Review: Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

Title: Days of Blood & Starlight
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2
Published: November 6th 2012 by Little Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316133973 (ISBN13: 9780316133975)
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I wanted to finish the book as quickly as possible, yet I needed to savor every word. Again, Laini Taylor has built a world that goes beyond simple understanding. She has not kept anything back, so we feel the suffering and pain that the characters try to overcome in a world marked by suffering and death, and the only thing that kept them going was hope. Similar to the last book, Laini Taylor's writing is at an artistic level with beautiful descriptions and plots. 

The last book it ends with Karou realizing that the man she loves has done far worse than she expected, and finds out that sometimes yes, ignorance can be bliss. She tries her hardest to hate Akiva for his actions, but finds that she can't. Karou is living in the middle of the desert acting as the new resurrectionist, creating a new army which gives the chimera a fighting chance. As much as Thiago would like, he cannot outright kill Karou because of the knowledge she possesses. Instead, he turns the rebel forces against her, making sure that she doesn't win their trust by spreading lies. He does this because he continues to hold a grudge from years ago that she did not choose him in her past life as Madrigal. However, not everybody believes the deceit. Ziri who was once in love with Madrigal as a young boy sacrifices much for Karou in order to help her and gain the trust of the other rebels. These circumstances have turned her into a stronger and determined woman, but many times you see how she wishes for her old and now seemingly mundane life. 

While this goes on, Akiva attempts to prove he is better man by helping the chimera whenever he can, and surprisingly sometimes with the aid of his brother and sister, Hazael and Liraz. At first, he was lead to believe his only love was dead, but discovers that she is alive and is helping the rebels. And though he believes Karou hates him, he watches over her and makes sure she is safe. 

"Soon, everything else would come rushing at him. Like the ground to a falling man, it would come rushing up and hit hi all at once - the place, the company, her worlds; one implication would lead to another and shatter him - but around that intake of breathe the world hung silent and bright, so bright, and Akiva only knew this one thing, and help on to it and wanted to live in side of it and stay there forever.

Karou was alive." 

Laini Taylor has written a beautiful sequel fueled by the concepts of prejudice, hate, and war. However the beacon of light for both races was hope. Hope that there would be no more loss, hope that everything would be over, and hope to finally be with the love of your life. There is without a shadow of doubt in my mind that I will be reading the final book in this wonderful trilogy next year!

“I know exactly what I would do with immortality: I would read every book in the library.” -Mark Jason Dominus

Book Nerd and Proud,

C.J.

Memorable Quotes Monday: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

"Memorable Quotes Monday" is definitely new to our blog, but we've decided it's time to change things up a bit! To start off, this is one of our favorite books, and has made us laugh on numerous occasions, no matter how many times we read it. Not only is it witty but it has an amazing story line...and did we mention how hot Jace is?

"Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?'
Jace said, "Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself."
"At least," she said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland."
"Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting."

*** 

"Is this the part where you start tearing off strips of your shirt to bind my wounds?"

"If you wanted me to rip my clothes off, you should have just asked." 

*** 

"Do you remember back at the hotel when you promised that if we lived, you’d get dressed up in a nurse’s outfit and give me a sponge bath?" asked Jace.
"It was Simon who promised you the sponge bath."
"As soon as I’m back on my feet, handsome," said Simon.
"I knew we should have left you a rat."

*** 

"Don't order any of the faerie food," said Jace, looking at her over the top of his menu. "It tends to make humans a little crazy. One minute you're munching a faerie plum, the next minute you're running naked down Madison Avenue with antlers on your head. Not," he added hastily, "that this has ever happened to me."

*** 

"One of the Silent Brothers is here to see you. Hodge sent me to wake you up. Actually he offered to wake you himself, but since it's 5 a.m., I figured you'd be less cranky if you had something nice to look at."
"Meaning you?"
"What else?" 

*** 

"Don't." Clary raised a warning hand. "I'm not really in the mood right now."

"That's got to be the first time a girl's ever said that to me," Jace mused.

*** 

"Come in. And try not to murder any of my guests."
Jace edged into the doorway, sizing up Magnus with his eyes. "Even if one of them spills a drink on my new shoes?"
"Even then." 

*** 

"Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw Jace shoot her a look of rage - but when she glanced at him, he looked as he always did: easy, confident, slightly bored.

"In future, Clarissa," he said, "it might be wise to mention that you already have a man in your bed, to avoid such tedious situations."

"You invited him into bed?" Simon demanded, looking shaken. 

"Ridiculous, isn't it?" said Jace. "We would never have all fit." 

"I didn't invite him into bed," Clary snapped. "We were just kissing." 

"Just kissing?" Jace's tone mocked her with its false hurt. "How swiftly you dismiss our love." 

*** 

"Don't tell me," Jace said, "Simon's turned himself into an ocelot and you want me to do something about it before Isabelle makes him into a stole. Well, you'll have have to wait till tomorrow. I'm out of commission." He pointed at himself - he was wearing blue pajamas with a hole in the sleeve. "Look. Jammies."
"Jace," Clary said, "this is important."
"Don't tell me," he said. "You've got a drawing emergency. You need a nude model. Well, I'm not in the mood. You could always ask Hodge," he said as an afterthought. "I hear he'll do anything for a -"
"JACE!" she interrupted him, her voice rising to a scream. "JUST SHUT UP FOR A SECOND AND LISTEN, WILL YOU?" 

*** 

"What are all these?" Clary asked.

"Vials of holy water, blessed knives, steel and silver blades," Jace said, piling the weapons on the floor beside him, "electrum wire - not much use at the moment but it's always good to have spares - silver bullets, charms of protetion, crucifixes, stars of David-"

"Jesus," said Clary 

"I doubt he'd fit." 

"Jace." Clary was appalled.

*** 

Even in half demon hunter clothes, Clary thought, he looked like the kind of boy who'd come over your house to pick you up for a date and be polite to your parents and nice to your pets.
Jace on the other hand, looked like the kind of boy who'd come over your house and burn it down just for kicks.

*** 

"A diary with no drawings of me in it? Where are the torrid fantasies? The romance covers?"

*** 

Clary felt suddenly annoyed. "When the self-congratulatory part of the evening is over, maybe we could get back to saving my best friend from being exsanguinated to death?"
"Exsanguinated," said Jace, impressed. "That's a big word."
"And you're a big-"
"Tsk tsk," he interupted. "No swearing in church."

*** 

"Jace?"
"Yeah?"
"How did you know I had Shadowhunter blood? Was there some way you could tell?"
The elevator arrived with a final groan. Jace unlatched the gate and slid it open. The inside reminded Clary of a birdcage, all black metal and decorative bits of gilt. "I guessed," he said, latching the door behind them. "It seemed like the most likely explanation."
"You guessed? You must have been pretty sure, considering you could have killed me."
He pressed a button in the wall, and the elevator lurched into action with a vibrating groan that she felt all through the bones in her feet. "I was ninety percent sure."
"I see," Clary said.
There must have been something in her voice, because he turned to look at her. Her hand cracked across his face, a slap that rocked him back on his heels. He put a hand to his cheek, more in surprise than pain. "What the hell was that for?"
"The other ten percent," she said, and they rode the rest of the way down to the street in silence.

***

Book Nerd and Proud,

K.G. & C.J. 

Review: Enchantment by Nikki Jefford

Barcelona. Summer escape. Or so Graylee Perez thought until her old adversary, Adrian Montez, brings his magic show to Spain.

Gray seeks out a Spanish wizard to help banish Adrian from her life once and for all. Instead, she tumbles headfirst into a love spell with the arrogant warlock.

After Gray follows Adrian to Paris, she must face her true feelings and decide if Adrian’s worth fighting for.








Title: Enchantment
Series: Spellbound #3
Published April 6th 2013 by Nikki Jefford (first published April 5th 2013)
ISBN13: 9781939997425
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From Entangled: 

“Love is a more powerful force than magic. You can trick the mind and even the heart, but never the soul. When a person is not free to love with their soul, that is not love and that is why a love spell can never truly work.”

I realize I expressed some concerns about the plot in the last book, but even if it's only purpose was so Nikki Jefford could write this book, I wouldn't complain. Lately, I've had a hard him really getting into books. I'll read one a week, but the second I picked up this book I had a hard time setting it down. I read it in two sittings, and boy, did I wish it went on forever. I guess that's part of the reason I love books--the intoxication of it all. It's like having a whole new set of friends, who go on journeys to marvelous places, and you can feel what they do, visualize the world around them. It's so entrancing, but not every book does that, it's those books that's make you want to get to the last page, but you savor every word, and once it's over you wish that there was more.  There were so many twists I didn't expect, so, I feel it's a bit difficult to review without unveiling a few, and I definitely do not want that, so I'll step around it as much as possible.

Gray chooses to go to a retreat for young people who want a break from magic. Well, considering that Gray is the only person enroll on her own, maybe the other students aren't taking a willing break from magic. She means new people, makes new friends, and finds a cute guy, everything is going great. That's until the cute guy is groping another girl, and her friends decide to take her to a magic show. A magic show featuring the one and only Adrian Montez. Now, could it be a complete coincidence that Adrian took his magic show to Spain? Sure. Does Gray think it is? Definitely not. She uses one of her new friends contacts to try to get rid of Adrian, make him leave her life, forever. When she least expects it, she gets put under a love spell. It just so happens that Adrian didn't put it on her.

He keeps pushing her away, knowing that once the spell is broken she'll regret their time together. After a while Gray starts to doubt the spell is the only reason she has feelings for Adrian. I loved the romance between Gray and Adrian, you get to see another side of Adrian, a loving and caring side. A part of Adrian that will protect Gray even if she doesn't love him. Adrian's past is also uncovered, and we learn what the accident is, and why he's in this body. 

Charlene does make an appearance in this book, and an amazing one at that. I was actually glad she made a come back, not that she's suddenly a good person or anything, but she was a great addition to the book. 

Lee and Raj also make a small appearance in the book, an interesting one at that.

I love seeing the two different sides of Graylee, I think it shows how one event, or decision can change a person so drastically. 

This book did not disappoint me, it was even better than the first two, with even better writing and an entrancing plot line that left me hanging on to every last word. The ending was amazing, and not bittersweet at all this time, I loved it. I love this cover too! The entire series had great covers.If not another book, a short story would be so great.

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” ― Charles William Eliot
Book Nerd and Proud,
K.G.

Review: Edge of Truth by Natasha Hanova

Citizens who report to work on time, obey the Overlord’s laws, and stay off the Synbot’s radar, live long lives. Long, dull, monotonous lives.

It’s not a bad plan for someone with a hidden, emotion-based ability to trigger earthquakes. In a world pitted against her, sixteen-year-old Rena Moon strives for a life beyond working herself to death at the factory. Seeing an alternative, she risks selling relics from the forbidden lands at Market. It becomes the worst decision she ever made. Someone kidnaps her best friend in exchange for the one thing that would end her oppression.

Driven by loyalty, Rena and seventeen-year-old Nevan Jelani, soulful composer, green thumb extraordinaire, and the secret love of her life, plot to rescue her friend and reclaim her salvage. Still, the thought lingers whether Nevan is a true hero or another thief waiting for his chance at her loot. Events spin wildly, deepening Rena’s suspicions and pushing her limit of control. With more than her chance for freedom at stake, she must decide if she’s willing to kill to protect what’s precious to her. For once, the Overlord isn’t holding all the power, but can Rena live with being reduced to what she’s trying so hard to escape?

Title: Edge of Truth

Publication date: June 6th 2013 by Sapphire Star Publishing
ISBN-10: 1938404599 (ISBN-13: 978-1938404597)

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Budding love, new friendships, and undying loyalty are only a few reasons I loved this story.

I did have a few problems with the book. Well, not problems really, just questions that weren't answered. Two of them being: How did Overlord Andrick come to power? Why are some people Others? It doesn't seem to be genetic, but I would've liked to know a lot more about them. Although, because they're all in hiding, Rena might not know either. A second book definitely could answer all of these questions and then show us what happens after the ending. The great ending, which I will expand on later.

Rena has a huge secret, she's Other, and even her best friend doesn't know. That's until she accidentally caused an earthquake bigger than she expected and almost hurt her. Blaze promises to keep her secret, about her powers and the cave they find with treasures. Treasures that later cause Blaze to be kidnapped. Her kidnappers will try to have her show them the caves, but with her awful sense of direction, she doesn't know where they are. Blaze might have sold some of them treasures, but that's because of her amazing bargaining skills (and because Rena was grounded), only Rena knows where the caves are. Rena will go to all lengths to get her best friend back, but Nevan finds out and won't let her do it alone. I'm really glad Rena wasn't alone, Nevan was a great addition to the story (as well as his sister, Chai, but I rather you find out how amazing she is on your own), once they started talking I knew they'd be a great couple. Nevan seemed like he would be a very quiet character in the beginning, but he opens up as the book goes on.  

Rena and Nevan had never spoken before, but when she and Blaze show up to his house after curfew looking for a place to stay. His presence makes her heart race, and she can't thin or stop saying exactly whats on her mind. 

"Sweet Mother Earth. I'm sorry. I didn't know. I didn't mean to sit on your bed. I mean, I always wondered what it would be like but..." She caught the flash of crinkles on Nevan's forehead and the slackness of his jaw before she spun toward the door.

Their romance was sweet, and took it's time. They were friends, more than that even, but Rena would be confused when she was with Blaze and Nevan, should she sleep on her side facing Nevan, or Blaze? She wanted to keep her long term friendship while also nurturing the new friendship with Nevan, someone she's dreamed about being with, and maybe, she finally can be.

So I won't ruin the plot, I won't mention who kidnapped Blaze, but I can mention the Synbot's, and the Overlord. Synbot's are like the police of this world, only worse. Rena hasn't started earning wages yet, and she's already over 200,000 units in debt, for simple things like kicking a can or twig and talking back to the Synbot's, if only to explain that what she did wasn't wrong. The idea of Synbot's is nice, but the Overlords laws seemed very overwhelming.

I must mention I love the entire time they're in the Underground, but I won't say anything more about it. The ending made me so happy, but I really, truly think she left ample space for another story to be written. The book, as a standalone, would be fine. With another book to tie up all of the loose ends, plus tell the readers more about the Others and the world Rena lives in would be great. I would definitely buy the second book, and hope enough people agree to convince the publisher to publish another one of these books, and Natasha Hanova to write another.

"A blessed companion is a book! A book that, fitly chosen, is a life-long friend." -Douglas Jerrod

Book Nerd and Proud, 

K.G.

Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

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 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?

Title: Daughter of Smoke & Bone 
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1
Published: September 27th 2011 by Little Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316134023 (ISBN13: 9780316134026)

This is probably one of the most original stories I've ever read, and I mean this in every good way. Laini Taylor fashioned a whole other world that nobody has ever read about while also creating memorable characters and detailed storylines. The author created all this while maintaining flowing and beautiful writing. 

Karou is definitely different from your typical heroine. She has hair that is blue, she draws monsters in her sketchbooks, and she runs errands for a chimera. More specifically, she collects teeth. While she herself has the appearance of a human, she was raised by chimeras. In this novel, there is no exact definition of the appearance of a chimera. They may have the legs of a deer with the head of a wolf and varied from monster to monster. At first, it was hard for me to imagine these characters with different animal body parts, but as the story progressed it became easier. While the image of a horrifying monster may come to mind, they were actually kind and nurturing. Even the secretive Brimstone made sure she was looked after. It took so long to figure out Brimstone, but no matter what his motives were, we knew there was a reason. Also, I loved his wisdom, and there was one quote that particularly stood out for me.

"Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope has it's own magic."

Daughter of Smoke & Bone took the concept of angels versus demons and and spun the stereotypes completely. What if really the chimera, or demons, weren't actually evil? What if really, nobody was evil, but a war for power had changed them? Both sides had their own stories and myths to explain how they came to be, and both put the other in a bad light. 

Normally, I grow tired of the theme of star-crossed love, but Laini Taylor even changed this in a way that kept me reading. With so many twists and turns, it was impossible to guess what would happen next. Akiva and Karou start out as enemies, but feel there is something more between them. As their relationship grows, they realize the truth of their past. 

I only wish I could express my love for this book without sounding utterly stupid. 

“A book is a gift you can open again and again.” -Garrison Keillor
Book Nerd and Proud,
C.J.

Review: Duplicity by Nikki Jefford

If Graylee Perez thought sharing a body with her twin sister was bad, dealing with a duplicate of herself is two times worse. Gray the second doesn’t seem to get that Lee’s boyfriend, Raj McKenna, is off limits. Then there’s the problem of Adrian Montez. He expects one of the Graylees to be his.

Nearly a year later, the council is on to them for past misdeeds; Lee, along with the rest of the coven, has lost control of her powers; and Gray is being stalked by what looks like the Grim Reaper.

If they work together, they may stand a chance of setting things right and making it out alive.

Title: Duplicity
Series: Spellbound #2
Published May 20th 2012 by Nikki Jefford (first published May 19th 2012)
ISBN: 1477688684 (ISBN13: 9781477688687)
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Lee is happy with her new life, and everything is going perfectly for her...that is, until her magic is uncontrollable, plus someone shows up saying that she's Gray. Oh, and to top it all off the council believes they have an idea of who broke into their houses almost a year ago and stole the amulets that kept Adrian's powers blocked.

Gray, unlike Lee who has memories from the past few months, befriending Shay and Max, and spending time with her boyfriend, doesn't remember anything from after the purge, the world has moved on without her. It seems like everyone will side with the Graylee who has been around longer. 

In my opinion this book was better than the first, but also, it confused me. Gray got kicked out of Charlene's body and went to Stacy Morehouse's, now it's Charlene and Gray (who is now known as Lee). Two separate people in two separate bodies, so how does it end up that suddenly a year later there's another Gray? After getting over this fact, the book was really great and well written.

It was interesting to see Lee and Gray, the same person, only one has lived a few more months than the other. It's very obvious the months have changed her, and that Gray and Lee, however alike they originally were, are set on two different paths, to be two completely different people. Two people who, at the beginning of the book, don't seem to be very fond of each other. That puts the reader in an odd place, do I like Lee better, or Gray? I've decided to read the last book, and then decide, because the third book is about Gray, only fair to read her story as well.

Raj made some mistakes in this book, but he truly does try to fix them. I understand how he could be confused when Gray looked how Lee used to, how the girl he fell in love with looked, but they're not the same person anymore. Gray is more edgy and dangerous, while Lee is more tame and forgiving.  

Adrian, however, was an intense and compelling character, I found him to be very surprising. At the moment, he is one of my favorite characters, and I can not wait to read the next book about Adrian and Gray!

The Contact has a part in this book, and was surprising to me, it wasn't what I expected it to be. I'm not sure if I actually like the ending or not, it was bittersweet. The cover, once again, was great. Overall, the both writing and book were better, I'm very excited to start the third! 

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Book Nerd and Proud, 

K.G.

Review: A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink

When her parents are murdered before her eyes, sixteen-year-old Helen Cartwright finds herself launched into an underground London where a mysterious organization called the Dictata controls the balance of good and evil. Helen learns that she is one of three remaining angelic descendants charged with protecting the world's past, present, and future. Unbeknownst to her, she has been trained her whole life to accept this responsibility. Now, as she finds herself torn between the angelic brothers protecting her and the devastatingly handsome childhood friend who wants to destroy her, she must prepare to be brave, to be hunted, and above all to be strong, because temptation will be hard to resist, even for an angel.





Title: A Temptation of Angels
Published: March 20th 2012 by Dial Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0803737262 (ISBN13: 9780803737266)
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This is another one of those books that is nearly impossible to rate. It was a good book, but it wasn't exactly great either. My expectations were already high from reading Michelle Zink's other series, The Prophecy of the Sisters, so I expected something as interesting.

The storyline was an original concept of angels versus demons. The writing flowed and the pacing was perfect. Putting the story into very simple words, there were twenty Keepers on earth to keep humanity safe, however, organizations have been murdering them off one by one to get what they want...the key to the records of the past, present, and future. It would give that person the power to change it to their own benefit, but the only problem is, they don't know who holds the key, and now only three Keepers remain.

This novel was the timeline of how much Helen had grown from a coddled little girl to a woman. From her change in attire to her new found confidence, we see how she has matured. It was definitely a suspenseful start when Helen's mother hides her in a secret passageway that she had never known about. Helen didn't know what was going on, but listened to her mother's instructions. As her house begins to go up in flames, she follows the address her mother had given her and finds Darius and Griffin Channing's home. Griffin immediately trusts her and begins to ease her into this new and strange world. He later becomes her love interest and become very protective of one another. Darius on the other hand is more wary of her arrival and keeps her at a distance, but they do have biting conversations that would leave the other fuming. There was another side to Darius when he went to visit Anna, the daughter of Galizur. Galizur was a father figure for most of them since their own parents were killed. He made amazing inventions that made their job so much easier. Raum shows up surprisingly, and is an old childhood friend caught in the middle of the Keeper's deaths. He comes from a family of traitors, so I wasn't so sure about him, but his actions in the end spoke volumes. He was another love interest of Helen's, so it was a sort of love triangle, but she makes her decision quite clearly instead of dragging it on. In my opinion, the characters did fall a bit flat. There wasn't exactly anything special about them, but it would be nice to read another book and see them develop more.

“Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.” - Gustave Flaubert
Book Nerd and Proud,
C.J.