The Unbeckoming of Mara Dyer Review

Leaning more towards a 2.5 out of 5

 Summary:


"Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong."






 


I checked this out at the library about a year ago, but after reading the summary, I was totally uninterested.  The small blurb of a summery tells you practically nothing about what's going to happen in the book.

Finally, I decided to read it, but I was also disappointed, expecting an amazing book because of the 4.12 stars on goodreads.  It was just another normal YA book that had too much romance and not enough of a plot line.  Should've read the reviews. 

At about the 20 - 70% of this book, it was overflowing with teen fiction cliches that I couldn't deal with.  I mean, the 'new girl' that caught the 'bad boy's' attention, and causes some unintentional tension between the new girl and the guy's ex girlfriend. While the guy starts to 'fall' for the new girl even though he's already, like, slept with the entire female population of their school. Please. Just. Stop.



The Characters

Mara Dyer - I feel like she didn't mourn her friends enough.  I know that  the book skips her mourning period and fasts forward to a few months later, but Mara still should've been sadder about her friends.  Not like "fainting in the hallways and seeing your dead friends everywhere' sad, but more like 'thinking about all those great memories you had together and being deeply sad, but unaffected by it physically and be able to recover from it like a realistic person'. Also, I feel like she developed a crush on Noah way too early in the book.  Like, first meeting, and then she was in love.  I hate when characters just meet and they instantly fall in love, because love at first sight is just impossible.  You just don't know them enough to love them. 


Noah Shaw - Such a typical character.  I mean, rich, hot, and he even has a 'panty-dropping smile'?  You have got to be kidding me. Seriously.  Sure it might've been fun to read the first time, but why do authors keep doing this over and over and over and over and over again?
Whywhywhy???


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Anyways, I still read this book in a day, and it's pretty ordinary.  It started out well, but the actual plot line was abandoned in order to focus on the romance.  Just another one of those YA books to add onto the list.  Although, it is somewhat interesting at various parts, but it's mostly just confusing because you have no idea what the hell is going on at the end.

Buy, borrow, or ban?

For me, it's a ban.  But I suppose if you really have nothing to read . . . borrow. 

Read, reread, repeat?

 Yeah, don't even read this book. Please.  You'll be wasting useful hours.


 

Camelot Burning eARC Review

By Kathryn Rose

 

  

 

3.5 stars out of 5

 

I've always been interested in the tales and legends of king Arthur, Guinevere, and all the other characters during that time, but I've never really understood the whole story.  I knew the basic tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, just not that much in depth.

This story changed that.

After finishing this book, I feel like I have a stronger comprehension of those legends and more, even as it unfolded Vivienne's compelling story. Vivienne has a love for learning science and alchemy, but she's stuck as Guinevere's lady-in-waiting, and longing for the day she'll no longer be in that position.

 

Summary:

"Eighteen-year-old Vivienne lives in a world of knights and ladies, corsets and absinthe, outlaw magic and alchemical machines. By day, she is lady-in-waiting to the future queen of Camelot—Guinevere. By night, she secretly toils away in the clock tower as apprentice to Merlin, the infamous recovering magic addict. Her hidden life is everything she could ever want, but if anyone finds out, it will be over.

Then she meets Marcus, below her in class, destined to become a knight, and just as forbidden as her apprenticeship with Merlin. When Morgan La Fey, the king’s sorceress sister, declares war on Camelot, Merlin thinks they can create a metal beast powered by steam and alchemy to defeat her. But to save the kingdom, Vivienne will have to risk everything—her secret apprenticeship, her love for Marcus, and her own life." 

 What I didn't like:

This book was somewhat confusing at certain points of the story.  Not key events, just small parts that went unexplained. There were also too many characters that went without an introduction, making it difficult to remember a lot of the characters.  Also, there was too much going on at some points that it was hard putting all the pieces together to create a flowing story. The book included some completely unimportant parts that made the story kind of slow at first.  

What I liked:

Other than the confusing parts, the story is fantastic!  Vivienne is a strong female lead with an independent personality and she wants to do what she loves, and to be surrounded by the people she cares about.  

And Vivienne and Marcus… let me just say. . .    Swoon 

As the story unfolded, I found myself more and more focused and pulled in by the characters, plot, everything.  Also, the author does an excellent job describing what it was like back then and mixes a perfect amount of fantasy with history. Her diction was also amazing and well thought out, like this quote:

"Her smile is solely for appearances with the hope its melancholy goes unnoticed."

Isn’t that just, like, deeply amazing???

Anyways, this book was a great read, and I look forward to reading the second book and other stories by the same author.

Buy, borrow, or ban?

Borrow, when it comes out. 

Read, reread, repeat?

Definitely read, possibly reread, but not repeat.  This book comes out on May 8th, 2014, and I recommend it for those who love reading fantasy, new spins on old tales, and strong female leads.

Camelot Burning  comes out on May 8th, 2014, and I recommend it for those who love reading fantasy, new spins on old tales, and strong female leads.

Received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Scarlet Read Along

Just finished Scarlet by Marissa Meyer... for the sixth time. Or maybe seventh. Or eighth.

I've mostly been reading the Scarlet/Wolf scenes faster and going to the Cinder/Kai ones, but sadly there aren't many of those in the book.  Sigh.
But my favorite people are Cinder and Kai..and I hope we get to see them talking more in Cress when it comes out!

Cinder by Marissa Meyer Fan-made Trailer, made by GrayLeeStudios

Check out this amazing fan-made Trailer for my all time favorite series, The Lunar Chronicles.

Trailer made by GrayLeeStudios

All characters belong to Marissa Meyer

https://vimeo.com/78858988

 ^^^ There's the link

 Cress by Marissa Meyer comes out on February 4th, 2014

These Broken Stars Review

By Aimie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner







3 out of 5 Stars


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Summary:

"It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it."

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Buy, Borrow, or Ban?

I'd have to say borrow, although I did buy this book because of its gorgeous cover. (Also because my library doesn't have it, or else I wouldn't have spent 20 dollars on this thing) I mean seriously guys,  two beautiful people on a cover floating in space? I think, yes.

I mean, this cover!

But look at how huge her dress is, I mean, does anyone see that?!  How she was she able to trudge through the forest in that for almost half of the book, the world may never know.  But it's still really stunning. 

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What I liked:

-The growing feelings between Lilac and Tarver developed in a realistic, slow, way, growing as they became more comfortable around each other.

-Lilac's character changed a lot throughout the book.  She went from being a spoiled girl to a caring person who could fend for herself.  I liked her in the first part of the book, even though she was spoiled and a little bit naive to what was going on around her.  Other than that, I felt like I understood her.  She was only acting rude to Tarver because she cared about what would happen to him if her father found out about it.  In the middle part of the book, she was annoying, and wouldn't stop complaining about everything.  But at the end, Lilac fought for what she loved, and that shows how her character is strong and willing to put up a fight for the people she cared about.

-The world building was amazing!  I could picture every scene as colorfully and beautifully as the cover itself.  As I was reading, the planet felt eerie and suspenseful, as if something was going to jump out of the woods at any second.


What I didn't like:

-Tarver spent a large portion of the book describing Lilac's beauty.  I mean, come on, we know she's pretty. In fact, we see her on the cover.  But no, he just had to go on and on and on about it.  I mean, how shallow can you get?  Tarver spends a few pages describing how he avoided rich people and their fake personalities, fake beauty, and fake everything.  But of course he just somehow doesn't recognize Lilac LaRoux, who's pretty much the most famous girl in the universe.  Literally. The. Universe.

-Lilac's father.  He was just a horrible character.  No parent is ever like that, even if they are widowed.  From what I could tell, he treated Lilac as his - his possession - not as a daughter. 

-This story is basically a survival romance story.  There isn't really any premise or plot, because they crash land on the planet pretty much in the first 20 something pages. Which made it kind of boring. Yeah. It would've worked much better if this book was less than 300 pages, because, trust me, even that would've been more than enough to explain everything.  The only part of the book that has a decent plot-line would be the very beginning and end, although the end left me pretty confused.  


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So basically, this book was good, not great, just...good.  I pretty much died of boredom in the middle half of it, and it was hard to finish.  I don't really recommend it, but if you're looking for a story that has more romance than actual plot, go for it.

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Read, re-read, repeat?

It's definitely worth a read.  Not good enough to re-read and repeat, though.