The Mortal Instruments: City of Fallen Angels + City of Lost Souls

Just finished the 4th and 5th book in the Mortal Instrument Series.  City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls.  

If this series is one you have not yet picked up, I HIGHLY recommend that you do!  It is a hard series to describe without confusing you and I, but the world that Cassandra Clare has created sucks you right in and makes you forget that you have things you should probably be doing instead of reading 24/7.  The thoroughness of which she has created this world reminds me a lot of the world J.K. Rowling created with Harry Potter.  (Yes everything comes back to Harry with me).  I also loved the main character, Clary, and the transformation she goes through and her bravery.  Her characters are easy to fall in love with (especially Jace) and that is always a huge part of me loving any book or series.  Throughout all the seriousness and the drama there is also a lot of humor that I enjoyed as well, which is also a key to my heart.

If you have read the first three books and were wondering whether or not to continue on (like me) I think you will be pleasantly surprised.  After I had read the 3rd book I didn't have a huge desire to continue reading the series right away because it ends so well, no huge cliffhanger.  I do love where she has taken the series in the fourth and fifth book and I cannot WAIT to read the 6th.  Unfortunately, I will have to wait until 2014.  Yep, 2014.  I died inside when I saw that.  The good news is that they are making a movie of the first book, due out in August.  I love that they cast Lily Collins as the main character, Clary Fray, because she is gorgeous and talented.  Check out the trailer because it is amazing and will probably make you really want to read the first book! (Or re-read it in my case)

City of Bones Trailer

Significance Series

This book.... 

Just came out yesterday... best believe I just bought it!! Can't wait to see how this series ends!!!

Book Review: Under the Never Sky

Under the Never Sky is about a world that is broken up into different "cultures." These cultures live life completely different from one another. The only thing they have in common is that they all live under a sky that can kill any of them in a matter of seconds. Aria and Perry are from different cultures but find themselves needing each other to get back what matters to them most. Their differences in their cultures make them and their views completely different from one another but also give them their strengths that draw them to each other, finding that they aren't as different from each other as they originally thought.
Roar and Liv is the 0.5 book to the Under the Never Sky series. So far in the series I don't know how important it is to know the knowledge the book gives but it does give you some behind the scene information about Perry's culture. I wonder if it and the main characters in it will play a bigger part in upcoming books from this series. Like I have said before I love getting to personally know other characters and their points of view better. I loved how unique Under the Never Sky was. I haven't read anything with its concept before and found myself loving the freshness of the plot and characters. If you're looking for an original story then no need to look any further. Under the Never Sky is it for you!

Book Review: Shatter Me

Shatter Me is about Juliette who has a unique "talent" of being able to hurt those who just touch her naked skin. She is sought out by one of The Reestablishment's leaders, Warner (my favorite villain), to be used as a weapon in the war that is taking place. Luckily she has people on her side, mainly Adam (one of my favorite leading men), that she doesn't even know are on her side till they're helping her through it all. By the end of this book Juliette's world has completely shifted and she's ready to be her true self that shes been suppressing her entire life, just as the cover says "My touch is lethal  my touch is power".

Tahereh Mafi is one of the most unique authors I have ever read (which is really saying something with how many books I have read :)). The uniqueness of the writing in Shatter Me helped bring this book up to the next level for me. I actually read the description for this book a couple different times and couldn't tell if it was something that would really hold my interest. One of my friends that I go to school with recommended it to me. Again I read the description and decided to just try the book out. I was very pleasantly surprised right from the beginning. It caught my interest from almost the first page with the unique way the main character, Juliette, is inside her head thinking and showing how Tahereh shows that on the pages. Tahereh is also really good at making you attached to the characters. Even the villain of the book, Warner, is someone you love to hate. I almost found my self routing for him at times and had to remind myself that he was not who I wanted to survive this book. You grow even more attached to Warner in the 1.5 book Destroy Me that is from Warner's point of view between Shatter Me and the upcoming Unravel Me that is due out in 2013. I love finding out what makes the other characters tick and seeing inside their minds, even the twisted ones. I can't wait for Unravel Me and see where the war leads all these amazing characters. You know you found an amazing author if she can make you attached to every character in the book, even if it damns you.

 

Book Review: The Rise of Nine

            To enjoy The Rise of Nine you would of course have to read I am Number Four and The Power of Six.  If you haven’t read either of these books and you like fantasy fiction then you should DEFINITELY read both of those books.  Oh and one of my favorite parts about this book series is the crazy author.  His name is Pittacus Lore, one of the characters in the books, and prefaces every book by stating,

 “The Events in this book are real.  Names and Places have been changed to protect the Loric, who remain in hiding.  Other civilizations do exist.  Some of them seek to destroy you.”

            Talk about dedication to your craft, he almost has me believing in aliens.  Once I started The Rise of Nine I literally couldn’t put it down.  This book is full of non-stop intense action and every chapter leaves you on the edge of your seat.  No really, it does because the author switches view points every chapter so you are constantly left hanging.  It. Is. Awesome.  I had an internal battle the entire time deciding who was hotter, Four or Nine??  And also, if I could choose any legacy what would I choose?  I did, however, finish this book quite angry and I will tell you why.  I assumed this was the last book in the series so I was very excited to see how it ended but I was WRONG.  There is at least one more book due out and here is the kicker:  there is not even a release date OR a title for the next book.  This means I will have to wait until sometime in 2014 to continue on in this story.  In my mind, there are few things that are worse than waiting two years for a book to come out.  My husband definitely knows I feel this way since I was yelling when the book ended.  If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to read this book or book series then you are in for a treat.  Make sure, however, you have a good chunk of uninterrupted time before you sit down to read because you will get sucked in.  

Book Review: The Casual Vacancy

Being an avid (avid being an extreme understatement) fan of the Harry Potter series I would be lying if I said I didn’t have high expectations for J.K. Rowling’s first adult book since said series.  Perhaps this is why I found myself having extremely mixed feelings about the Casual Vacancy.  It seemed that in an effort to write something as opposite as Harry Potter as she could J.K. Rowling conjured up the Casual Vacancy.  Not only is it an adult book (extremely adult, not for the faint-hearted), it is as far away from fantasy as it could be.  It is almost so opposite of Harry Potter that it seems deliberate. 

            J.K. Rowling goes into heavy detail with every single character in the novel, which I usually love, but the characters in this book are dark and depressing people.  For the most part they are selfish humans with very few redeemable qualities.  Usually in books I become enthralled to the point where I cannot put it down and I start to ignore things like laundry and my child (kidding).  Reading this book felt like a chore at times in the fact that I had to navigate through all of the elaborate back stories and try to keep each character straight.  Basically it is the story of how a town fell apart after the death of one citizen, Barry Fairbrother, who was holding the town together in more ways than one. 

            One aspect I did enjoy about the Casual Vacancy was the writing style of Rowling.  Her ability for description and observations about human nature reminded me pleasantly of why I fell so in love with Harry Potter.  Despite the darkness and rawness of the book I did notice a few underlying positive themes.  The most prominent that I noticed was the importance of family.  As much as the characters were appalling at times they still supported and cared for their family when it mattered most.  As much as I wanted to fall in love with this book, I just couldn’t.  J.K. Rowling’s talent shines through the mundane storyline and characters and makes me hope that she will continue to write in the future.  Next time, please, choose something a lot more interesting to write about.  

Reader Beware:  Once you start you might not be able to stop no matter how unpleasant the journey.

Starting Up

This is the first official post of our awesome new review blog.  We will review all of the many, (I mean MANY), books that we love to read.  Stay tuned for some awesome recommendations and reviews from the books we devour.