Top Ten Tuesday: Books I've Read So Far In 2013

Top Ten Tuesdays is a meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish that features a new topic each week where we have to put down our top ten of it.

This week's topic:

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far In 2013

This was a very hard top ten to put together but I managed to do it. =D

Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi

Obsession by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Spririt (Elemental #3) by Brigid Kemmerer

Sever (The Chemical Garden #3) by Lauren DeStefano

Girl With Guitar (Girl With Guitar #1) by Caisey Quinn

Justice (Galilee Falls Trilogy #1) by Jennifer Harlow

The Reluctant Assassin (W.A.R.P. #1) by Eoin Colfer

The Indigo Spell (Bloodlines #3) by Richelle Mead

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

All of these books were simply amazing! I loved them and would recommend every single one.

Honorable mentions go to Clockwork Princess, Christabel, Solar Defeated and Les Misérables.

Review: Death Takes a Holiday by Jennifer Harlow

Title: Death Takes a Holiday
Author: Jennifer Harlow
Series: A F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad Investigation #3
Publication: August 8th 2013 by Midnight Ink
Genre: Fantasy
Format: e-arc
Cover Rating: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4/5

Copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review.

  

A supernatural love triangle + one indecent proposal Beatrice Alexander can crush a sixty-foot snake with her mind, but she can't take any more of the drama that's tearing apart F.R.E.A.K.S. Should she give it all up -- her job as a secret agent and the possibility of a relationship with Will, the gorgeous werewolf? Bea's hoping to get it all figured out on a trip home for Christmas. But soon her hunky ex-boyfriend wants to rekindle their romance. Then, a powerful (and super hot) vampire lord offers Bea an impossible ultimatum: leave San Diego and her family forever -- or become his lover.

~My thoughts:

How I love this series! One of my all-time favorites so far. Once again Jennifer Harlow did a great job with this series.

Death Takes a Holiday starts out with Bea running away from a basilisk and crushing it with her awesome mind power. Loved that. Brilliant start. After that we find out quite a few things have happened since the last book. The team is all devided in two parts about what happened there. That made me so sad and I couldn't believe Will would let things get so far. So Bea decides to take a much needed vacation and return home, but of course the vacation doesn't turn out exactly like she wanted to...

I must admit that Death Takes a Holiday isn't my favorite Freaks book so far. It's still a really great book but I felt at some point that all Bea did was whine about Will and Oliver, like it was all about the love triangle. Yep. Bea was annoying me for a little while. Never saw that one coming. Luckily it didn't take long for things to pick back up. So other than I loved this book. There were quite a few new characters like the Irish vamipre lord Connor. I must say I love him. So I'm curious to read more about him in the future maybe.

Like I said Bea kept going back and forth on her feelings for Will and Oliver. There were even dirty dreams involved. lol.
I'm still rooting for the Oliver. He's so amazing and after this book I'm even more convinced. He's the guy for Bea! We found more about his past also. I feel with every book we learn more and more about him and that makes me even love him more. He actually understands Bea, unlike Will. Yeah, I still don't like him. He's too serious and brooding and not fun. But I guess the heart wants what it wants. And Bea wants Will. But things still aren't resolved between them so there's still a chance for Oliver or even Connor to sweep her off her feet. We'll see...

The overall story line was amazeballs! Never in a thousand years I would've seen THIS coming. Yes, Jennifer Harlow is truly the queen of plot twists. And I love her for it.


Death Takes a Holiday might not be the best Freaks book out there (personally for me due to lack of Oliver) but it definitely wasn't lacking action, good writing or unexpected turns. No, I really liked it and it's a nice addition to the this series. I can't wait to read the fourth book and see what other adventures the team is going to go on!

~Favorite Quotes:

It takes all my willpower not to run like the Flash out of that club, but since it was bravado that's more or less kept me alive in the past few minutes, I must keep up appearances.

“Go get it over with, and I'll reward you with a cherry margarita," April says.
"With sugar rim?"
"Of course. What are we? Heathens?"
"I want two. And flan."
"Done. Now get over there. And be nice.”

I sigh. What a couple of days. Tomorrow I am so not leaving my bedroom. Not if there's a fire, an earthquake, or if Chris Evans shows up on my doorstep begging me to run off to Hawaii with him.

“Glad I help you expand your horizons." "Perhaps later we can return to your bedroom and I can expand yours.”

~About the author:

Jennifer Harlow spent her restless childhood fighting with her three brothers and scaring the heck out of herself with horror movies and books. She grew up to earn a degree at the University of Virginia which she put to use as a radio DJ, crisis hotline volunteer, bookseller, lab assistant, wedding coordinator, and government investigator. Currently she calls Northern Virgina home but that restless itch is ever present. In her free time she continues to scare the beejepers out of herself watching scary movies and opening her credit card bills.

Find Jennifer also on:

Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest | Twitter | Website

Review: Justice by Jennifer Harlow

Title: Justice
Author: Jennifer Harlow
Series: Galilee Falls #1
Publication: May 2013 by Devil on the Left Books
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Format: ebook, 280 pages
Cover Rating: 3/5
Overall Rating: 5/5

Copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

  

It’s hard being a regular police officer in Galilee Falls, a city with the highest concentration of superheroes and villains in the country. It’s even harder watching your best friend, the man you’re secretly in love with your whole life, planning to marry another woman. Detective Joanna Fallon has to contend with both. When the vilest supervillain in the city’s history, Alkaline, the former crime boss who can shoot acid from his wrists, escapes from the maximum security prison, the whole city is gripped by panic. Leading the pursuit is Captain Harry O’Hara, Joanna’s boss and secret lover, and the city’s champion superhero Justice, who caught the villain last time, much to Joanna’s chagrin. Before her father was murdered in a mugging twenty years earlier, Joanna worshiped the hero, but when he disappeared and failed to save her father, that adoration turned to contempt for all supers. After Alkaline attacks too close to home and targets Joanna as his next victim, tough-as-nail Joanna has to contend with her increasing fear while struggling to choose between her life-long crush and her new-found love.

At turns vulnerable and fierce, equally mordant and winsome, Joanna is an earnest yet emotionally damaged heroine, who despite the tough breaks of her childhood sees the good in people and vow to protect her beloved city at all costs. An ass-kicking petite firecracker with no superpowers of her own, she charges after supervillains unflinchingly, never losing her wit even when facing her toughest fight. With a coy blend of whimsy and vivid imagination, she delivers both humor and thrills in an action-packed and edgy blend of comic book cool, fantasy-noir, and bitter-sweet romance.

~My thoughts:

I would've posted this review sooner but I had already written a review of this and saved it but then it magically disappeared on me so that's why it took me a while.

Justice by Jennifer Harlow introduces us to a brilliant world full of superheroes (tights and everything), complex but interesting characters and of course can't have superheroes without some very evil supervillains. 
This story follows the fierce but emotionally damaged detective Joanna Fallon, who has her own personal problems with superheroes. Especially city champion Justice and also being in love for over twenty years with her best friend, Justin, and having a secret relationship with her boss, Harry. On top of all that she gets targeted by supervillain Alkaline. 

I've been a fan of Jennifer Harlow's books ever since I read her Freaks books. I love them but I have to say that I think Justice easily is her best writing so far. It's a very different story and boy, is it a bittersweet ending but damn I loved it so much. Although I wasn't sure I was gonna like it at the beginning because Joanna's voice is so different from other heroines I've read. She's so very complex, damaged and has a lot of flaws but that's why I like her so much. She's real. Jennifer Harlow write her so well. I was really impressed by how totally amazing this book was.
The other characters were also very interesting to read about from Justin to Harry to Justice and Alkaline. I loved reading about them all so much and never got bored everytime I picked this book up. 

The ending was so sad, I got all weepy eyed. But it was a good ending even though it felt like I was kicked in the chest. And also what good book doesn't have an unexpected betrayal in them? Jennifer Harlow really writes amazingly unexpected plot twists. You'd think with her you would start expecting them but no, takes me by surprise every single time and with this book it was no different. Loved it!

Overall Justice by Jennifer Harlow isn't your typical superhero story. It's a story about love, friendship, sacrifice and doing the right thing. Joanna isn't a superhero, she just a normal person with her own problems but she sure can kick some ass! This story was in my opnion exceptionally well written and the story line was superb! One of the best books I've read so far this year + all-time. I can't wait to read the second book. I hope it'll be just as amazing as Justice was!

~Favorite Quotes:

All this sudden interest in my safety is getting old and stiffling. I feel like a pissed-off china doll.

Okay... I feel like total and utter shit. They could do a full-scale model of the Eiffel Tower with the amount of shit I feel like right now.

It's about five and the party begins at seven, so I have to get the hell out of here. I need to shower, shave, eat, straighten my hair, apply make-up, and try to get a cab on a Friday night. Ugh, girly things. Kill me now.

Sometimes there's not enough light in this godforsaken world to keep the darkness at bay.

~About the author:

Jennifer Harlow spent her restless childhood fighting with her three brothers and scaring the heck out of herself with horror movies and books. She grew up to earn a degree at the University of Virginia which she put to use as a radio DJ, crisis hotline volunteer, bookseller, lab assistant, wedding coordinator, and government investigator. Currently she calls Northern Virgina home but that restless itch is ever present. In her free time she continues to scare the beejepers out of herself watching scary movies and opening her credit card bills.

Find Jennifer also on:

Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest | Twitter | Website

Purchase Justice on:

Amazon