Blog Tour Book Review: The Lantern's Ember + GIVEAWAY!

Release Date: September 11, 2018
Author: Colleen Houck
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Length: 416 pages
Source: eGalley for Review

Welcome to a world where nightmarish creatures reign supreme.

Five hundred years ago, Jack made a deal with the devil. It’s difficult for him to remember much about his mortal days. So, he focuses on fulfilling his sentence as a Lantern—one of the watchmen who guard the portals to the Otherworld, a realm crawling with every nightmarish creature imaginable. Jack has spent centuries jumping from town to town, ensuring that nary a mortal—or not-so-mortal—soul slips past him. That is, until he meets beautiful Ember O’Dare.

Seventeen, stubborn, and a natural-born witch, Ember feels a strong pull to the Otherworld. Undeterred by Jack’s warnings, she crosses into the forbidden plane with the help of a mysterious and debonair vampire—and the chase through a dazzling, dangerous world is on. Jack must do everything in his power to get Ember back where she belongs before both the earthly and unearthly worlds descend into chaos.

    

Review:

Protagonist: While this story is told from multiple points of view, after a while in this story it's plain to see that Ember O'Dare is the main protagonist of this story and since most of the other POVs are love interests I thought it made sense to only talk about her in this section. When we first properly meet Ember she's already quite a capable witch, I really appreciated that while she has character flaws such as being incredibly stubborn even in the face of mortal danger, she's still able to take a lot of agency in her own story and can hold her own against the threats that come up. While I think that things come too easily to her and she seems to have luck on her side more than once, she's still an interesting and compelling protagonist.

Romance: This is probably the biggest weakness of the entire story. At the start of this tale there's a lot of time spent establishing a connection between Jack and Ember, and during this time, while some of the things Jack does poke at the border between acceptable and sketchy, there is a really great chemistry there, then the love triangle is introduced. I'm calling it a love triangle since even though there's a third gentleman with romantic feelings for Ember it's made abundantly clear that those feelings are unrequited. So the thing is, I have no innate hate for love triangles, in fact, I love when love triangle tropes are subverted, but unfortunately not only is this love triangle very paint by numbers, but I just don't think love triangles can truly work in standalones and this book did nothing to dissuade me of that opinion. While Ember has some amount of chemistry with each of her suitors, they all just felt so stereotypical to me, Jack's the "Brooding Protector," Dev, yes his name is really Dev, is the "Bad Boy," and poor Finney is the "Best Friend" and they played those roles to a tee. Not only that but 90% they're either focused on or competing over Ember instead of focusing on the problems around them, though somehow they always seem to rally when an action scene starts.

World Building: The beginning of this tale is wonderful, there's a really autumnal Halloween vibe and the entire setting is extremely atmospheric. I thought that this story was going to take place in the modern day, but it seems like this story takes place not long after the Salem Witch Trials. The town Ember lives in is very quaint and I enjoyed the time we spend there, but most of the book takes place in another realm and that has a bit of a classic horror meets steampunk vibe to it. I have to admit at first it was very weird, especially since I was so comfortable in Ember's village, but as we spend more time in the Otherworld, the more I liked what I saw, while the story can go a bit slow at first, since the author spends a good amount of time setting up a wide variety of plotlines, the story does begin to pick up and the story really grew on me. While I do feel like things can resolve a bit too conveniently at times, the story, when not focusing on the romantic drama, was really interesting. I loved seeing more of this world and all the little Easter Eggs relating to classic horror, penny dreadfuls, and Halloween lore. I'm a huge sucker for folklore and I was so excited to see how this rendition of the Jack O' Lantern tale was done and was surprised and delighted to see a lot of other Halloween classic goodness in this story. I love the design for Jack in this story, but even though the author paints a pretty clear picture with her words, I could never stop imagining him as a scarecrow with a pumpkin head.

Predictability: One of the most interesting things about this story is how easy it was to pick up on all the information that will be important later, and yet even though I knew certain topics were going to come up again, every time they did it happened kind of out of the blue. It was really weird, it was almost as if the author set up these things and then never really continued foreshadowing before the big reveal. It wasn't bad necessarily, except for a few twists that felt more convenient than anything, all the other twists just felt randomly timed and while I do wish there was a tad more foreshadowing and that more time would be spent setting things up, but I still did enjoy the shock whenever an out of the blue twist would show up.

Ending: The final climax of this story was different than I expected, I was expecting more action and instead, the final climax is a lot more character driven which I really enjoyed. As for how everything wraps up, well this is a standalone and thanks to an epilogue every little plot thread is wrapped up rather neatly and while I enjoyed this world and would like to see more of it another time if the author decides to never visit this world again I wouldn't feel heartbroken.

Rating:

This was a really tough choice, but even though I hate the majority of the romance in this book, the main storyline and world are fascinating and while I'm not a fan of certain character(s) there are a lot of great side characters in this tale, and the magic system and how it mixes with the world is really cool.

About the Author:

New York Times Bestselling author Colleen Houck is a lifelong reader whose literary interests include action, adventure, paranormal, science fiction, and romance. When she’s not busy writing, she likes to spend time chatting on the phone with one of her six siblings, watching plays, and shopping online. Colleen has lived in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, California, and North Carolina and is now permanently settled in Salem, Oregon with her husband and a huge assortment of plush tigers.

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Giveaway:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of THE LANTERN'S EMBER, US Only.

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Book Review: The Angel Trap (Dark World: The Angel Trials #3)

Release Date: July 31, 2018
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 195 pages
Source: Review Copy from Author

Be careful who you trust, or you might walk into a trap.

After putting her neck on the line to save Noah and Sage’s lives, Raven is on the brink of death. The only thing that might save her? Vampire blood.

The problem is, no one’s supposed to know that vampire blood can heal humans. Anyone who finds out will be silenced. Which means Sage and Noah need to take Raven to a vampire they can trust. But shifters don’t normally trust vampires, so they only know one vampire who fits that category.

Thomas Bettencourt is a vampire prince who rules an elite coven in Chicago. And thanks to his secret history with Sage, he might be willing to save Raven’s life. But only if they agree to his conditions.

Now they have two choices—accept Thomas’s demands, or let Raven die. And after imprinting on Raven, Noah will do anything to ensure she survives.

Even if that means making a deal with a vampire.

Get ready for more romance, adventure, and twists in The Angel Trap, the shocking third installment in The Angel Trials series!

  

Review:

Protagonists: YES!!!! I can finally call this section "Protagonists" again! Seriously though, as much as I love Raven and enjoyed seeing from her POV, her total domination of the books so far did bug me considering that The Vampire Wish series always felt more balanced when it came to other characters' POVs. Anyway, in this installment, a lot of the story is devoted to Sage, and I loved every minute of it. Sage has always been a character that I liked, but I never felt we knew all that well. We know she's a bit rebellious, okay a lot rebellious, and that she comes from the Montgomery pack, but in this story, we learn more about her past and her relationship with a certain vampire named Thomas. I loved getting to know more of Sage's backstory and the hardships she's had to endure in her life. We do finally get a few more chapters from my personal favorite character, Noah, and for those who haven't read The Vampire Wish series, we learn more about who he is and his backstory as well as what Raven may have been doing during the time her memory was most likely erased and replaced. The character development in this book, heck, this series, is fantastic, it's subtle and nothing feels like it's coming out of the blue or that it's out of character.

Romance: I've said before that the romance in this series is probably my favorite part, and that still remains true in this installment, and it's not just because there's twice the romance. While Raven and Noah are still dealing with their seemingly impossible imprint, an imprint that Raven doesn't even know about at the start of this book, Sage has some romantic drama of her own. See she has a romantic past with Thomas, it didn't end well. I wasn't sure if I would like a romance between Thomas and Sage, mainly because I didn't know much about Thomas before this book, and I have to say, even though there's one thing about him, okay maybe a couple of things, that seems sketchy about him, I actually grew to like him as a character and I really like his connection with Sage and learning more about their past together. Of course, there's more Raven/Noah romance and I lapped it up like a parched dog. I don't know why, but I really love the connection between Raven and Noah, probably because she calls him on all his crap and really, what's not to love there?

World Building: So, I've been pretty critical of the plot progression in this series, but that was before two revelations. One, that each installment in this series feels more like an episode of a series, or mini-series to be more precise (this revelation I came to on my own after reading the second installment), and two, that there will be anywhere from seven to nine installments in this series. Because of these revelations, I tempered my expectations going into this installment, and I have to say, not only was I not left disappointed, but I was actually surprised at how much plot progression there actually was in this installment. Like I've mentioned before, a lot of this installment focuses on the past, Sage's past with Thomas, Raven's missing time in "Europe," and even Noah's past. In fact, while we do get to see more of this world, and learn more of its secrets, this installment feels very character focused.

Predictability: Going into this book, as I've said before, my expectations were tempered and I thought I had a good grasp on how this would unfold, and until a certain point I was right. See, after the story moves beyond where I thought it would, I was completely caught off guard and the story just sort of went in a direction I wasn't planning on. I have to say, I love where the author is taking this story and I love how even though I knew something was going to happen, I wasn't prepared for the surprises that awaited in this book.

Ending: So, like I said, until a certain point I knew what would happen and then all hell broke loose. The final climax of this book pretty much makes up everything after where I thought the story would go. The final climax honestly just blew me away, it's not a big action scene, but I was sort of in shock from the twists and turns that were happening, the places that this story is going were shocking the heck out of me, and the tension built up never dissipated, even when the story reached the cliffhanger I'm sure many people know was coming. I mean, this might have been the most crippling cliffhanger I've read from this author yet.

Rating:

I wasn't sure I was going to give this book 5 stars until I wrote the review, because even though the author's writing isn't perfect, she tends to over explain things in the exposition a lot, the story was everything I was hoping for and more and now I'm kicking myself for reading this installment so soon, because even if she writes these books rather quickly, it's going to feel like agony waiting to see what's coming next.

Book Review: The Vampire War (Dark World: The Vampire Wish #5)

Release Date: December 22, 2017
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 217 pages
Source: Review Copy from Author

Find the Holy Grail. Win the war. Save the world.

A lot has changed for Annika since being kidnapped by vampires to become a blood slave in their hidden kingdom of the Vale. Not only has she learned she’s a Nephilim—a race that’s supposedly extinct—but she’s found herself on a dangerous quest for the Holy Grail. Luckily, she has the vampire Prince Jacen by her side, and the two of them feel ready for anything—especially now that they trust each other more than ever.

But finding the Grail is only the beginning. Because when Annika learns that a demon is leading a pack of wolves to war against the vampires, she must stop him before it’s too late. If she can’t, he’ll open a Gate to Hell… and the world as she knows it will be lost forever.

Get ready for an action-packed, adventure-filled ride in the EPIC conclusion to The Vampire Wish series!

  

Review:

Characters: Does anyone recognize these characters from when they were first introduced because honestly, I don't. Don't get me wrong, everything that led here has felt more or less in character and the development of each of these characters has felt realistic and deserved, but in truth, these characters have developed more than almost any I've read before. Annika is a prime example of this. She went from being a blood slave, wishing for the strength to protect herself to impersonating a vampire princess to an activated Nephilim to the potential savior of the world. To say she's been on a wild ride is a severe understatement and there's still more development for her in this book. While these characters are recognizable, their motivations and their goals have constantly shifted throughout the series and it's a joy to see how the change and develop over time. My personal favorite character to watch grow has been Camelia, previously a Jafar-type advisor, her humanity has leaked out at moments and I've really grown to root for her success, maybe not with her more duplicitous actions, but I wanted her to find a happiness that didn't conflict with characters I cared more about.

Romance: So, there really isn't much more to say about the romances in this book than I've already said before. I really do enjoy seeing Jacen and Annika work together in this story and their bond is stronger than ever as they race to save the world from near-certain doom. I love how the author never treated their romance like a race to the finish and has really developed and established their bond and chemistry before rushing into anything with them. Next, there's Karina who's soul mate comes back from the dead, the same soul mate she can't remember, and to make things even more complicated, without her memories of Peter she rushes off to tell Noah that she wants to be with him. Okay, here's my biggest problem with this book, and in all honesty, it's a very small problem, but this subplot wasn't touched on all that much. It is resolved by the end of the book, but without any real focus on it, it just sort of fell flat and I kind of lost interest.

World Building: So, wow, does this book go into the world building. It's not nearly as informative as the previous installment but there's a lot going on. Annika's quest for the Holy Grail leads to some very interesting information and everything that's been building since, well to be honest the second installment, but was truly established at the very end of book 3, finally comes to a head and we learn just what that demon has been doing in Marigold and where it came from. It's so weird to connect this book with the first because while this story started off as Aladdin with vampires and other supernatural creatures, it's turned into something else entirely unrecognizable by the time this installment rolls around, and much like the characters, everything feels both very different, but natural as well.

Predictability: Honestly I'm not sure why I'm keeping this in here I mean, there were quite a few twists and turns in the story and there were also a few things I was able to predict, but on the whole I didn't pay that much attention to how predictable or not this story was. I was just so swept away by it that I never had time to theorize and catch on to the foreshadowing, not that really was any. In fact, I've never really noticed this before but Madow's writing doesn't leave time for a lot of foreshadowing, I mean, some things make sense because they fit into a certain formula, but most of the reveals come nearly out of nowhere.

Ending: The final climax happened a lot sooner than I was expecting it to. I mean it's not like it happens in the middle of the story, but there's definitely a lot of time after the final climax to cool down and set up the next adventure. The final climax though was a lot of fun, I mean there's a war going on but the scenes were really nice and fast-paced and there was a lot of good action to soak up. The cooldown period, as I like to call it, really was all about moving forward and setting up the next series in this world, which I don't mind at all because it also helped tie up Annika and Jacen's story as well a few others for now. There is a sort of epilogue to this book that honestly does the most to set up at least one character's role in the next series, and that's all I feel comfortable saying.

Rating:

Is this book perfect, no there are honestly a few flaws with it, but in the end, I'm giving it 5 stars because it's a highly addicting story with fun and exciting characters and even though it's not perfect I enjoyed every minute of this book, well except for some of the Karina/Peter/Noah stuff but again, a very small issue.

Book Review: The Vampire Fate (Dark World: The Vampire Wish #4)

Release Date: October 5, 2017
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: TBA
Source: ARC from Author

The vampire queen is dead.

Annika shouldn’t have been able to kill the vampire queen Laila—such a task can only be done by the Nephilim, whose race is extinct. But somehow, she did kill the queen. Now she’s the number one target on multiple hit lists, and she’s only alive because she’s a fugitive at the neutral kingdom of the Haven.

As if that weren’t enough to deal with, the world is in danger and she’s the one prophesied to save it. But she doesn’t have to do it alone. When fate brings her and Prince Jacen together again, they team up on a quest to find the only object that can save the world as they know it—the Holy Grail itself.

The adventure continues in the fourth book of The Vampire Wish series, and get ready to brace yourselves, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

  

Review:

Characters: I seriously love the characters in this story. I mean, as much of an ax wound as Camelia is, there's a small part of me that really and truly wants her to have a happy ending, one that doesn't conflict with the more heroic characters that is. While for the most part, this is still Annika's story, and boy what a story it is, Karina definitely rules the second half of this book and the lengths that she'll go to to get her soulmate Peter back are staggering. Her mission takes a few twists and turns in this story and where it ended up had me gasping for air. Annika, after kind of, sort of, accidentally killing Queen Laila flees to the Haven where she learns of her Nephilim blood and what that means for her fate. She embarks on a dangerous quest that will determine the fate of the world and I loved every minute of it. Annika is a strong and capable character and watching her adjust to her newfound abilities, and her reactions to said abilities, is fantastic.

Romance: After the end of the previous installment, where Jacen learns that not only did Annika not die as he thought, but she deceived him for reasons he doesn't quite know or understand, their romance is sort of left up in the air. It doesn't take too long to know where things lie with these characters. The romance in this book isn't the building of relationships, in fact, all in all, most of the romances in this series have already been established and now they just get the chance to evolve and strengthen, or weaken should that be the case. I liked seeing Annika and Jacen interact truly as each other, and there were a few moments that really solidified why I root for them as a couple. As I said above, Karina will stop at next to nothing to be reunited with her soulmate, but she's bonded with Noah, the First Prophet, and that bond may or may not be romantic, throwing a possible wrench into her plans. Will she drop her mission to try and find love again, or will she risk it all for the smallest of chances to raise the dead?

World Building: So, I'll say that this story doesn't feel as much like filler (without actually being filler) as The Vampire Prince did, and honestly there is enough of a story for me to not even think of describing it as anything even adjacent to filler, but I did feel like there was something in this book. I think because I still feel like there's more to tell for just one more book, as this series is tentatively a five book series, and soon the whole it feels like it's missing something. As for what is in this story though, there's quite a bit. We learn a whole lot more about the Nephilim and the supernatural community at large. We learn more about the origins of certain supernatural(s) and there's some serious magic in this tale. Things are definitely coming to a head, though I was sad that there was no more plot progression on the cliffhanger twist at the end of the previous installment... maybe that's what was missing.

Predictability: In terms of things with actual foreshadowing to them, I pretty much nailed those "twists," I mean part of me doesn't even want to call them twists since the author's biggest twists don't usually have that much, if any, foreshadowing to them, and, well, this book had a few great twists. There are a few really interesting twists in this story that will be interesting to see explored as this series comes to a close and I can already see some seeds for the extensions to this world.

Ending: So, this ending is neither as anticlimactic as the previous one, nor does it have as mind-shattering of a cliffhanger. There is a cliffhanger, as this author loves to torture her readers, though she writes books quickly so it's not like there's a long wait, and this cliffhanger is more of one to really ponder on the ramifications rather than freak out over some big reveal. The final climax of this story is fantastic, and while I would have liked a bit less of a straight up cliffhanger on one character's story, overall I'm excited to see where this all leads.

Rating:

I'm honestly shocked I'm giving this book 5 stars, but looking back on it, even if there feels like something's off, it's not a big enough thing to get annoyed over since it probably won't be that long of a wait for the next (final?) book, and even though sometimes elements of this story might feel a tad derivative (something I didn't go into in this review to avoid spoilers) it's still a fun adventure and an exciting ride!

Book Review: The Vampire Trick (Dark World: The Vampire Wish #3)

Release Date: September 7, 2017
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 242 pages
Source: Review Copy from Author

In a kingdom full of secrets, no one can be trusted.

Annika’s life was flipped upside down when she was kidnapped by vampires to become a blood slave in their hidden kingdom of the Vale. Now, the powerful witch Geneva has disguised her as a vampire princess, and Annika’s living in the palace to compete for Prince Jacen’s hand in marriage. But her quest to become his bride is just a facade. Her real goal? Kill the vampire queen Laila so the kingdom crumbles and she can set the human blood slaves free. 

When rebellious wolves attack the town, they leave a trail of vampire corpses in their wake, declaring war upon the Vale. But the wolves didn’t act alone. Someone on the inside is helping them, making everyone a suspect. And one major player won’t make it out alive.

Return to the mysterious, magical world of the Vale in The Vampire Trick and get ready for a major twist you’ll never see coming!

  

Review:

Characters: As the selection for Jacen's hand heats up these characters are in for a wild ride. Karina, still helping the wolves drive away the vampires on the Vale, wants nothing more than to be reunited with her one true love Peter, not knowing that Geneva's ring can never bring him back. Annika's life has been upended by vampires and she's still out for revenge but things are moving quickly and she might miss her one opening. Jacen doesn't really want this selection, he's just looking for someone who might help him take down Laila and bring a modicum of peace the Vale, but ousting Laila will be harder than he ever imagined. Finally, there's Camelia, still, on the path to immortality she prepares to meet with the fae, but what if they ask too much of her? I can't believe I'm saying this but I really love all of these characters, now that doesn't mean that some of these characters aren't evil and deserve to meet their end(s), but they are all written pretty well, and there's even a scene or two where I felt some modicum of sympathy for Camelia.

Romance: Another thing I wasn't quite expecting was for there to be some real romance between Annika and Jacen in this book. There's obviously the tricky aspect of Anikka's true identity to deal with, but I feel as though the author did a fantastic job with making me start rooting for this couple all over again. Now there are parts of this romance that did grate on me quite a bit, mainly that these two characters are pretty much the densest beings when it comes to each other. I mean Jacen keeps seeing bits of Annika in the alluring Princess Ana and even after he notes that their kiss felt familiar he still doesn't get it, and Annika doesn't realize that Jacen's cold demeanor is all an act, even when given nearly every shred of evidence needed. Even still they have a great chemistry and I'll be interested to see how much that will develop before the end of the series.

World-Building: Now this is what I'm talking about! After the previous installment, I was a bit worried going into this story. The Vampire Prince is almost entirely set up for the rest of (I assume) the series, and so not all that much happened in that book, but this book has all of the needed pay off of the previous installment. If it weren't for the fact that some of the stuff that happens in this book would feel too soon in the second book, I'd say that books 2 & 3 should have been combined. In this story, there's a lot that not only moves the plot of this story along further but also reveals a great deal about the world and still finds time to set up some pretty incredible stuff for the final installments. I really want to talk more and go into what about the world building was amazing and why, but to avoid spoilers I can't all I'll say is that if you thought about abandoning the series after the previous book, this book makes up for it and more.

Predictability: I honestly thought I knew what was going to happen in this book. I thought I knew how it would end, and a good idea of how it would be resolved, but nope. While I was able to predict a good chunk of this story it was mainly the obvious parts where the author never even attempted to be subtle with the foreshadowing. No, the really big stuff comes later, however, while I'll agree there is a twist I never saw coming, I don't think it's the twist the author was thinking of when writing the synopsis.

Ending: As much as I love this book and, in all honesty, the ending, it was a bit anticlimactic. There's something that happens at the end that while I wouldn't call it foreshadowing, practically gives arguably the biggest twist of this book away. Now, everything that happens after that anticlimactic climax is pretty fast paced and there's a definite cliffhanger here. I mean, the cliffhanger is the twist I never saw coming because there's never really any foreshadowing for it, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Book 4 can't come soon enough!

Rating:

Don't get me wrong, there's a part of me that really wants to give this book 5 stars. I mean it's so good and in comparison to book 2 it's astronomically better, but I just can't get over how, as much as I love them, these characters can be really dumb sometimes, and how the ending just fell flat and anticlimactic for me.

Book Review: The Vampire Wish (Dark World: The Vampire Wish #1)

Release Date: June 1, 2017
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 204 pages
Source: Review Copy via Author

TWILIGHT MEETS ALADDIN in this hot new fantasy series by USA Today bestselling author Michelle Madow!

He’s a vampire prince. She’s a human blood slave. They should be enemies… but uniting might be their only hope to prevent a supernatural war.

Annika never thought of herself as weak—until the day vampires murdered her parents and kidnapped her from our world to the hidden vampire kingdom of the Vale.

As a brand new blood slave, Annika must learn to survive her dangerous new circumstances… or face imminent death from the monstrous wolves prowling outside the Vale’s enchanted walls. But not all in the kingdom is as it appears, and when a handsome vampire disguised as a human steps into her life, Annika discovers that falling for the enemy is sometimes too tempting to resist.

Especially when becoming a vampire might be her only chance to gain the strength she needs to escape the Vale.

Enter the magical world of the Vale in The Vampire Wish, the first book in an addictive new series that fans of The Vampire Diaries and A Shade of Vampire will love!

  

Review:

Protagonists: This story follows three characters' points of view. While there are only two characters that I would deem protagonists, with the other coming off as an antagonist, I want to talk about all three of them. First, we have Annika, a normal human girl enjoying Spring Break with her family when tragedy strikes and her parents, along with her brother, are murdered by vampires. Now she's a blood slave in the hidden Kingdom of the Vale. Wanting to no longer be helpless and a victim, Annika rebels against the vampires by stealing the food not meant for human blood slaves. Jacen is a newly turned vampire prince who wasn't able to control his bloodlust soon after turning and is now confined to the palace. Every day he practices his control and he feels he's ready to be around humans but his sire, the vampire queen, disagrees. Forcing him to sneak out of the palace, posing as a human, and entering the human village where he has a chance meeting with Annika. Camelia is a powerful witch with grander ambitions that just being Queen Laila's advisor. No, she wants to become an immortal vampire, and, more than that wishes to marry Jacen and secure her place in the hierarchy of the Vale. From a narrative standpoint, I love all of these characters. Annika is a great, and strong protagonist who is willing to fight for what she wants but she isn't as rash as some other female heroines. She understands her limitations all too well, but that doesn't stop her from doing what she knows she can do, and dreaming of a better life. Jacen is tormented by his bloodlust and while he has it mostly under control, much like Annika, he understands where to draw the line so he's rarely impulsive. He never wanted this life and he struggles with feeling like a monster. Camelia is a cold and calculating witch, she has ambitions that are within her grasp, but somehow cannot fully come to fruition without annoying trials and tribulations getting in the way.

Romance: I've had some difficult experiences with Madow's romances in her other books, and while I eventually came around to the main romance in the Elementals series, it did take a couple of books for me to get there. However, while I do feel the romance between Jacen and Annika is a bit fast-tracked, it's nowhere near as speedy as the source material, and I'll get to the source material in a bit. While there isn't all that much substance to their relationship yet, Annika and Jacen seem to be a great foil for one another. Annika has a desire to become a vampire and gain the strength, abilities, and freedoms that come with it, while Jacen is disgusted by what he's become and wishes to just live a normal life once more. They also share related interests and you can see some great chemistry that's not quite fully embraced in this story yet, but holds great potential. Another aspect I like is that Annika's desire to become a vampire doesn't stem from wanting to be with Jacen forever, though that would be a great plus, it's a more personal reason which adds some depth to her character.

World Building: Going into this story, and reading the synopsis I didn't quite see how this story could be anything meets Aladdin, but as the story unfolds I was shocked to discover that in many ways this story is a retelling of Disney's Aladdin but with vampires, witches, and shifters. I mean, it's a story that has to have been originally thought of to be a retelling, rather than a story simply borrowing elements of a classic tale. Though, it's not quite a strict retelling as the supernatural world building elements as well as the fact that this isn't a kid's book but a Young Adult one, seem to have lead the author to subvert some of the source material to match the tone and feel of the world and story she's created. One of my biggest grievances with this story is how much info-dumping there is in the beginning. I'm not opposed to learning more about this world, but it was that not only was it so dense in the beginning, but it was almost, if not, all told in first person exposition and so instead of learning about it organically, which for some of the world building would have been hard, if not impossible, to do so I would have forgiven it there, but for a lot of the exposition it would have been easy to add a few chapters before the post-prologue time jump and seen Annika or even Jacen learn about some of this world in a more organic way.

Predictability: During the exposition portion of this book as I've decided to call it before the Aladdin parallels fully kick in, this story was fairly unpredictable. I wasn't quite sure where the story would go, the synopsis does a good job to tease readers but not give them a good understanding of what they're in for, at least not in my experience. However, once the Aladdin story starts to get retold, while the author does subvert some of the plot points, it's pretty straight forward how things will progress. Don't get me wrong the author does still manage to have a bit of shock and awe in the story leading up to the rather interesting ending, but in all honestly, I was never really blown away by anything meant to be a twist after a certain point. I would just get a feeling of understanding rather than surprise.

Ending: After a certain point in the story it was obvious that the entirety of the story of Disney's Aladdin wasn't going to get told in just this one book, which makes sense as this is a series and there are more books yet to come. However, I was really interested in seeing where along the story it would end up and how certain plot points of the movie would play out with the world building established in this story. This story does end on a cliffhanger because of course, it does, and what's great about the cliffhanger here is that it isn't a huge "What's going to happen next?" question. It's obvious what'll happen next, but, at least for me, that knowing makes me all the more excited to read the next book. It's how that next chapter will unfold that has me chomping at the bit to read the next installment.

Rating:

On the whole, I loved this story. It was a fun variation on the Aladdin tale, specifically the Disney version, and I felt that Madow did a fantastic job of bringing various supernatural races into this story. However, with huge info-dumping portions in the beginning of the book and the fact that the retelling aspect was a bit too heavy-handed at times, I wouldn't feel that this book deserved five stars even though I enjoyed it so much. Also, I wouldn't call it Twilight meets Aladdin, as the world building is next to nothing like Twilight, and that characters are much stronger, at least in terms of their characterization, I would liken it more to The Vampire Diaries than Twilight.

Book Review: The Forever Song (Blood of Eden #3)

Release Date: April 15, 2014
Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Length: 393 pages
Source: eGalley via NetGalley

Vengeance will be hers.

Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster? With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer.

Monster.

Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions - her creator Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost - the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie.

In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, her triumph will be short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.

THE FINAL HUNT IS ON.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Allie believes she's just lost the love of her life to a crazy sadistic vampire hell bent on unleashing an incurable virus upon the world. In her grief she struggles with the monster inside her, the demon that wants to feed and see the world burn. While I love Allie and was really interested to see how she would handle Zeke's death and to see her struggle with her darker side. The thing is, while there was some struggle it doesn't last all that long. While the struggle will always be there, I felt like things were resolved rather quickly and without too much of a struggle. That being said though Allie still has some great character development in this book. There are still a lot of things both internally and externally that Allie needs to sort through before taking on Sarren and hopefully saving the world.

Romance: So... it's not a spoiler that Zeke's alive right? It's been a while since I read the Eternity cure but I don't remember believing for a second that he was dead, especially with how the book ended, and the recap I read seemed to coincide with what I remember, but the synopsis is playing it off like he's dead, so if I did spoil you I'm sorry. Anyway, Zeke and Allie encounter a few problems in their romance over the course of this book. Things have changed, Zeke's been tortured and he's come out the other side a bit different than he used to be. He's guarded and quiet, not sure what to make of his new reality and that puts a strain on his relationship with Allie. Even though it's been quite a while since I read the previous installments in this series, I still root for Zeke and Allie. While a lot of their struggles aren't realistic, vampires being fictional and all, there are still a lot of themes that are relateable to those like myself who have been in long term relationships.

World-Building: Surprisingly while our heroes have been through a lot, there is still so much more to go through before their journey can come to a close. What I love about this world is that while it does contain vampires and that sort of lore is explored, it comes second to the post-apocalyptic and dystopian theme to this story. There's a big vampiric storyline that I don't want to get into because of spoilers but it really sets the tone for the story as our heroes work towards getting to Eden to stop Sarren. The biggest thing though is that finally after nearly three books we finally get to see Eden, and well, don't get your hopes up. I won't say much more than that, but we do learn a bit more about how it works and about what the scientists inside have been working on in terms of a cure to Rabidism. There's so much that I want to say here so many great things we see that expand this world even more, but it's hard because there's a lot that goes on that's tied up in spoilers and I want to keep this review as spoiler free as possible.

Predictability: As I've said before it's been a while since I last perused this world, but a few things stuck with me a few things that I'd predicted way back then during The Eternity Cure, and I have to say I was not disappointed. There's a rather huge twist that I'd rather not spoil but I'm just going to say that I called it. Other than that rather large twist there were a few other things that I was able to predict before they happened. I couldn't always predict the exact circumstances, and under what conditions things happened, but it wasn't too hard to figure some of the big stuff out. However, there was a twist or two that really stumped me, certain things with just enough foreshadowing not to tip me off beforehand, but that upon reflection really make sense.

Ending: Recently I've been doing a lot of reflection on endings, specifically those that are meant to tie up a story whether it's in a standalone or the last chapter of a series, what I've found I hate most of all is an ending that it's completely idealistic. To come to the end of a series or story with no consequences and everyone getting off scot-free is just boring and unrealistic. Thankfully that's not the case here. That's not to say that these characters defintiely didn't get a HEA, but more to say that it wasn't without a shred of pain on the side of the good guys. I'm sad to see this series go, but I love how the author ended things, and I truly feel that there really isn't anything more that needs to be tied up in this world.

Rating:

So sure, there were a few things I would have liked to see happen differently with a bit more struggle between the light and dark sides of Allie being chief among them. However I really loved how this book went, how it finished off this series, and how this series in general has touched my heart. *queue sappy violin music*

Book Review: Lailah (The Styclar Saga #1)

Release Date: October 7, 2014
Author: Nikki Kelly
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Length: 416 pages
Source: eARC from NetGalley

The girl knows she’s different. She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel.

On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely Allie – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel.

In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom?

Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is.

    

Review:

Protagonist: As this book begins we are introduced to Francesca, our first person narrator, now so you aren't confused, Francesca is Lailah the titular character of this book. Now Lailah, for the most part makes for a great protagonist and narrator, there's a lot of mystery around who and what she is and why she is the way she is, the only times I didn't like her were when she was dealing with her own little love triangle of sorts, which was awful and I'll get to in a bit. Honestly if this book was just about Lailah, she would make for a very interesting and likable character as she sort of comes into her own.

Romance: So I know I said that this book has a love triangle but in actuality it's more like a love pentagon, see Lailah has two boys garnering her affections, but then those boys, Gabriel and Jonah, each have a different girl vying for their affections as well, though since both of those are unrequited in the end it's really just a love triangle and a bad one at that. Well, bad's not the right word, in actuality I just didn't care about the romance and love triangle at all maybe there wasn't any chemistry between any of these characters, maybe I'm just not in the right frame of mind, I don't know, but I just found myself annoyed whenever the romance would be brought up, which is most of the time, and I couldn't care less.

World-Building: So honestly it took a long time for this book to get off the ground and the world-building to start making sense. I don't know if there is an inverse of info-dumping but this book kind of achieved it, the world building was so broken up and spread out the it took way too long for things to start to click and for me to realize that the book was finally going somewhere. I really could have used a chapter toward the beginning where a bulk of the lore was dumped on me and I could get a feel for what was going on because it took way too long for me to not be confused about what was happening in this book.

Predictability: So I have to say for the most part there wasn't really anything that surprised me in this book, There were definitely things that I wasn't able to predict, but that was more general information not twists or surprises, There were however a few surprises toward the end of this book that I didn't see coming I wasn't quite sure what would happen and I was genuinely surprised by a great many things as this book came to a close.

Ending: Honestly I really enjoyed the ending of this book, as we get closer to the final climax there are a few reveals and a bit of misdirection that added to some of the greatest surprises in this book. The final climax itself was pretty awesome and even a small tad bit emotional. Finally we have the very end. This book ends in an epilogue and while this is just the first book of a trilogy, I believe, I liked how the author uses the epilogue. There is a fairly large cliffhanger so if you do read this book and get really into it be warned, though the second book is coming out fairly soon, so...

Rating:

I was really disappointed with this book. I don't know if I built it up too much in my head or if I just decided to read it at the wrong time, but it just felt very slow for me and it was hard to get into.