Wisdom's Kiss

Wisdom's Kiss

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

A scheming duchess determined to have the one land left that hasn't succumbed to her machinations.

A young princess heading off to marry the duchess's son and unite the kingdoms.
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An acrobat who falls in love with the young princess before the wedding.

A grandmother who seeks only to keep her kingdom and family safe.

A young orphan with a gift for seeing the future.

A cat who seems to understand more than he should.

All these characters come together to save a kingdom, or tear it apart.

Can witchcraft save the day?

Final thoughts:  This book is told from EIGHT points of view.  It gets a little tiresome changing the P.o.V. every couple of pages.  The story is cute, as is the interweaving of a few fairy tales, but the author seems to be a little too clever for her own good at times.  It gets a little weighed down in cleverness and twists.  It's ok, but not fabulous.

Rating: 3/5

Legacy

Legacy

by Cayla Kluver

For a hundred years, the lands of Hytanica and Cokyri had been at war.  One day, the sky turned blood red and the Cokrian forces disappeared.  And so did the first newborn boy.  As long as the sky bled, baby boys disappeared.  When the sky finally cleared, forty-nine boys had been kidnapped by the Cokyrians.  Forty-eight bodies soon appears outside the walls and the Cokyrians were apparently gone for good.

Sixteen years later, as Princess Alera turns seventeen years old, her homeland is expecting her to marry the man who will become the next king shortly after their wedding.  Her father has his preference, but Alera can't stand the man.  Unfortunately, time is ticking and she has few options.

When a Cokyrian boy shows up who appears to be the forty-ninth kidnapped Hytanican boy, Alera's world flips upside-down and her prospects definitely change.  But not everyone thinks this boy can be trusted.

Final thoughts:  Blech.  This is written so poorly!  It COULD be good, but it spends so much time talking about what people are wearing and how their hair is done.  The writing is stilted and has no flow. It seems formulaic and childish.  For example, "The lovely Lady Hauna... with her demure seventeen-year-old daughters... the sensible Lady Edora had accompanied her vivacious daughter Kalem... the exceedingly proper... brought easily excited... and bubbly Semari had come with the sedate Baroness Alantonya."  One long sentence filled with adjective after adjective about person after person.  Ugh.

Alera's primary suitor is described throughout much of the book as being cruel, overbearing, somewhat violent, condescending, and arrogant, but everyone agrees that he would be a great king.  What?!?!?!  And the land of Hytanica is constantly referred to as being chauvinistic, that women are inferior to men in all things and must defer to men at all times, along with constant references to how Alera can't be left alone with boys her age because it was inappropriate.  The book itself ended unsatisfactorily.  It wasn't a clean break (for yet another trilogy), but it had more of a sputtering finish.  Maybe it was supposed to be a cliffhanger, but it just kind of... ended.  And I really don't care how the story ends.  There are just too many problems with this; I don't plan on reading the sequels.

Rating: 2/5

Book Blogger Hop

It's been a while so it's definitely time to HOP again.  

This week's question is:

“How many books are currently in your To-Be-Read (TBR) Pile?”

 I don't really have a TBR "pile".  What I have is a number of books that I haven't read interfiled with books that I have read and may even read again.  Plus I have a "stack" of books on my Kindle just waiting to be read.  NetGalley.com is a force of "chaotic good" since it both provides me with free books AND provides me with free books.  In all though, I probably have about 30-40 books that I have never read and need to.

Queen of the Dead

Queen of the Dead

(Ghost and the Goth, Book 2)

by Stacey Kade

Not long ago, Alona Dare was a happy, healthy, first-tier senior looking forward to finishing out her last year of high school with a bang.  Then she got hit by a bus.  There was definitely a bang there.

Now she's the "spirit guide" of Will Killian, goth boy.  He's been able to see ghosts his entire life, whether he wants to or not.  While most of his life, this has been torture, Alona has actually managed to use her spunky, take-no-prisoners attitude, to give Will a break from all the constant talking and requests for help.

But when another girl shows up with a talent to see ghosts, Will gets a little too intrigued for Alona's taste.  As he gets caught up in finding out about the Order and their apparent desires to save humanity from the "echoes" of the dead, Alona goes out on her own to find a way to try and keep her memory alive.

And with Alona, nothing is ever easy.

Final thoughts:  Not as fun as the first book.  This one goes from cotton candy to a dark and gloomy pretty fast.  And it appears that this will be yet another trilogy, if not more.  Teen ghost series?  Eh.  Plus the cover doesn't match the book at all, which is disappointing.

Rating: 3/5

The Ghost and the Goth

The Ghost and the Goth

by Stacey Kade

Alona Dare looks like she has it all together.  She's top of the social food chain, physically perfect, gets whatever she wants, is the envy of every girl, and the object of every boy's affection.

But stepping in front of an oncoming bus ends all that for Alona.

Now she's stuck waking up on the same stretch of road every day at the same time, forced to watch the world go by without ever being able to communicate with the people around her.

That changes when she sees Will Killian see her.

He's been able to see the dead all of his life, but he's spent years trying to hide that fact.  Because the dead talk.. a LOT.  Whenever they find out that Will can hear them, they won't leave him alone and they beg him for favors to help them get to the great beyond.

Now Alona has found him.

He may never find peace again.

Final thoughts: Cotton candy book at its best.  There's nothing really deep and meaningful here, but it's plenty of fun.  Looking forward to the sequel.  (I wonder if the author wrote this on a dare.  I only speculate since every time I read Alona's name, in my head it sounds like All On A Dare.)

Rating: 5/5

Overprotected

Overprotected

by Jennifer Laurens

Ashlyn is a high society girl who doesn't get to live with the rest of society.  Ever since she was kidnapped by a former nanny who was obsessed with her dad, her dad has been obsessed with her safety.  She's escorted everywhere by a bodyguard, has no moment of peace outside of her own bedroom, and is followed by the stares of others who think she's strange for her security detail.

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Weirded out by her current bodyguard of three years who seems to have developed a bit of an obsession about her, Ashlyn conspires to get him fired.  She's also trying to get rid of the detail altogether since she's nearly 18 and figures she can now be trusted on her own.
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She was wrong.

Not only does her father hire a new guard in record time, but he's the boy who used to torture Ashlyn as a child.  There's no way she'd be in danger of falling in love with him.

Or is there?

Final thoughts:  Blech.  Poorly written tripe.  It's a YA Harlequin with bad characters, shifting time and plot structures, no real story, and a horribly written "romance".  It's obvious almost from minute one what's going to happen all the way through.  Everything is telegraphed way in advance.  You KNOW she will fall in love from Colin the moment she sees him on the street.  You KNOW what will happen near the end of the book with Stuart.  You KNOW how it will all end by the second chapter.  It's awful.  Ashlyn's "hatred" of Colin seems to solely be based on him chasing her with a crab on the beach when she was five and even that, which is sooo important at the start of the story, is ignored halfway in.  Other things bug me like why would a father so extremely concerned with his daughter's safety hire a 21-year-old with NO training (only aspirations to be an FBI agent) instead of hiring a 40-something former cop?  Why would Colin reach for a gun that wasn't there at one point in the story when no one ever mentioned a gun before?  Why would the author telegraph that Ashlyn calling her father "Dad" instead of "Daddy" would be a big deal by saying something to the effect of "I later figured out..."?  Why is the guy on the cover 30 something and the girl obviously in her 20's when she's supposed to be 17 and he's supposed to be 21?  So much more to complain about, but I've wasted enough time on this book already.

Skip it.

Rating: 1/5