Review: Killer Frost by Jennifer Estep

Killer Frost

Jennifer Estep

(Mythos Academy #6)

Publication Date: February 25, 2014

Paperback, 354 pages, K-Teen

Genres: YA, Paranormal

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads

I’ve battled the Reapers of Chaos before–and survived. But this time I have a Bad, Bad Feeling it’s going to be a fight to the death … most likely mine.

Yeah, I’ve got my psychometry magic, my talking sword, Vic–and even the most dangerous Spartan on campus at my side, in Logan freaking Quinn, but I’m no match for Loki, the evil Norse god of chaos. I may be Nike’s Champion, but at heart, I’m still just Gwen Frost, that weird Gypsy girl everyone at school loves to gossip about.

Then someone I love is put in more danger than ever before, and something inside me snaps. This time, Loki and his Reapers are going down for good … or I am.

My Review

This is it. The last book in the Mythos Academy series. I feel like I’ve been reading this series for my entire book-blogging career. I don’t know what I’ll do with myself after I’m officially done writing and posting this review. I guess I’ll just have to find another mythological type of series to tide me over. It would help if it had Logan Quinn in it, though…

So Gwen’s getting ready for the final showdown between her and Loki and I was definitely ready to read about it. I just didn’t expect everything to happen so quickly. While the beginning was a little slow and predictable, the ending seemed like it rushed by way too fast. Maybe my brain wasn’t mentally prepared for the series to come to an end, so I just determined that the last 150 pages felt more like just 25 pages. Stupid brain.

The characters of this series are much the same as they always are, with one exception: Gwen was a little annoying during the first part of this book. I couldn’t understand some of the selfish choices she was making, especially since Gwen had always seemed like a rather selfless character. But other than this issue, the characters didn’t change. I still wanted to see waaaaaaaaaay more Logan than was present, and Daphne, Carson, and Oliver and company (Ha, see what I did there?) kept up their banter and kick-butt-ery. I still must continue to complain about the lack of more Logan sexy-times, though. Logan is such a great character and his background as a Spartan warrior is so freakin’ cool! But Estep constantly has him either absent from the fight scenes or injured and bleeding somewhere. Boo…

All in all, this book was a good ending to a good series and I wish I could have some more—more Logan, more cool ninjas, more Spartans, more Greek god descendants, and more talking weapons!

**Note: I won a copy of this book in a contest. This in no way altered my opinion/review.

Which Team Are You? : The Covenant Series Edition

I basically just post a book series every week and have people vote on what team they are. I know the YA Sisterhood does the YA Crush Tournament, but I just want to find out how much you guys like one love interest over another, in one series.

Last week's poll was over Team Sam or Team Nick from Jennifer Rush’s Altered series. Team Sam won! 

So for this edition of “What Team Are You?” I’m going to ask you who your pick of hunky man-flesh is from The Covenant series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. 

You can choose from:

1)      Aiden

or 2) Seth

I’m Team Not Sure. I used to love Seth more than anything when I first read the books, but now that I’ve finished the series, I do like Aiden. If you had to choose one, who would it be, and why? If you haven’t read the books that are out right now (How is that even possible!?), who do you think sounds more appealing from the Half-Blood summary below.

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi–pure bloods–have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals–well, not so much.

Half-bloods only have two options: become trained sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:

Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.

Unfortunately, she’s crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn’t her biggest problem–staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden.

And that would kind of suck.

Which Team Are You?

Team Aiden

Team Seth

Poll Maker

Review: The Shadow Prince by Bree Despain

The Shadow Prince

Bree Despain

(Into the Dark #1)

Publication Date: March 11, 2014

Hardcover, 512 pages, Egmont USA

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Amazon | Goodreads

 Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High—a haven for children of the rich and famous—Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race.

Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High’s prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father’s mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn’t the only student in Olympus who doesn’t quite belong.

Haden and Daphne—destined for each other—know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails. As war between the gods brews, the teenagers’ lives collide. But Daphne won’t be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended—he’s fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds.

My Review

I really enjoyed Despain's The Dark Divine series, so I was excited to see how she'd go about writing a Greek mythology retelling instead of werewolves. And I have to say, she did a pretty good job. 

The story starts out from Haden's point of view, and let me tell you, this was awesome! His world, the Underrealm, was amazing and unique. I really wish we could have had more of him in his home environment. Haden's also extremely interesting. His hard demeanor had me sympathizing with him, but at times wanting to strangle him. He was just an all-around cool character.

Daphne's point of view wasn't my favorite, but there was nothing wrong with it. Daphne, unlike some other female protagonists, actually has a hobby. She sings. I'm normally not a huge fan of musical aspects in literature, probably because I can't physically hear it while reading, but I didn't mind so much with this story. Daphne also had real reactions. She didn't have an instant attraction to the creeper that is Haden. In fact, it took a lot for her to open up to him. 

This book is in dual point of view. Normally that would be a serious bummer for me, but I didn't get mixed up in this story at all. There were however, some minor instances of info dumping that I cringed at. And, I hate it when the high school teacher has the study material pertain to the actual storyline itself. It seems too coincidental. 

All in all, Bree created a unique world that I'm excited to read more about. I'm definitely going to pick up a physical copy of this ASAP and I'll be anxiously awaiting the sequel.

  
*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from Edelweiss. This in no way altered my opinion/review.  

Review: The Unwanted by Jeffrey Ricker

The Unwanted

Jeffrey Ricker

Publication Date: March 18, 2014

Paperback, 264 pages, Bold Strokes Books

Genres: LGBT, Fantasy, Young Adult

Amazon | Goodreads

  

Jamie Thomas has enough trouble on his hands trying to get through junior year of high school without being pulverized by Billy Stratton, his bully and tormentor. But the mother he was always told was dead is actually alive—and she’s an Amazon! Sixteen years after she left him on his father’s doorstep, she’s back… and needs Jamie’s help. A curse has caused the ancient tribe of warrior women to give birth to nothing but boys, dooming them to extinction—until prophecy reveals that salvation lies with one of the offspring they abandoned. Putting his life on the line, Jamie must find the courage to confront the wrath of an angry god to save a society that rejected him.

My Review

I went into this story expecting something short and adventurous, and for the most part, that's what I got. But, at times there was so much more than that. 

The Unwanted deals with Greek mythology. And we all know how much I love me some Greek mythology, right? Well, now we do. I've also been loving LGBT literature lately, so getting my hands on a review copy of this was totally wicked. LGBT is something that needs to be in YA a lot more than it currently is. Sure there are contemporary stories about LGBT teens "finding themselves," but there's hardly any stories where the focus of the book isn't on the character realizing their sexuality. This one is, though. Instead of leading a seriously angsty plotline, Jamie's story manages to create a fun thrill ride.

Jamie was a great character to read about. He was a nice kid who had a good relationship with his father and his best friend, Sarah. Jamie didn't have to be all kick a$$ like some other stories portray their characters. And sure, Katniss types are cool to read as well, but I like it when a character has more in common with myself. Don't get me wrong, Jamie does acquire some skills in the book, I just like how he's a humble boy in the beginning who has to go out of his comfort zone in order to become a semi-good fighter.

The parental aspect of this story was phenomenal! So many times in YA you see characters who barely ever talk to their parents, or they have no parents. It's nice to have a few teenagers who actually have a loving and caring relationship with their mom and/or dad. The parents were even major characters in the story! That's definitely something that doesn't happen very often. 

The action in the story was quick and fun. There weren't a whole lot of epic fights, but I was fine with that. Ricker managed to get the fighting scenes down without having pages of text on how, "his sword stabbed left, then he parried, blah blah."

Billy was Jamie's love interest and at first I was kind of skeptical. I don't really like it when the bully suddenly changes their ways and then love magically manifests itself. Love didn't ever magically manifest itself, but you get my drift. Jamie falls in like with his tormentor. Thankfully, the reason behind the tormenting is explained later on in the story. About halfway through the book was when Billy started to grow on me. And by the end, I was in love. Of course it never would have worked out, but a girl can try.

I have to say, that ending. I almost cried! It was so sad and terrible, but beautiful all at the same time. Way to end a book, Ricker!

While the mythology was fun to read about, there were some minor issues. There was nothing that could distract from the entertainment of the story, but they were still there. Also, there were a couple of pieces of information that I feel could have been expanded on, like the principal and the high school girls, but again, not a big deal.

All in all, this was a good book. I seriously enjoyed it and I think there are other people out there who would too. It's cute, fun and witty, why not give it a try?

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher. This in no way altered my opinion/review.

Evertrue Trailer

Waiting on Wednesday: The Shadow Prince

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week, what's really got my pages in a twist is...

 The Shadow Prince: Into the Dark 

by Bree Despain

Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High—a haven for children of the rich and famous—Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race.

Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High’s prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father’s mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn’t the only student in Olympus who doesn’t quite belong.

Haden and Daphne—destined for each other—know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails. As war between the gods brews, the teenagers’ lives collide. But Daphne won’t be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended—he’s fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds.

Release Date: March 11, 2014

Hmm... Another Persephone/Hades story. HECK! YES! I love mythology and having it come together with high school and cute boys is the cherry on top of my double-book-sundae (I don't know what that means any more than you do.). I'm not too terribly thrilled over the cover. I like pretty dresses on my myth books, but I'm sure the content is superb!

What book are you waiting for this Wednesday?

Review: Awaken by Meg Cabot

Awaken by Meg Cabot 

 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, the dark re-imagining of the Persephone myth comes to a thrilling conclusion.

Death has her in his clutches. She doesn’t want him to let go.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera knew by accepting the love of John Hayden, she’d be forced to live forever in the one place she’s always dreaded most: the Underworld. The sacrifice seemed worth it, though, because it meant she could be with the boy she loves.

But now her happiness — and safety — are threatened, all because the Furies have discovered that John has broken one of their strictest rules: He revived a human soul.

If the balance between life and death isn’t fixed, both the Underworld and Pierce’s home back on earth will be wiped away. But there’s only one way to restore order. Someone has to die.

My Review:

I can't believe that this is it. There will be no more Pierce and John and no more eye-popping gorgeous covers. WAH! 

 Now that that embarrassing tiny tirade is over, let's move on to the actual contents of the book.

The first thing that I loved about this book was the interaction between John and Pierce. Unlike the last two books where I felt like the two weren't really as in love and hunky-dory as they thought they were, in this book they actually come across more as a teenage couple with issues who actually love one another.  Yes, there were some incredibly cheesy moments involving hope (not Pierce's pet dove, I'll get to that later) and storms and sunshine, but it reminded of how cheesy first loves always seem to be...

Now, on to the dove. Hope is Pierce's pet dove and unfortunately hope (the act, not the dove) is mentioned A LOT throughout this book so there's constantly this paragraph of dialogue between characters telling Pierce that no, they are not talking about her dove. It just got a little annoying to me and made me compare Pierce to someone who was much younger than a senior in high school.

The plot itself was all over the place. Not in a necessarily a bad way, or even a good one. I could never tell what the heck was going to happen next because the main storyline moves were so wild, which was nice. However, there were some character revelations that were fairly obvious once the next piece in the plot line puzzle was revealed.

All in all I'm sad to see this series go, but it did end on a happy note. Meg Cabot continues to write with a wit and charm that will keep current readers hooked and pull in newly obsessed fans too.

*Note: I received a copy of this book via Netgalley. This in no way altered my opinion/review.