rogier caprino
4.8/5
My thoughts
Expectations I encountered Splintered early 2012 during a frequent Goodreads browsing. The synopsis was the only thing that got my attention. Keep in mind that the cover was not presented to us yet. The mention of a skater girl got me hooked. A family curse and the mention of madder darker version of wonderland made me fingers clicking happy.I forgot about it (stupid me). Thank goodness I saw the cover on Goodreads months later
Cover: That???s almost how I pictured Alyssa. A cross between the cover and Emily Osment. There is so much detail. Every time I looked at I noticed new details. Easily in the top covers of 2013.
Book: Close to a hundred years or more years ago a young girl named Alice dreamed about a wacky place and was published by a family friend. Ever since then her female descendants have gone insane and died as a result. Alyssa Gardner is her great-great-granddaughter. She too can hear the normally inaudible voices of plants and bugs and is next inline. A chain reacting occurrence happens. ??????Wonderland exists and Al can save her mom, herself and break the curse but is it really a curse or something else. Nothing is what it seems and maybe Alyssa as well. I WELCOME you TO THE REAL WONDERLAND folks.
Miss Howard???s writing style in splintered is equally part sensual ,dark and mysterious. So dark its sexy,.HAHA. You want to resist but you want more and more. To fly across the pages but take it slow ( I hardly did) and let the enjoyment engross you. I will get madder trough out this review. It was an orgasmic event but of words, places and scenery constructed with those words and many feelings. A wonderful 400 page book.
I read the original Alice and through the looking glass when I was younger. It was a Dutch translations but that does not take away that I loved seeing their dark and altered macabre versions. A lot made sense in a nonsensical way in the end. But every true Netherling knows it takes balance between a raging storm and calm clear water to be ??????sane???.
The plot was interesting. Mad even. I have to admit some parts might be confusing to some people. Maybe.
.'Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe.
But he still needs loving and hopefully someone will love him someday and he will truth fully love that person too.
???I think of his watercolor paintings; darkly beautiful worlds and gothic fairies weeping black tears above human corpses, these depictions of misery and loss are so poignant and surreal they break the heart??????.
Remarks:
4.5
My thoughts
Cover: Purple, purple . I love purple. It is the color I adore. The cover is not that bad, yes there is a bare chested man with a top hat but the clockwork in the background balances it out.
Book: Bunnies are fuzzy and cute right. Imagine being attacked by fuzzy white/brownish bunnies that eat you to the bone. They are hungry for blood, your red human blood is the loveliest there is. But wait there are far worst creatures , the ugly fat red brown rats are the worst. Welcome to Sang.
Tish Everett is a 25 year old nurse, she freed herself from the clutches of a controlling long period boyfriend Jeff. She finds a locket at the house of a deceased patient. A beautifully crafted locket and with the help of some elbow grease it finally clicks open. Beneath the lid is a mysterious , dangerously sexy painted portrait of young man near his 30???s. Tish walls asleep after an exhausting day. When she wakes up she sees an odd world. It has a very Victorian vibe to it. In fact she has stumbled in 1900th Sang . A place were bludmen and pinkies (humans from Sang) live alongside each other. The bludmen are 2nd grade citizens. A wealthy madman is out to kill them all. Will tish stay with criminy [ the dude in the portrait ]after they have stopped him , or will she go back to earth?
The world building was lovely luscious. There were steampunk machines and clockwork animals. I wanted to know more and more and I hope more will be known in sequel books.
The plot was like a bloodlust enraged Alice in wonderland. A adult alice w/ blood creatures. Things that seemed unnecessary got tied up in the end
There are two Tish in Wicked as they come. Ok , let me explain . She has two lives; Tish the nurse and Letita the glancer . She is a strong woman and is not a damsel in distress. Great heroine.
Criminy is slick as an eel and clever as Reinhardt, the fox ( a dutch folktale). And mysterious and uber sexy ( what i\ve ??????heard?????? from fellow book ppl ) but in all that he never loses the gentleman inside him.
This romance is a slowburner. In my opinion. It is labled pnr on the spine but to me it is UF. The romance never crushes the plot. They are sexy times in this book but not every 50 pages. After each ahum, they grow closer to each other. Great character development
I really liked the secondary characters from pemberly, Crim???s clockwork monkey ( you rock pem), to the lizard boy to the pinky strong man . I wish they had more development but I still liked the whole crew.
Book two will be out next year and I can???t wait. I hope we get to see cameos of Tish and Crim. Are you exited to enter Sang? That???s bloody marvelous. grins with bloodstained teeth
4.5
My thoughts
Cover: Awesome currents and an acient tridend . Green , my beloved color
Book: Tristan Hart, a teen life guard.A tanned sarcastic dude with a great bod.[ girls i approve you all to go ga ga and drooling over him]. He???s living a great life, cool school swim team/life guard squad, great best friendfrend and a loving parents. But his life is not a calm sea anymore. He dissapears after a rescue in the crashing waves of a sudden storm. 3 days later ,he resurfaces on the beach at coney Island abd does not know what occurred on those days. His dreams are haunted by a terrifiying silver mermaid. He was claimed by the Sea and now it wants him Back.
This tail was sweet[ And so was his]. I???ve never been to brooklyn or coney island and only saw it in movies.But I could feel being at the beach and the brooklyn vibe.My mom visited brooklyn when she was younger so asked her how it was being at coney island. Z Cordova can create a atmosphere . Some parts in this book felt disney ish, darker disney but still fun, airy and a good hearted.
I bet you all know this is a mermaid book.[I think].I fell in love with merpeople through disney???s ariel [ I <3 gingers . And a ginger novelist as a life partner would be dreamy] But rather few or none are being told from a male perspective. From a merman[sounds corny] a merbro[ lame] a merdude[ I like that term better. Tristan is not lame or a wimp] Me being a dude. I long for the male voice in books. Their reactions in situations and thoughts
The caracters gave the book its drive. From Tristan complaining of his glitteringly but masculine boy blue color.The arguing of Trisan and Kurt and the curiosity of Thalia. His ???cousins??????. To the guts and spunk but still girly ness of Layla , his bestest best frend .
The Vicious Deep is written in 1st pov. I expected it to be darker but I got a fun some what light hearted book with quite some moments of darkness and terror.I cant wait for book two . I speculate something fishy is just around the corner[ yes I used a overly cliched pun] Want some hot merdudes. One of them telling the story. With something that could be romance. Jump in and dive and give The Vicious Deep a try. A fun summer or beach read. A great read for both sexes.
My thoughts
Cover: Defenitely a cover-love of mine. Love underwater covers. I think it depicts a scene from the book. A disaster, a mystery will come to light.
Book: Honestly I only requested in on netgalley because of the cover[^_^]. Read my first Harlequin teen title not long ago so when not give this a shot. Totally worth my 8 hours reading this, in one setting.
A new girl is accepted to a Ivy league boarding school, Manderly.Arrives there and immediately all most of her peers dislike.” She's trying to replace'' Rebecca, who went missing the summer before.What happened to her? Will she come back? a mystery! Denial, Vengeance,Lust,Hatred
Almost
Other outstanding characters
THA BOMB
Thanks to netgalley and to Harlequin teen approving request
4.5
My thoughts
Expectations: Although there was great excitement for this title months before the release date I still wasn???t that intrigued to read it. The reviews that started to pop up hinted of 2 guys and one girl and I???m sick of most love triangles. That disgust is in fact the main reason why I did not want to read it. WHY did I act so freakin??? stupid?
Cover : It is an interesting cover were the same girl stares at her reflection as if it were a mirror. And if you can say it???s similar to a mirror the shimmering particles could represent glass of a just recently shaken up life, both possible lives. Maybe I???m over thinking but when I read the synopsis that???s what comes to mind when I see the cover.
Book: There have been titles in adult and young adult fiction, in which paranormal beings are presented, that are able to do amazing mental feats for example telekinesis and seeing the future. I liked how Miss West tweaked it to where it became a secluded society were people???s mind excelled the rest of humanity or in their term Norms. The powers are more scientifically explained than just let???s give them powers without a reason how they got them. Some books do that very same thing ???the not explaining???. The not explaining is a pet peeve of mine. Addie Coleman can see in the future but not the way that is often perceived as clich??. She can see her own future and no one else???s and only when she wants the see the cause of actions she could take. The process of seeing it called the Search. So it is like being at a crossroad and seeing both paths of your life from that point on. Her parents announce they are getting a divorce and she must pick a parent to live with. In both possible future lives she will encounter love and loss, Addie must decide which one it will be.
Kasie West writes in a way you want to read everything she writes even her grocery store list. I meant that jokingly. Her writing is not super prosy or poetic but it lures you in. I don???t know how to explain it but it just fun to read. For me at least I loved how multiple moments in each possible life connected each other but from different vantage points. For example were Addie meets someone who is in fact very important in the novel and in each possible life, she learns his secret and further in the story she discovers the same secret in a different way altogether in another possible life. When the intense parts come around you begin to beg that nothing horrible happens to some of the characters you???ve come to love. In the end you feel some empathy to a person that manipulated her emotions to that particular person. And also saddened that the relationship with another person in, I have come to love, will be different than the one in the search. Secondly what I found unique is how Miss West at the start of every chapter gave it a title. Naming a chapter is often done but the title is a vocabulary explanation from a dictionary.
The characters are very enjoyable in this novel. I will only mention a few that cannot make me verge over the edge of Spoilerlandia.
Addie Coleman is the girl that???s always meticulous. For example she copies her study material from the school computer in case of a power outage which has not happened in 20 or more years in the compound. She is very kind but wants to remain in the background. A cool gal to gang around with.but she is very loud and exact opposite of Addie. How they became friends cute. I read somewhere that in the sequel there will be chapters from her point of view.
There are parents present in Pivot point. They appear often and I???m glad that they aren???t parents that are just characters for plot purposes. Addie???s parents are good people and parents who are noticeable in the novel. It is sad that they have problems but relationship problems happen in real life and gives it a more realistic touch.
There is a kind of a love triangle. But how is handled is to be admired. There is a romantic interest in each possible life and remember the opposite boys don???t know of each other because nothing in the search has happened yet. In each life the romance is at the beginning stage. It is attraction and liking each other but not actual love yet. Also in both cases Addie does not fall head over heal it is a slow going process that could have been real and only one of those romance will be real. At the end of the novel you find out what path she picks and the loss with it. The end has influences the romance that existed and the one that did not
I???m happy I entered the giveaway at Cuddlebuggery.com and that I won. Otherwise it could be a possibility that I would never want to read it. I wonder what will cause the Search in the sequel. Pivot point is a book where a teenage girl must pick a path at the middle of a crossroad. The choices we make in the past define us in the future.
4.5
i know a lot of people / hate it . but i think it is needed but with some parental guidance of course and the cover fits perfeckly with the book
My thoughts
Cover: A simply dark cover in my opinion. Because of it simplicity it catches your attention. Not girl ???ified. No bare chest model. Like those but their overdone. It catches your attention becuase of the the blood smears on his cheek. I ask myself what happened when I see that.
Book: When I saw it on Goodreads in August and read the synopsis I immediately added it to my wishlist and it is still there. I received a e- ARC. When I got a chance to review it after being declined a multiple number of times on Net Galley, I did not let this opportunity pass me by.
The book begins where Archer, our leading male, forces a victim to commit suicide. I started this and I thought it was like a teenage Dexter. I love that show but can???t feel compassion for Dex. In archer???s case I could. He is a soul but throughout the book I felt compassion and began to care for this character. Ok he is a serial killer, which is not good. In his mind killing the teenagers that hurt Vivian, his best friend, will undo the hurt that they put her through.
I felt compassion for Viv. I felt sorry for the crappy relationships and the poor picking of boyfriends. She is always choosing jerks and lowlifes that hurt her in the end emotionally and as a result she cries and finds support in Archer, her best friend.
But everything changes when Evan comes in to their lives. Archer first meets Evan on the college campus when he asks for directions to the administration building. He does not know what???s so alluring about him, but he makes him feel calm. They spend more and more time together and Archer starts to feel for Evan and Evan for Archer. Archer does not want to kill anymore.
But little Miss Vivian (she is not little lol, a college kid)starts to notice things and sees her Viv/Archer time dwindling. The person both Archer and myself [to me characters are real in alternative universe] thought she was, turns out to be an illusion. My compassion plummeted to ground zero.
In my opinion the baddest, most manipulative protagonist of the year belongs to her. She is the driving force of the novel.
This is one of darkest, emotional YA releases of the year. This book is a huge thriller especially near the end. Any one not comfortable with older dark YA or new adult, male-male love and some graphic scenes it may not be for you. Can???t wait what Kelly thinks up next.
4.25
My thoughts
Covershimmer ,shimmer, blue shimmer . A icy-cold blue waterfall with in front a floating girl. High on the 2012 coverloves
Book:Paranormal YA has seen a big boom.Throughout the short time span books have popped up like mushrooms.Ideas that were new got recycled and used again and again with a basic formula.Resulting in stale cookie cutter bad boy infested ( the good ones not included) young adult books.This one is different. I see you are rolling your eyes.”“Yeah right, different.”“.This is my response "”Yes it is””. Reason: astral projection.Let it sink it.You know the ability to extract your being out of your physical body.This book has it.A particular girl can do it.Anna.
The way Auracle is written is lovely and flows of the tongue.After some chapters Anna's voice structured for me.This book is not PNR but rather PNR+. This includes friendship,loyalty,family struggles,taking care of your actions and fixing stuff and doing whats right even without a body.
All that make it real and relatable. It is paranormal infused with somewhat crime, baked not burned with romance (you know the romantic goodstuff) and sprinkled with contemporary fiction elements. I also liked the Asian/cultural influence.Japanese to be correct. Philosophy, mediating and Rei but more about him later( Ya'll would love to know about him)
One minor complaint: Why was is not longer.I finally befriended them, got close and caring for the peeps in this book.BAM.THE END.I know if it was longer it could have resulted in dragging parts.I'm still happy in the end that this story was written and 80 to 85 % satisfied.
Anna is the girl I've mentioned before.She's witty and a girly.Wears not a lot make up or none.Energetic. Takes action after her body is stolen after the accident ( see synopsis) Being out of her body and trying to rescue , let say more than 2 people. The best is that sees that shes a cause in this and takes action (what a lot of PNR YA girls don't )
Harper is the ‘‘mean'' girl.She popular, gets whats she wants and she did and caused the bigger .You are suppose to dislike but feel sorry for her. BRIGHT . silent moment ( huh?)
Rei.He's the boy next door.He's half Japanese (Whoot whoot, he is the 2nd love interest of color that i know of in 2012 paranormal releases). Some would say he is too perfect and some already said that.But he has flaws. He carries his loved one problems and sorrows on his soldier and is pretty hard on himself. I love how Anna shows him he does not need to.Hope you'll meet him soon. Ladies come closer. Closer. CLOSER. You will swoon.Hotness
The romance was lovely. Not insta lovey.But a gradual one.Anna ‘s situation brought them closer strengthens their relationship and eventually bloomed into love.
The plot was not difficult but trough Miss Rosati's writing made it tense, lovely and explosive trip.Plus the ability is explained very well. Very fictionally scientific. Sad to see this group of go but i ca't wait to read more by her.This lovely gem is out tomorrow.
it was very fantasy like and in a way not . it was not boring but I did not have the urge to read it in one sitting. I'm still exited to read a couple of her other books
My thoughts
Cover : It has a pretty girl in a dress cover. The cover shows what happens in this book and how she enters the painted portrait. A prison of someone she has come to love.
Book:
THIS JOURNAL IS THE SOLE PROPERTY OF:
MISS NATALIE STEWART
A GIFT TO MARK , HER EXIT FROM
THE CONNECTICUT ASYLUM
cough
cough
My thoughts
Cover: This cover is one of my favorites, the color scheme. The fog in the upper right corner and Peter and Katy coming down the stairs, dunno put I think it depicts a scene.
Book: I saw this earlier in the year , added it to read and forgot totally about it. In a Simon Shuster galley grab [what???s that ?info galley grab] it felt familiar . Downloaded and forgot it again. Time past and there were only 12 hours left to read it, I challenged myself and read it nonstop with small breaks in 10 hours. Proud of myself , don???t get worried I???m in my winter break now. School work has not been affected.
Katherine Jessivar gets dumped at a boarding school in Whitfield, Massachusetts by her father, Harrison Jessivar, and his new girlfriend. . To burden her more every kid at her new school hates her. Because she???s an Ainsworth. Takes in the start of the school year.
Katy felt flat for me bu after the 200 mark started to care a bit by bit. At the moment when she admitted her real name I really liked her.
Peter is tortured, I can???t spoil but what a tortured boy he was, his heritage was a contributor. He was not the swooniest male protagonist, somewhat charming but liked him. I did not know why there were attracted to each other after disliking each other for a while there in love; a minor insta- love. I said a minor. There was love and less lust, said less. That does not mean not existed. They almost di??????
Heck I had them around me for 1 to 400 pages, they grow on you. That was less positive for me.
There were no real parental figures present. They tried their best to be that but a couple characters came close. Her dad, he himself detaches from her emotionally but progressed but not enough for me.
Whitfield is strange and weird, the people seem olden time like and frequently mysterious fog appears in the meadow. This is a paranormal Young Adult. It???s about witches not harry potter's secret world . Just a normal town where a large part is descended from the them. I liked the world building. Everything is nature based. Everywhere there???s magic they reminded me a lot of druids
The chapters look like a old book and are in time slots in coordination with wiccan holidays. A thing I disliked was the 200 pages of not a lot of action Because It took 200 pages before the real peril appeared. Named the Darkness, a entity not to be fooled with. I almost quit two times but now looking back for me at least those 200 pages were needed. Back-story, anecdotes type things, getting two no more about the characters.
There???s turmoil between families, in her family and mistrust. I liked how Miss Cochran did that. The digging and bringing secrets to light of her mom???s life, the town and prominent ancestors of Whitfield that where linked back Katy.
The Darkness was a great bad ‘‘guy''.
I have to say there are mixed review mine is more on the positive side It was pretty decent . I liked it and glad I had this experience. Have this left t say “Magic lies within”
My thoughts
Cover:It's a decent one.Like the gold cover.Bummer that was the only likable thing for me.
Book:It never was on my wishlist.I got a hint from Booksake[check them out, there awesome book reviewers] that it was a free read at Harpercollins.com. Not a complete disappointment for me. I still wanted to know what Liesl and Po would encounter on their travels.I never bash an author.This review includes my honest opinions.
This middle grade has gotten a lot of hype and was not that interested.It was a free read.Nothing to loose.Liesl and po is sad and dreary read.That was not a problem for me
But the bland writing and worldbuilding and characters were the reason for the two star rating. I felt no connection to the characters except bundle a cat-dog like shadow creature and it does not even talk or a lot of ‘‘screen time'‘
from the official website. i do have to say great art for a middle grade
Liesl and Po was not for me and I'm now less likely to read deleruim and pandemonium.Don't let me deter you to read liesl and po.You may love it
4 .5
i felt disconected with a few characters but its a great end to a trilogy nonetheless.
