easton, aware of Miguel's act of bravery, decides to let him live, but not without cost. He forces Laura into an impossible situation in order to save Miguel and her family. She must make a life-changing, heart-breaking decision, even as she tries to understand the messages from the mysterious disk she wears as a talisman around her neck, a talisman she must protect from the duke, as it is now her only tie to Miguel. Ultimately, The Gypsy Thief is a story of family honor and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love, a story to be continued in its sequel, The Dark Prince, and concluded in The Shadow King.

Release Date: November 27th 2012
Publisher: Vagabond Press

I didn't think by the title of the book that this would be such a historical genre book but I didn't mind at all. I liked the love triangle part of the story but there just seemed to be something missing for me.

I should add that the historical parts are just of bits of the story and the time, you don't need to know your history to read it. It's aimed more at a teen age anyway so it's not aimed at all for me and I can see I'd have loved it back then. I'm just too old now (sob story!)

I did enjoy it and I loved that the characters didn't get an easy ride with their decision making and I would be interested to see where this book could go in the series. Because there is something about that Dark Prince, I'd quite like to meet him!

A good YA book with enough to keep you turning the pages, a bit slow in parts but I loved the attention to detail and it's a good set-up for a series. 

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Marina's Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone {Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1} by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monst...more

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

• Release Date:  September 27th 2011
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers             
• Author's web site

*Spoilers ahead, beware!

I feel very conflicted about this book; there were parts that I loved and parts that I really didn’t like AT ALL.

The story kicks off pretty good Karou is an art student living in Prague and she does all the things the young people do, she goes to school, she goes out to lunch, she tries to have fun and somewhere along the way she gets heart-broken. But Karou is leading a double life and although she is filling her friends’ ears with lies nobody seems to notice or mind.

Karou has been raised by a chimaera family, the head of the family is Brimstone (a.k.a the Whishmonger) and she is running errands for him, collecting teeth from all over the world. While she is in Marrackesh she runs into serious trouble….with the name Akiva!!!

“A furious energy built up in her, and more than ever before she was plagued by that phantom sense that she was meant to be doing something else. Something else. Something else. Something else.” 

Akiva is a seraphim soldier, an avenging angel who is trying to close Brimstone’s shop. He is a closed up instrument of death with not a drop of comparison for the chimaera or their friends. 

“I exist only because of war- a war that began a thousand years ago with a massacre of my people. Babies, elders, no one spared. In Astrae, the capital of the Empire, the Chimaera rose up to massacre the seraphim. We are enemies because the chimaera are monsters. My life is blood because my world is beasts.”                                                                            

When Karou and Akiva meet sparks fly all over the place!!!! ….and that’s about the point were, in my opinion, everything went wrong. 

The world building gets very complicated and very detailed, Akiva has a big change of heard and Karou is Karou-no-more!!!! I got lost in POV’s, I got lost in flashbacks and I definitely didn’t want to know all of Thiego’s kinks!!!! But my absolutely least favorite moment is the Chimaera masked ball…….I have no words, really!

I must admit that I’m no big fan of YA but because I’ve read some really awesome reviews I was willing to compromise for this book but what sealed the deal was the CLIFFHANGER ENDING.

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Sarah's Reviews: The Society: Proof by Aaron Crabill (Volume 1)

Keely Allison has spent years trying to prove that her home town of Pembleton Arizona is haunted. She's let her grades slip, upset her mother by avoiding anything remotely close to the normal high school experience, and utterly ignored a love life. She's the leader of two person paranormal society, along with her polar opposite Tad Buckley. Tad's an honors student, the apple of his folks' eyes and totally in love with Keely (he has been for years and he really, really, really thinks this will be the year he finally tells her just that). When Sean Cage moves to town everyone's life gets thrown into a violent upheaval. He joins the society, challenges their methods, becomes the first crush of Keely's life, and forces Tad into a put up or shut up position with his feelings for Keely. As the three find their paranormal and romantic lives suddenly in fast forward, they too find the already well documented spookiness of Pembleton Arizona doing the same. Sean finds sleep nearly impossible as he's taunted by a monstrous black mass at the foot of his bed. Tad is forced to choose between sneaking out the back door like the rest of the honors kids or going out the front and potentially facing hazing at the hands of a demon possessed jock-bully. As for Keely she just may find the proof she's always wanted so badly to find, the question is will she believe it when it's standing right in front of her?

Publisher: Create Space
Release Date: July 17th 2012
Author Website
Buy the book




When three teenagers embark to find out if the paranormal exists they have no idea what they are in for. So many twists take you and them on a real journey and it's a very good thought out story.

This book is clearly not written for me and is definitely more for the Young Adult audience which it would be absolutely ideal for but I did really like the story. It's nice to come back to a more easier read and this definitely fits that bill. The story flowed very well and I'd have no problem recommending this to the teenage market. I really loved the characters and couldn't wait to read the next book.

Volume 2 will be reviewed next week with a little extra ;-)

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