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July 2013

reviews July 29, 2013

Wake by Lisa McMann

Wake (Dream Catcher 1) by Lisa McMann

NOT ALL DREAMS ARE SWEET.

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people’s dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie’s seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can’t tell anybody about what she does — they’d never believe her, or worse, they’d think she’s a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else’s twisted psyche. She is a participant…. (Goodreads)

Janie was 8 years old when she discovered that when she is close to someone who is asleep, she gets sucked into the dreams. She slowly starts to learn more about how to control it and then she meets Cabel who can speak to her in his dreams and remember it. Janie has never told anyone what she can do, nor even her mother, but is forced to told Cabel after he sees Janie getting paralyzed while getting into a dream. She gets to know Cabel better and learns that he is hiding something.

I hadn’t read many reviews about this before reading it and had vague idea about what’s it about. And what a mistake that was.

I had problems with the writing style which was choppy and there was lots of short sentences one after another and there’s date and time told when everything happens.

She sees it, vividly.
Cabel, leaving the house. Slamming the door.
The man on the steps, yelling. Following.
The punch to Cabel’s face.
The lighter fluid to his belly.
The fire and screaming.
The transformation.
pg. 168

It grew old very quickly and plainly started to annoy me pretty soon. It also made it sound like children’s book more than ya book. Actually my friend saw me reading it and seeing how the pages looked said that it looks like children’s book.

I absolutely loved that after reading few books from library about dreaming of course solves all the problems and she learns all about her gift and all. Why is it never that easy in real life? And the twist near the end is the most ridiculous and so not needed in long time I’ve read.

I believe this is the first in a trilogy but I’m not planning to read the rest. This was more than enough for me.

2/5
Published: Simon Pulse (2008)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 210
Source: my own

reviews July 29, 2013

Delilah by Eleanor De Jong

Delilah by Eleanor De Jong

Maligned as the courtesan who revealed the mighty Samson’s secret for money, Delilah has become synonymous with treachery. But behind the myth is a tale far more tragic! From the moment they met, there was a fire in their relationship, with Samson pitted against Delilah’s family. But Samson soon develops an overwhelming passion for Delilah; entranced by her beauty and passionate nature. Meanwhile the Israelites and the Philistines are in a state of constant conflict, with Samson a seemingly unbeatable warrior. The Philistines are desperate to learn the secret behind Samson’s power and enrol Delilah as a pawn to bring him down. Driven by misplaced anger, Delilah agrees to use her wiles to discover the secret of his strength. But Delilah finds that Samson is far from the ogre that she had assumed. But a sequence of events have been set in motion which both of them are powerless to stop. The consequences of her mistake have gone down in history and this wonderful novel is as alluring and beguiling as Delilah herself. (Goodreads)

After Delilah’s father dies her mother remarries their employer. But he is Philisetine while Delilah’s family is Israelite and there’s no great love between the cultures. Her new stepsister Hemin seems to hate her and everything she represents but Hemin’s brother adores her.

Hemin is about to be married to Samson, young Israelite who people look as their leader. The wedding doesn’t go through and Delilah takes great dislike to Samson when they first meet. When her stepfather offers her as a wife to Samson instead of Hemin, she makes it clear what she thinks of him. But Samson can’t get her out of his mind and then Delilah gets on offer she can’t refuse.

I’m surprised how much I liked this. I’ve heard of Samson and Delilah before but didn’t know anything about them so I didn’t know what to suspect.

Delilah was strong, willful and brave and I liked her from the start. She grows in a Philistine family learning their culture and ways and has never really felt the need to learn the ways of her people. When she meets Samson she thinks he’s brutish barbarian but there is spark between them from the start. I didn’t always agreed what she did or how she did but I understand her reasons.

I liked Samson and how he believed in what he was doing. He was definitely no barbarian but not an open or easy man either. He was said to be violent man but he also cared for his mother and gave great balance. But I did wonder that Samson being no idiot how easily and completely he fell for Delilah so quickly. He suspected everyone and everything of betrayal but never even thought she could betray him?

Delilah’s brother Ekron is first rather weak and gives Delilah puppy eyes and I wasn’t prepared for the change for what he became. Not sure if everything he did to her at the end was really necessary but it showed how far they had became while choosing sides.

I liked the book and it was great debut for the author. While the characters are from the bible it’s not very religious and I felt like I was reading just historical book.

4/5
Published: Avon (2011)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 377
Source: publisher

reviews July 29, 2013

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

When Nina Revskaya puts her remarkable jewelry collection up for auction, the former Bolshoi Ballet star finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland, and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed her life half a century earlier. It was in Russia that she discovered the magic of dance and fell in love, and where, faced with Stalinist aggression, a terrible discovery incited a deadly act of betrayal—and an ingenious escape to the West.

Nina has kept her secrets for half a lifetime. But now Drew Brooks, an inquisitive associate at a Boston auction house, and Grigori Solodin, a professor who believes Nina’s jewels hold the key to unlocking his past, begin to unravel her story—setting in motion a series of revelations that will have life-altering consequences for them all. (Goodreads)

Former ballerina Nina Revskaya has decided to auction off her jewelry collection. Once a prima ballerina for the Bolshoi Ballet now she is confined to a wheelchair.Growing up in Soviet Russia under Stalin, she has learned to keep her secret and thought to herself and doesn’t like to speak of her past.

Then an anonymous donor gives the auction an Amber necklace, a piece that seems to match Nina’s jewelry. The donor is Grigori Solodin who got the necklace from his adoptive parents. He thinks Nina is the key for solving who his parents is, but Nina isn’t cooperating and refuses speaking to him. Drew Brooks is the representative from the auction house and she’s trying to learn more of Russia because her grandfather came from there. Drew and Grigori tries to find out where the necklace came from and getting to know each other.

I had so much trouble writing this review and I’m still not quite sure what to think of the book.

I liked it when I first started it, then I didn’t like it, then it was better again and then not so good. It just kept changing. There was few times I thought of giving up and the only reason I didn’t was because this was for review. And I can’t really point what the problem was. Maybe because besides Nina I just didn’t connect with the characters.

I liked Nina and the best parts was the scenes in the past with her. It would have been pretty scary living in Stalin’s Russia! But I didn’t find Grigori and Drew interesting enough and present day Nina was just mean. And the switches of povs got on my nerves pretty soon. It changed multiple times in one chapter – between characters and between times. Just made my head hurt and annoyed.

Didn’t like the ending either; it just ended suddenly and I felt like “Is this it?” And so many things were left unanswering.

Can’t help but feel disappointed and I really wanted to like this. It had very interesting topic but it just couldn’t carry it through. I was going between giving this 2 or 3 but since I thought of giving up I’m going with 2. But because I liked the past times I’ll give extra half points.

2,5/5
Published: Harper Perennial (2011)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 496
Source: publisher

reviews July 28, 2013

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

Bitten (Women of the Otherworld 1) by Kelley Armstrong

Elena Michaels seems like the typically strong and sexy modern woman, She lives with her architect boyfriend, writes for a popular newspaper, and works out at the gym. She’s also a werewolf.

Elena has done all she can to assimilate to the human world, but the man whose bite changed her existence forever, and his legacy, continue to haunt her. Thrown into a desperate war for survival that tests her allegiance to a secret clan of werewolves, Elena must recon with who, and what, she is in this passionate, page-turning novel. (Goodreads)

When the book starts, Elena is trying to live anormal life in Toronto after leaving her pack. She has a boyfriend and a job but she doesn’t feel comfortable. Then she gets a call from Jeremy, the Alpha, and she hasto go back with pack. There she meets her ex-lover Clay, who turned her into a werewolf, and they clearly have some unfinished business. And then dead human bodies starts to pile on the pack’s area and it looks like Elena has to stay longer than she wants.

I loved Armstrong’s young adult serie before and I was really curious how her adult books would be. And I wasn’t disappointed! I enjoyed this from the start.

I liked Elena and I think she made great narrator. She was strong, kick ass-woman and no damsel in distress. And I was pleasantly surprised that while she is the only female werewolf in the world, not every single man was drooling after her and trying to get her to bed. Elena has been a werewolf for 10 years but she’s still trying to come to terms with it and hasn’t forgiven Clay for what he did. But during the book she’s finally starting to accept it little by little and noticing that the pack is her true family.

I loved Clay! He could be really rude at times but he clearly loved Elena. It was fun to read about their love/hate relationship and it felt realistic. Clay has some problems to accept the fact that Elena was living with a human man but finally tries to save his life because Elena would want it. Poor Clay, he tries so hard to win her back and she’s not making things easy.

What a great book and I love the writing style. I need to get the next book soon!

4,5/5
Published: Orbit (2008)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 448
Source: my own

reviews July 27, 2013

Die for Me by Amy Plum

Die for Me (Revenants 1) by Amy Plum

My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.

Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were moving to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my life would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.

Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, he put me in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen . . . until I realized that Vincent Delacroix is no normal human–that he has a terrifying destiny and enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.

Can I risk everything for love? (Goodreads)

Sisters Kate and Georgia has lost their parents in a car accident and they move to Paris to live with their grandparents. Kate has hard time moving on and spends her days mostly alone reading books. Her sister tries to drown her sorrow with parties and dancing.
Kate starts to spend at at a cafe reading and that’s where she meets Vincent, who isn’t what he seems. Their feelings starts to grow but when Kate starts to learn more about Vincent, she starts to have second thoughts and to think if it’s safe to be together.

When I first heared about this book the first thing I noticed was that it’s set in Paris. It really doesn’t take much to get me interested and I’m happy to say I enjoyed it! I liked the idea of Revenants. Their basically people who die intead of others and they come back to life. They spend the rest of their life trying to safe people and after they die they always come back to life. They do age but after dying they come back at the age they died the first time.

Vincent was so adorable and nicely romantic. I’m not usually big fan of that type of men but I liked him. And he really knows how to handle a sword! Loved those scenes.
Sure there were moments where Kate just can’t take eyes from him because he’s just so gorgeous but gladly she has brains too. And she doesn’t run head over heels in love but thinks is it safe and how it will affect her family.

I also loved the relationship between the sisters. They’re always been close but after their parents death their been even closer and are really friends. There was great cast of supporting characters and I loved Jules. I wish there would have been more of him!

Great debut from Plum and I’m waiting for the next book!

3,5/5
Published: Atom (2011)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 344
Source: publisher