The Accidental Demon Slayer

The Accidental Demon Slayer

by Angie Fox

Lizzie always had everything laid out.  She planned every moment of every day.  Nothing was out of her control.

So when her swearing, Harley-riding, hard-living grandmother shows up one day to tell her that her entire life has been a lie, it's not surprising that Lizzie has a difficult time accepting her fate.

The demon in her bathroom helps to change her mind.

The imps who attack her and her grandmother on the road reinforce her new knowledge.

And the hunky griffin who saves her life definitely opens her eyes.

She's "the Chosen One" who is destined to destroy demons and bar them from leaving Hell.

If only people would tell her how she's supposed to do all that.

Final thoughts: Messy.  Very messy.  I wanted to like this, but I kept losing track of what was going on.  And then I found myself just plowing along instead of going back to figure out what was happening, mostly because I didn't really care.  It takes only four days or so for her to completely change and become a bada$$, but it never really seems real.  It's truly unbelievable.  She's unable to make a real decision and stick to it. She's wishy-washy to the point of being a wet noodle.  None of the characters are well-written and the big bad demon is really not very big or bad at the end.

Rating: 2/5

You Are Mine

You Are Mine

by Janeal Falor

Serena is a woman in a man's world.  Men own and run everything.  Women are property who must either give birth to warlocks or become "tarnished".  The tarnished are magically spelled to be bald, tattooed, and barren forever.  It is the job of the tarnished to serve the magical community.

At seventeen, Serena is taken to be tested to see how strong her blood is and how much potential she has to produce powerful warlocks.  Once tested, she is sold to a cruel warlock master for marriage.  Serena knows her life will never be good for her.

But when fate hands her into the arms of a barbarian warlock from another land, Serena sees that there may be other options available to her.

Maybe she doesn't have to live in fear of being beaten and hexed to the end of her days.

Final thoughts:  Original world with some fascinating ideas.  Reading about the complete subjugation of women became difficult at times, but it was nice to read Serena's gradually changing views of her own life.  The romance aspect felt a little forced at time, but I really liked Zade as a character.  The end of the book felt a little rushed and didn't quite fit in with the rest of the story.

Rating: 4/5

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

by Cat Winters

It's 1918 and the world has gone insane.

Mary Shelley Black's father has just been beaten and arrested for treason.  Mary Shelley escaped out the back just in time and ran to the train station, as her father had ordered, only to end up living with her aunt in San Diego.

And it's not just World War I, the War to End All Wars, that's got the country on edge; it's the Spanish Influenza.

Just about everyone thinks they know a way to ward off the terrible symptoms.  From salt in the nose, to burning sulfur, to keeping a potato in the pocket, everyone has tried everything, and nothing has stopped it.  

Everyone wears masks to try and prevent breathing in the disease.  

It's like walking through Death's playground.

When Mary Shelley arrived at her aunt's, she had hoped to meet up with a childhood friend (and recent romantic interest), only to find out that he has died in battle.

But his soul hasn't left yet.  And in a world where everyone is clinging to life so much that they believe certain people can take pictures capturing the images of the souls of loved ones, even the very practical and scientific Mary Shelley isn't able to remain a skeptic. 

Final thoughts:  I liked this one, but I fought it the whole way.  The real problem was that I kept trying to predict what was going to happen, only to find half of my predictions fly out the window throughout the book.  It was frustrating to think the book would zig when it actually zagged (more than once).  I also got a little tired reading about onions, since that seemed to be the only thing people ate (and that just started me thinking about the horrid smells and awful breath of the people back then).  In the end, when I just relaxed and stopped trying to predict everything about it, it became pretty good.

Rating: 4/5

 Even Mary Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's wife) believed in spirit photography.

Brianna on the Brink

Brianna on the Brink

by Nicole McInnes

Brianna was the girl on top, both literally and figuratively.  She's best friends with the girl at the top of the social ladder and she's the flyer on the cheer squad.

But when Brianna makes the mistake of going home and sleeping with her English teacher's husband (though she didn't know who he was at the time), she goes from the top of the crowd to school slut.

She now must face the consequences of one bad night.

Final thoughts: Yes, Brianna's had a crappy childhood and yes, her mother isn't much of one, but Brianna's choices seem a little unrealistic.  She never really thinks about things; she just reacts.  Her story probably hits notes that many teen girls might find familiar, but the story as a whole just doesn't work.  I'm also bugged by the fact that McInnes seems to think a student in regular English, who has skipped a couple of weeks of school, would suddenly be allowed to move into an AP English class in MARCH, when the test is given in May... and that she could actually PASS that test.  Um... no.

Rating: 3/5

Antigoddess

Antigoddess

by Kendare Blake

The gods of old are dying.  Hermes is wasting away to the point that he looks severely anorexic.  Hera is slowly turning to stone.  Poseidon is starting to look like the ocean floor.  Demeter is one giant, thin piece of desert spread out over miles.  And Athena is being slowly drowned and destroyed by owl feathers.

They don't know why they are suddenly and truly dying, but they do know the end is near.

They also know that the reincarnated heroes of the Trojan War are the only ones who can help them, even if they don't know how.

Now the hunt has focused on Cassandra, the reincarnated prophetess who had been cursed during the Trojan War with stunningly accurate visions that no one would ever believe.  Her death was hideous and cruel and the very gods who lead her to that awful death are the ones who most need her help.

Can she find her true self in time?  And will she help those responsible for her cruel death thousands of years ago?

Final thoughts: First, just because it bugged me throughout the entire novel, the plural of Cyclops is Cyclopes. With an E. Please fix that, Ms. Blake, because it's really annoying to try and figure out if you're referring to one or more than one.  And, yes, cyclops is the plural of modern one-eyed creatures, but when it comes to the Cyclopes of Greek Mythology, the word has an E.

Ok.  The shifting perspectives had a definite shift in voice, so that was good.  However, I kept having to readjust in each chapter between the two voices, and that got a little tedious.

So Cassandra and Odysseus just happened to have been given their historical names at birth, despite no one knowing who they were then, but Hector and Andromache did not? 

Finally, WHY DID YOU END IT THAT WAY!?!?!  Ms. Blake, you set up this whole set of relationships and family and then chop it all up in one chapter.  That's just mean.

Rating: 3/5

Maggot Moon

Maggot Moon

by Sally Gardner

Standish Treadwell
Can't read, can't write,
Standish Treadwell isn't bright.
.

Standish is "impure".  He isn't physically perfect.  He's got one blue eye and one brown one.  He can't read or write well despite being 15 years old with parents who both used to work at his school.

.
But Standish isn't dumb.

.
Standish knows the Motherland is evil.

.
Standish knows the Motherland is fake.

.
Standish knows that anyone who says the Motherland is evil and fake will disappear into the maggot fields and never be seen again.

.
Standish knows the Motherland is lying to everyone and he knows he's the only one who can prove it.

.
Final thoughts:  Weird vibe on this one.  It's an alternate reality historical fiction.  The Motherland is a Nazi-like country. The book is set in the 50's, with references to Cadillacs and Lucille Ball. The Motherland officials are trying to convince the world that they are going to send ships to the moon, set up weapons there, and then aim the weapons at any country that goes against them.  Everything in the book seems to fit, but it's all a little disconcerting, as well.  Hard to get a feel on this one.

.
Rating: 3/5
.

Bruised

Bruised

by Sarah Skilton

Imogen has spent a large part of her life in martial arts.  She's the youngest person in her dojang to earn a first degree black belt and she's confident in her abilities.

Until that night.

Until the diner.

Until the moment when she couldn't save anyone.

Not even herself.

Now she needs to find a way to believe in herself again. 

She needs to find a way to forgive those who need it most, especially herself.

Final thoughts: A good story about a girl who thought she was strong, but suddenly felt weak.  Imogen struggles to relate to everyone around her, and the tale is compelling.  She makes every mistake a person can make in an attempt to figure out who she really is.  While the ending wraps up a little unrealistically, it's still a good read, esp. for teens who might be suffering PTSD.

Rating: 4/5

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

by Meg Medina

Piedad "Piddy" Sanchez was perfectly happy in her crappy apartment, living with her mother and aunt.  Things may have always been falling apart, but she knew her neighbors and she liked her school.

After the stairs crumble to pieces beneath her mother's feet, Piddy is forced to move a few blocks away to a better apartment, but now she must go to a horrible school.

Just weeks after starting at her new school, Piddy gets told that the school bully has set her sights on her and now Piddy's in danger.  It seems that Yaqui Delgado thinks Piddy's a stuck-up, wannabe white girl who shakes her assets at Yaqui's boyfriend.  It doesn't seem to matter that Piddy's never met Yaqui, never met Yaqui's boyfriend, and never tried to intentionally shake her assets at anyone.

So while Piddy's still trying to figure out her own identity, and that of her never-seen father, she must also dodge Yaqui and Yaqui's clique of very dangerous girls.

Can she find the strength to survive the school year when the meanest girl in school is after her?

Final thoughts: Interesting look into Latina school culture.  For years I've worked in schools with large Hispanic/Latino populations so this is actually familiar, though definitely more intimate viewing it from within the mind of the victim.  Having also been bullied in high school, this book brought back some very real emotions and memories that I really didn't need to remember.  Good book.  Good voice.  Maybe some translations for the occasional Spanish words that were in the story instead of just having the reader rely on context clues would have helped, but that's about it.

Rating: 4/5

Surfacing

Surfacing

by Nora Raleigh Baskin

When Maggie was just five years old, her nine year old sister drowned.  Ever since, Maggie has had an almost magical ability to get people to tell her their deepest secrets, whether they want to or not.  She has no control over this strange power, but everyone else has definitely noticed so Maggie has just one friend.

And though her sister drowned, Maggie is like a dolphin in the water.  She's fast.  She's good.  She's the swim team's only hope to get to the finals.

Then there's Matthew.  He's a senior and he's all Maggie thinks she wants.

Now Maggie has just a short period of time to get her life in order, even as it falls even further apart.

Final thoughts:  This one is thoughtful and deep, but also a little confusing.  While it starts off with one point of view, the author starts to switch it around and suddenly there are more narrators telling the story.  Maggie is not very relatable as a character.  She makes some very strange choices and it's hard to understand what she's thinking.  Maggie seems pretty emotionally distant from her own life, making it hard for the reader to feel anything at all for her.  The strange confessions that come from everyone just seem an excuse for her not having more than one close friend, though that ability is never explained and makes no sense in the story overall.

Rating: 2/5

Fashionably Dead

Fashionably Dead

by Robyn Peterman

Astrid just wanted to quit smoking.  That's it.  She just wanted to win a thousand dollar bet with her BFF that she could quit smoking.

Who knew that going to a hypnotist to cure her nicotine addiction would get her changed into a Vampyre?  

Who knew that she would then meet her guardian angel (who happens to look exactly like Oprah Winfrey) and a fairy boss (who happens to look exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger)?

Who knew that she would meet the love of her existence and that he would be a complete a$$ at times?

And who knew that she would be "The Chosen One" who could defeat nasty demons and save all vampyres?

Not Astrid herself; that's for certain.

Final thoughts: A few repetitive issues throughout (like the constant "What the fu...") and some attempts at humor that weren't so humorous, were a little frustrating.  Most of the book is told from Astrid's PoV, but there were a few slips as the author seemed to realize that there were occasions when alternate PoV's were necessary, so the reader almost inexplicably has to be without Astrid's voice for a bit and it feels out of place when that happens. That and the fact that there are a few too many similarities to Chloe Neill's Chicagoland series (including the hot vampyre lover/boss named Ethan).  I kept getting pulled out of the narrative thinking about Merit and Ethan and comparing them to Astrid and Ethan.  A little annoying, but not nearly as annoying as the fact that it ends on a cliffhanger and the second book is nowhere in sight.

Rating: 4/5

Undertow

Undertow

by K.R. Conway

Eila Walker has never had good luck.  In fact, she's never even seen what good luck looks like from a distance.  Her parents died when she was just two years old.  She's the odd one out at school.  Her mother's best friend (and her current guardian) is practically killing herself with three jobs just to keep a crappy apartment roof over their heads.  So when a multi-million dollar estate is gifted to her because she was supposed to have inherited it, Eila can't believe it's real.

But it's not only real, it's all hers.  She gets to move to Cape Cod to finally have a home that isn't falling apart on her.

She also suddenly has friends who seem to really like her and a guy who seems to be really into her.

However, Eila's bad luck is never far and her ancestry is much more complex than she could ever have known.  Will she follow her many-times-great grandmother to an early end?

Final thoughts:  I could not put this one down!  Even when I needed to put it down, I had to almost immediately pick it back up.  It took mere hours for me to read this entire book and I am truly ticked that Eila's next story won't be published until July 2014.  I don't want to wait for this story to continue!  My only issues come from a need for a better proofreader (this NetGalley copy has a ton of typos) and these names that are so creative and nearly impossible to figure out how to pronounce.  Oh! And how is a person from 1851 using the term "DNA" when it wasn't even discovered until nearly two decades later?  Other than these things, this is an addictive read.

Rating: 5/5

Unmaking Hunter Kennedy

Unmaking Hunter Kennedy

by Anne Eliot

After one horrible night of car crashes and cut wrists, followed by weeks in therapy, Hunter Kennedy only wants to get back to work as one of the top teen pop stars in the world.

However, his fairly absent mother has finally decided that he needs a change and a little time to figure out who he is, so she sends him to a relative in Colorado to live in disguise as king of the dorks.

To help him on his quest to dorkdom, Hunter's aunt enlists the help of her neighbors and their teen children, Vere and Charlie.  Charlie's an uber-jock, whose job it is to ostracize Hunter in school.  Vere is the complete opposite: an overly shy, mega dork who can't seem to speak in coherent sentences around boys.  Her job is make Hunter as uncool as possible.

In return for helping Hunter with his disguise, Vere gets a boy to practice talking to and be friends with, while getting tips on how to talk to her crush.

Enter Dustin McHugh, Hunter's new dork identity, BGF (best guy friend) of Vere, and personal tutor and confidante about the boy universe.  

Unfortunately, in his quest to help Vere, he also falls head over heels in love, just as Vere's crush finally takes notice of her.

Final thoughts:  Where my usual complaint is that authors tell too much and don't show enough with just a synopsis of a conversation rather than the conversation itself, Eliot just goes on and on.  Professional actors would have a hard time memorizing the sheer number of monologues in this book.  They all talk WAY too much.  I fell asleep more than once reading this one.  The plot was decent and there were some good moments, but the conversations were just very poorly written and went on far too long.

Rating: 3/5

Book Blogger Hop

Book blogging is more than just reading. 

Who helped you set up or run your blog? Or did you do it all yourself? 

Sadly, for me, reading is all I have time to do for my blog.  Originally, I created this blog as a way to communicate with students in my school library.  Very shortly, it became a blog where I book talked.  Eventually, I added "final thoughts" and ratings.  However, I still don't have time to do cool things like author interviews or giveaways.  Maybe that's why my readership is so low after all this time.  :(

On the bright side, I read so many books that it's good to have a place I can go to to remind myself about the books I've read.

Taste Test

Taste Test

by Kelly Fiore

Raised by her widower father and having spent most of her life as his assistant at his locally famous barbeque joint, high school senior Nora Henderson knows her way around a kitchen.  But when she's accepted for a chance to compete on a nationally broadcast food competition show, the prize for which is just too tempting to ignore, Nora's going to have to pull out all the stops.

When she meets her fellow competitors, she knows winning won't be easy.  Between the stuck-up roommate, the heir apparent to his father's cooking legacy, and the producers trying to stir up controversy, Nora's got some serious work ahead of her.  She also has to pass college-level courses and learn new recipes in order to wow the judges at each taping.

Complicating all of that is the saboteur who is picking off fellow contestants one-by-one.  No one knows who's doing it, but Nora's definitely got to watch her back... if she can get her eyes off the back of the hottie who's her biggest competition.

Final thoughts:  Cotton candy book.  It's fluffy and sometimes fun, though there is an odd "aftertaste" in the sense of unanswered questions.  If she's only worked in barbeque, how does she know how to cook so many other foods with so little practice?  Why in the world would the competition be continued after a serious injury to a competitor with no real consequences or changes?  What kind of college classes are they taking? Seriously.  Why can't she make up her mind?  I hate him... I like him... I hate him... He's not that bad... I hate him... I lloooooovvveeeee him!!!!  I would have like more time spent on the judging instead of glossing over that part as the author has.  The recipes at the back are interesting.  I wish the Kindle formatting had been a little better since there seemed to be some charts about the competitors during the judging matching them with their dishes and comments, but they were impossible to read the way the book uploaded.

Rating: 3/5

The Geomancer's Compass

The Geomancer's Compass

by Melissa Hardy

In the year 2021, virtual reality has become the norm with people often injuring themselves while walking around in the physical world and looking at the virtual one.

But that isn't really the problem for Miranda and her family.  Their problem is more ancient.

Her family is cursed by an ancestor who'd been murdered and then buried somewhere very wrong.  Everyone in their family for the last couple generations has suffered and Miranda is believed to be the key to finding the remains of the ancestor and bringing his bones to a more peaceful resting place.

Unfortunately, she has to bring her ADHD cousin along with her for the quest.

Final thoughts: Not even going into how this is for a limited audience of Canadian-Chinese, or even the long, drawn-out, in-depth discussions of both technology and Chinese traditions, this is a poorly written book.  Miranda is flat and annoying. She whines over every little thing and is just basically unlikeable.  Without Brian, the whole book would have been a waste.  Too much of it was unbelievable (an ancestor with very little tech experience manages to become a ghostly avatar in a VR computer program years after his death???), the rest was just badly written, and the ending just arrived with no real closure.  Avoid.

Rating: 1/5

Biting Bad

Biting Bad

by Chloe Neill

In the continuing sage of the Chicagoland Vampires series, Merit and Ethan are finally together.  As in together, together.  As in they are finally a steady, stable couple.

But before they can really settle down and enjoy their immortal lives together, there's another problem that heads their way.

Just as their House has separated from the vampire consortium, anti-vampire forces are building in Chicago.  Riots have begun with little evidence as to why they started or how they are organized.

Now Merit and Ethan have to investigate the riots, get the consortium out of their business, help redeem their wayward witch friend, and try to celebrate Valentine's Day.

No worries.

Final thoughts: I still love this series, but I'm not loving Merit so much in this one.  She's suddenly, and constantly, unable to hold her own.  Injury after injury. Lost battle after lost battle.  She keeps stepping into bad situations and needing to be rescued.  Her personality is still pretty strong, but she's not the bada$$ she has been in previous books.  The ending was also a little off and strange.  Not Neill's best work.

Rating: 3/5

The Bridge

The Bridge

by Jane Higgins

For decades, the land has been separated into the Southsiders and the Citysiders.

Citysiders are privileged, educated, and have all the supplies they need.

Southsiders are poor, uneducated, and must scavenge to survive.

Nik has been in a Cityside school since he was five, training for the elite squads that work to put down the constant uprisings of the Southsiders.

On Selection Day, however, he's passed up with no explanation.  Now he faces a life as an enlisted man.

But Nik's world changes when his school is attacked and destroyed by Southsiders, forcing him and his friends into the arms of the enemy and starting him on a journey to find out who he really is and where he came from.

Final thoughts: The book draws you in and almost forces you to read it, but once you put it down for any reason, picking it back up can be difficult.  It's a dark, heavy read with a major message about war and oppression that is repeatedly beaten over the head of the reader.  It's easy to miss when you start, but it can't be ignored by the end.  There is also some confusion over its dystopian nature.  There's nothing really familiar about the setting, which is a series of bridges along a river, though that may be because the author is from New Zealand and so I may just not know the area about which she's writing.  There are also repeated references to indoctrination of a Christian-type religion and "fascism" (as it's labeled), which feels like the author has a personal point of view that she really wanted to push to others.

Rating: 2/5

The Naturals

The Naturals

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

For the past five years, Cassie's been living with her father's family while he's serving his country overseas.  Before that, she had lived with her nomadic mother, traveling from city to city.  But her mother disappeared from her theater dressing room, leaving Cassie behind with only memories of her mother's training, talents, and blood.

Now, the training that Cassie's mother had given her, and her Natural talent for reading people and profiling them, has caught the eye of the FBI and their new task force made up of other teens with talents like hers.  There's a Natural lie detector, a Natural pattern finder, a Natural emotion reader, and another Natural profiler, like Cassie.

They've been brought together to solve cold cases, much like the case of Cassie's mother.

But the best-laid plans are often thrown out, even by the FBI, and especially when a new serial killer is on the loose, and seems to be getting a little too close to Cassie and her new friends.

Final thoughts: This was an interesting tale, though you really have to suspend your disbelief to think that the FBI is going to hire a bunch of teens and then put them in the line of fire.  Cassie is definitely a thinker, and sometimes seems to over-think things.  The love triangle is awkward and strange at times, especially since Barnes doesn't make a clear choice of who to root for.  It's an obvious first book in a new series, so there was more exposition than might be preferred and there was the obligatory feeling of setting up for future books.  Overall, a decent read.

Rating: 3/5

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children

by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Gabe may have been born a girl, but he's always been a boy at heart.

A lover of music spanning the decades and inspired by a DJ neighbor with a collection to rival that of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Gabe is on a quest to finish high school and finally be able to be the boy he feels he was always meant to be.

He starts his journey with a midnight radio show on a local station called "Beautiful Music for Ugly Children".

On his quest, he inspires people, gives them hope, leads them to crazy acts of bravery around the town, and he finally finds people who may actually accept him for who, and what, he is.

But no journey in life is without its potholes, and Gabe has a rough rode ahead.

Final thoughts: Immediately upon starting this book, I thought of a few students I've met over the years who could use a book like this.  It's realistic and gritty with moments of intense hate and real love.  Gabe's life changes aren't easy for everyone around him to accept, and even he struggles with the practical side of things, though he never even once thinks he might be wrong.  He's always known that though he was born with female parts, he's a male through and through.  His struggles are the struggles of many in the LGBTQ community, not just the transgenders, but it's good that trans teens finally have something to which they can read and relate.  It's not perfect, but it's a good start.

Rating: 4/5

Taking Back Forever

Taking Back Forever

by Karen Amanda Hooper

(Book #2 of the Kindrily series starts immediately after Grasping at Eternity with NO review of previous plot points, so if you haven't read the first one, you'll be really confused with this one.)

Maryah finally believes what the people around her have been telling her; she's the reincarnation of Mary, the leader of the family who "erased" her memory after her last life.

However, she's still unable to control her abilities and help her family as much as she wishes.  She's especially frustrated that she can't help her friend, Harmony, find her soulmate.

When it comes to light that Harmony's soulmate is not only alive, but the murderer of Maryah's family, the need to find him and find out what happened becomes even more important.

Now Maryah must fight to find her memories and regain control of her abilities, while Harmony must find her soulmate, but neither realize how much danger they have put their family in yet.

Final thoughts: It was interesting to finally read the second book of a trilogy that didn't spend the first few chapters in review of the previous book.  The relationships are becoming stronger, though the magic sometimes seems out of place.  Maryah's new knowledge of her past is fascinating and I love learning about her lives with her.  Harmony's voice is interesting, but I missed Nate's side of things.  The book ends fairly calmly unless you read past Hooper's warning and read the first section of the third book.  GOOD story coming there.

Rating: 4/5

Fifth Grave Past the Light

Fifth Grave Past the Light

by Darynda Jones

Reyes Farrow, Son of Satan, is now Charley's new neighbor and Charley doesn't really mind at all.

In fact, it's kind of handy since her own apartment has been overrun by dead blondes, none of whom will talk to her to explain what's going on.

As the one and only Grim Reaper walking the planet right now, it makes sense that they've come to her, but they're not really helping her help them find peace.

Between the dead blondes, an arsonist burning down old buildings, a cheating husband, a woman who appeared dead and then wasn't, and a prediction of a few deaths of people she loves, Charley's got a LOT on her plate.

Final thoughts: I LOVE Charley!!!  She and Reyes are awesome and this book had more of them together, yet still not enough.  If I had any issue with this book, it was in the setting up of the end of the series (which, let's face it, could still be a dozen books away as long as Charley and Reyes get more time together).  There was time spent bringing in and/or mentioning characters from previous books for just a few moments and then forgetting them again.  It felt like Jones was just trying to make sure we remembered everyone as she gets ready to bring them all together.  However, it's still Charley and it's still quirky fun.

Rating: 4/5

Grasping at Eternity

Grasping at Eternity

by Karen Amanda Hooper

Maryah Woodsen is a fairly typical teen.  She's got parents who often say the wrong thing and a twin brother who tries to keep the peace, but teases his sister relentlessly.

Her life is pretty good.

Until the screaming starts.

After weeks recovering in the hospital, Maryah is moved across the country to her godmother's home.

There, she meets a family who take her in immediately and seem to love her with almost no hesitation.  The only person who seems to actively avoid her is Nathan, her godmother's son.

But Nathan is avoiding her for a reason.

It turns out that the entire family are kindrily, a kind of family that reincarnates and finds each other over and over again.  The only condition to them being together is that they keep their memories from one life to the next and never "erase" between lives.

And Maryah did just that.  She erased after her last life and no one understands why, least of all her soulmate for the last five centuries, Nathan.

Now Maryah and her new family have to find a way to work together because something is coming, and it's possible that Maryah's the key to it all.

Final thoughts: This is a nice, new, original story that I really liked.  The whole idea of the reincarnation of soulmates and keeping or erasing memories is fascinating.  My only real issue was with Hooper trying to explain the Elements and how those Elements gave supernatural powers to each of the members of the kindrily.  It felt a little forced.  However, that doesn't stop the coolness factor of the story itself.  I'm looking forward to the second book.

Rating: 4/5

Click to Subscribe

Click to Subscribe

by L.M. Augustine

Sam Green (a.k.a. West Ryder) has a thriving and popular vlog and on online romance with one of his subscribers (Harper) who posts comments at 2:02 p.m. every day on the dot.

West Ryder (a.k.a. Sam Green) has a crappy home life, especially after his mother died in car accident caused by his alcoholic father.  His only two joys are his alternate identity's vlog and his best friend, Cat.

When Sam and Harper agree to finally meet up in person, it's a Catfish moment as West realizes that Harper is really his best friend, Cat, who fell in love with him years before and has only now been able to confess it.

Now West and Cat must navigate this new layer of their relationship, while West must also deal with his father's alcoholism and the constant reminders of the loss of his mother.

Final thoughts: Meh. West and Cat have a cool friendship, but the "witty repartee" gets really annoying really quickly.  There are also a number of consistency errors with things like West mentioning that he works at Starbucks to help pay the bills, but then he's NEVER there and even meets his Catfish at an unremarkable coffee house somewhere else.  All he does is go to school, go home, vlog, do homework, rinse, repeat, so when does he go to this nightly job that he mentions ONCE?  The lack of closure at the end regarding his relationship with his father is frustrating, too.  However, the relationship between West and Cat feels as real and as chaotic as any typical high school budding romance.

Rating: 3/5

Reading Personality Quiz

The Relentless Reader posted on Book Bloggers International and she included a link to a personality quiz.  I took the quiz and I am a...

Serial Reader

"You may read a lot or a little, but either way you're a publisher's dream, because once you discover a favorite writer you stick with him/her through thick and thin and eagerly await the next in the series; but even you need to discover some new blood from time to time!"

Yup!  That sounds about right.  Without NetGalley, I might never try new authors, especially now that my local bookstores are all shut down and I don't have time to go out to others for serious browsing time.