You know that feeling when you feel like you are gonna go mad if you do not get a certain book right away, when you are obsessed and all you want is that one book and you will be happy? That is what Monday Madness is about. All those books you that drive you mad.
Pick a book. Talk about it- why do you want it? What has drawn you to it? Why is it making you mad with want for it?
Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray Cleopatra's Daughter #1 Published: January 4th 2011 by Berkley
Heiress of one empire and prisoner of another, it is up to the daughter of Cleopatra to save her brothers and reclaim what is rightfully hers...
To Isis worshippers, Princess Selene and her twin brother Helios embody the divine celestial pair who will bring about a Golden Age. But when Selene's parents are vanquished by Rome, her auspicious birth becomes a curse. Trapped in an empire that reviles her heritage and suspects her faith, the young messianic princess struggles for survival in a Roman court of intrigue. She can't hide the hieroglyphics that carve themselves into her hands, nor can she stop the emperor from using her powers for his own ends. But faced with a new and ruthless Caesar who is obsessed with having a Cleopatra of his very own, Selene is determined to resurrect her mother's dreams. Can she succeed where her mother failed? And what will it cost her in a political game where the only rule is win-or die?
This book has been on my wishlist for ages! Stephanie Dray is one of my favorite historical fiction authors and just an awesome person. So far I have read The Princess of Egypt Must Die, A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii and America's First Daughter. That last one was a very impressive book to me. So of course I'd love to read her Cleopatra's Daughter trilogy. Especially because it's set in Ancient Egypt, which is my favorite thing to read about.
Title: Pawn Author: Aimee Carter Series: The Blackcoat Rebellion #1 Publication: November 26th 2013 by Harlequin Teen Genre: Dystopian ~ Young Adult Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository Cover Rating: 3/5 Overall Rating: 2/5 Review copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review.
YOU CAN BE A VII IF YOU GIVE EVERYTHING.
For Kitty Doe, it seems like an easy choice. She can either spend her life as a III in misery, looked down upon by the higher ranks and forced to leave the people she loves, or she can become a VII and join the most powerful family in the country.
If she says yes, Kitty will be Masked—surgically transformed into Lila Hart, the Prime Minister's niece, who died under mysterious circumstances. As a member of the Hart family, she will be famous. She will be adored. And for the first time, she will matter.
There's only one catch. She must also stop the rebellion that Lila secretly fostered, the same one that got her killed…and one Kitty believes in. Faced with threats, conspiracies and a life that's not her own, she must decide which path to choose—and learn how to become more than a pawn in a twisted game she's only beginning to understand.
I haven't read anything by Aimee Carter. I do own The Goddess Test, which I am still excited to read. But Pawn left me a little unsatisfied I have to admit. I had a lot of mixed feelings reading it. At times my eyes bulged out of my head, thinking even for a dystopian book it was way too out there, which is definitely the most part of my dislike for it. But at other times I must say I did like all the unexpected twists. These made me want to read on and not give it up. So, yeah, like I said; mixed feelings. Some of the laws in Pawn were just plain absurd. When people turn seventeen they have to take a test that will give you your number (I - VII). So basically how smart you are will lead to what number you will get. The lower the number you have the less smart you apparently are and less of a good life you have. Also, the rankings from I to VII reminded me a bit of The Selection. And let me just tell you lately I've not been happy with that book either so this was nog a good thing. No. Just no... And then another thing, these characters... Especially the main character Kitty. I couldn't like her or almost any other character. I couldn't connect with her. Sure, I felt bad this crap happened to her but she should've known that if she said yes to be a VII that bad things would happen. Even when she got Masked, I felt like she had no personality. Like she just all took it with almost no complaining. It didn't even feel like she was upset about it. As for the other characters, they were also very dull to me. Don't get me started on the Harts. The only ones that I did like were Knox and Greyson. The others I didn't really care for. As for Benjy (Kitty's boyfriend) I don't know yet. I couldn't really get a grasp of him. I am glad, though, that the romance in this book was more in the background and that there already was a excisting romance between Kitty and Benjy. At least that was a plus point for me. I see more and more authors doing this, especially in this genre. I really like that. Overall Pawn was a bizarre (not in the good way) dystopian novel that I really wanted to like but didn't. It was just okay for me. It was a pretty quick read and not hard to get into, I'll give it that... but in the end this really wasn't the right book for me. I might read the sequel though, just to see what's going to happen next.
Title: The Iron Queen Author: Julie Kagawa Series: The Iron Fey #3 Publication: January 25th 2011 by Harlequin Teen Genre: Young Adult Format: Paperback, 358 pages Cover Rating: 5/5 Overall Rating: 2/5 Purchase: The Book Depository ~ Amazon ~ Fishpond ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Kobo
My name is Meghan Chase. I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who's sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it. This time, there will be no turning back.
~My thoughts:
First of all I'd like to say that The Iron Queen wasn't entirely bad. There were definitely some awesome moments but they didn't overshadow all that I disliked. I think my issues with it are more with Meghan and Ash than everything else. I'm just not feeling her as the heroine. I know from myself, that I'm really tough on my heroines in books and Meghan just didn't do it for me. I just find her annoying. I used to love Ash. I really did. But in this book I didn't like him at all and even wished for him to go away. Meghan and Ash might be meant to be but I found myself skimming, something I usually never do, over the parts of them together. It was rather boring. Normally I love action in a book. But all the battle and action scenes in The Iron Qeen were making me frustrated. I didn't like them at all and just wanted them to be over. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from reading this book but it's just how I feel. I hated the end. I really did. I hated that Ash was gone and Meghan hadn't seen him again and I hated that Meghan had to say goodbye to her family. That part was really sad. Now, luckily there were some good parts in it too like every scene where Puck was in! I love Puck so much. Actually every since I recently read William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream I've loved him. I used to be team Ash but I'm now totally on Puck's side. I love that redhead. I like that he's going with Ash to wherever they're going and I sincerely I hope that I'll like The Iron Knight better. I'm definitely gonna read it. I also loved the scenes with Grimalkin. I love that cat! It was also terribly sad when he said goodbye to Meghan.
So except for Puck and Grim this book was just okay for me. I hate that I felt like this because I do think Julie Kagawa is an amazing writer and I did love The Iron King, the first book in this series. So I wouldn't discourage anyone for reading this book and series. There's still some pretty amazing characters in this book and the fae world is wonderful and magical to me.
~Favorite Quote~
"Goodfellow?" Glitch stared at Puck nervously. "Robin Goodfellow?" "Oh, look at that, he's heard of me My fame grows." Puck snorted and leaped off the rood. In midair, he became a giant black raven, who swooped toward us with a raucous cry before dropping into the circle as Puck in an explosion of feathers. "Ta-daaaaaaaaaa."
~About the author:
Julie Kagawa, the New York Times Bestselling author of The Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series, was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn't getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.
First Line: The newborn wailed as the midwife wrapped her in a receiving blanket and quickly handed her to Sister Ruth.
~Synopsis~
Embrace the Forbidden What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences? This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels. Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna. Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?
My thoughts: I won Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins a while ago, which made me really happy. I think it was one of the first giveaways I ever won. I fell in love with the cover and also got an awesome looking bookmark with it. It did take me a while to finally read it but I did and finished it in a couple of days. I liked Kaidan Rowe right from the beginning. Because, well, he's a drummer. I love drummers! And also he has that whole sexy, tortured guy thing going on that I love. Plus he's british! *drool drool drool* At first he was the reason I kept on reading this book because I had a lot of trouble to keep reading at the beginning. The world of angels and demons in this book is absolutely one of the more original ones I've come across and I loved that. With the whole nephilim who have to work the sins. That was probably my favorite thing together with Kai (Who's the son of the duke of Lust, of course). I didn't always liked Anna's relationship with Kai, but most of the time I did. I do hope they can be together eventually. Anna's character was hard for me to like at first because she's so "good". But I came to like her when she got more sure of herself, around at the end part. First of all I wanted to say that even though I only gave it 2 stars, Sweet Evil was not a bad book. I felt like I wanted to give it 2.5 stars but I don't work with halves so I had to give it two. Obviously I didn't fully enjoy it due to some factors I couldn't look past. And I do have to say that I am very very critical when it comes to angel books. I have no idea what it is about them but I am... It was an okay book to me, sadly enough. I really wish I enjoyed it more because it has a lot of good reviews from other. Guess I just wasn't feeling the love. It happens. I had problems with the writing and all the little things that happened. Some of it just didn't make sense to me. Sometimes I liked Anna, sometimes I just wanted her to go away. Also some of the other characters bothered me a lot, like Anna's adoptive mother, Patti. I'm sure she's a great mom, but she let her sixteen year old daughter go alone on a roadtrip with Kaidan. I mean, come on, what was she thinking? Also I had mixed feelings with Anna's father, who's a demon. At times I liked him, at other times I felt... I don't know... maybe that he's hiding something or their was something off about him or maybe it was just the way he was written and the way he talked. *sigh* I also didn't get why Anna liked him so fast and accepted him. She called him dad so soon... I don't get it. I really don't. The characters I really liked were the other nephilim kids; Kopano, Ginger and Marna and Blake. They seemed cool to me. So coming at the end I was mostly reading to know more about them and also Kai. Always Kai. :) So really the thing that bothered me was the writing, the parts that didn't make sense to me, like it didn't fit in with the story? I could've been much better. But I do have to say again that the world was original and I hope to read more about it. The romance between Kai and Anna was very nice. It got a little steamy on the roadtrip (well how far it can get steamy in a YA book...) They were obviously very attracted to each other even though a relationship wouldn't work and I know Anna saw it eventually. Well, after she got all clingy, that is... Anyway... if you want to read something new and different this is the book for you. I just hope you'll enjoy it more than I have.
~Quotes~
"I felt you come alive when we kissed, and I know you’re afraid of that. Afraid to unleash that other side of yourself. "
"Wait,” Kaidan called from behind me. I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, but kept walking. Then I felt his hand around my
wrist, spinning me in a half circle and pulling me to his chest. His face was so close. He reached down and cupped my face with one
woolly hand, and wiped the top corner of my lip hard with his thumb. I flinched back. “What are you doing?” “I...” He appeared to have no idea himself. “I wanted to see your freckle.” A vulnerable tenderness flashed across his face, more painful to see than the coldness. It took every ounce of strength I had not to
beg for one last kiss. As fast as his expression had softened, it was back to stone again.
“What do you want from me, Kai?”
“For starters?” His voice lowered to sexy, dangerous depths. “I want to introduce myself to every freckle on your body.”
A powerful shiver ripped through me."
About the author:
After earning a bachelors in Creative Writing from George Mason University and a masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Radford, Wendy taught high school English until becoming a mommy. Writing Young Adult (YA) stories gives her the opportunity to delve into the ambiguities of those pivotal, daunting, and exciting years before adulthood.
She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, daughter, and son. Sweet Evil is her debut novel. Visit Wendy at http://www.wendyhigginswrites.comFind her also at: Goodreads ~ Twitter ~ Facebook
I'm Stephanie, a 34 y/o book reviewer from Belgium who loves exploring both fiction + nonfiction and connecting with fellow bookworms. I also love listening to various podcasts, visiting museums and walking with my dog Cleo.
