Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Obsidian (Lux #1) Review

Title: Obsidian (Lux #1)

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publication Date: May 8th 2012

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Genre: YA, Sci-fi, fantasy, romance

Pages: 335

Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis: (Via GoodReads)

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens. 

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. 

If I don't kill him first, that is

A very unique and fun take on aliens. The usual aliens are little green men that live in another world, while in this book aliens are very attractive human beings. The author goes into depth with world building for the world of Luxe, where the aliens have come from. There is a romance between Katy and the boy next door, Daemon. This romance can seem cliche in the beginning  but it grows into a beautiful relationship that warms your heart.

The main character, Katy, is very real character. I found myself relating to her and agreeing with the actions she did. I also appreciated her love of books, and that she is a book blogger as well. The other characters were strong characters, too, but some more than others.  Dee, Daemons sister, is a well built character and I have very strong feelings for her. As soon as she was welcomed into the book I was immediately drawn to her and found myself looking forward to the next time she would be in the scene.

I gave this book a 4 out of 5 because I found the beginning to be a little slow and it dragged, but i pushed through it, and it was worth it. I loved the other half of the book and found it very intriguing and fascinating. I would definitely recommend this book to readers who love romance and paranormal.


Sunday, December 29, 2013

Unite Review

Title: Unite

Author: Jamie Campbell

Publication Date: December 3rd 2013

Genre: YA Sci-Fi

Pages: 288

Rating: 4 out of 5 

Synopsis: (Via GoodReads)

United They Stand.

Seventeen years ago an entire generation of aliens were sent to Earth in order to save their home planet and integrate into the human population. Now, those aliens are being hunted.

Amery Jones is your typical teenager, except for the fact she is an alien and a member of the government’s secret Project Integrate.

When Amery’s best friend Lola is kidnapped in order to get to her, there is only one person that can help – the exceedingly annoying and charming Lochie Mercury.

Together, Amery and Lochie must put aside their differences and attraction in order to rescue Lola before it’s too late.


The book follows Amery, who is an alien, and shows the reader a new world. The author immediately puts the reader into a world of what ifs and confusion. The whole world we made up about aliens is shattered in this novel. 

The main character, Amery, was a little aggravating in the middle of the book. I just did not like the whole thing between her and Lochie. To me this was the cliche romance between the hated enemies, and it made me a little angry because I believed it was not necessary. I did like the characters though and really appreciated the secondary characters. Jamie Campbell has a way of writing likable characters and readers will enjoy that. I will say that this book seems to aim more towards younger readers, not people who have higher standers compared to a new reader. 

The book did have lacking points, with the cliche, but it lived up to some of my expectations. I would reccomend this to new, younger readers, not older readers, for they would not like the book at all.

Lost Boys Review

*****ARC Recieved From NetGalley*****
Title: The Lost Boys

Author: Lilian Carmine

Publication Date: January 1st 2014

Publisher: Ebury Press

Genre: YA Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal

Pages: 512 

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: (Via GoodReads)

Fate has brought them together. But will it also keep them apart?

Having moved to a strange town, sixteen-year-old Joey Gray is feeling a little lost, until she meets a cute, mysterious boy near her new home.

But Tristan Halloway is not what he seems. And there's a very good reason why he's always to be found roaming between the gravestones in the local cemetery...


This book follows a teenage girl, Joe, that makes a friend in a new town, but she meets him in a cemetery. The relationship grows between the two characters, Joe and Tristan, and shows some great potential. The book follows Joe through this relationship and her endeavors. 

I liked the whole idea of the book and the writing made it seem so good. The beginning of the book sucked me in and will continue to suck many readers in. It was unique and well-done. The middle of the book went down hill for me though. I found Joe to get aggravating in the way of regular YA Jane Doe's. She was made to be to cliche and perfect, i.e. when she disrespected the 'it' girl and no one ever did that except for her. When the author got to these points I found the writing to be cliche too. It was the way she put the words and actions together. 

I loved the idea of this book and the beginning was an amazing start, but it simmered down for me. I gave the book a 3 out of 5 because it was unique but just fell down more and more during the book.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

The Lost Hero Review

Title: The Lost Hero ( Heroes of Olympus #1)

Author: Rick Riordan

Published: October 12th 2010

Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children

Genre: YA, Children, Fantasy

Pages: 557

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: (Via Goodreads)

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly?

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out.

Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god.


Jason has lost his memory due to a god. Piper's father has been kidnapped because the bad guy believes that will help him get Piper to betray her friends. Leo has a secret which has made a god interested in him and something that has made him hate himself. The characters go through hardships where they lean on their friends, without knowing sometimes, and that helped show great character growth throughout the book. 

This book captured my attention from the first page. Rick Riordan has a magical way of writing about the Greek Gods and their Roman sides as well. Throughout the book the point of view changes between the three main characters  and that helps to give more insight on each of the characters as individuals. This book did justice to the Percy Jackson series and it carried on with the beautiful story of demigods and the hardships of prophecies. The characters were amazing and it was very nostalgic to read about the other characters from the Percy Jackson series. 

Rick Riordan's writing displayed the emotions of the characters beautifully and gave an amazing plot that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. I will definitely pick up the second book soon, and I highly recommend this book to you.


Goodreads Account: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7888830-booknerdfrancesca

Monday, December 2, 2013

Escaping Reality Review

Title: Escaping Reality

Author: Lisa Renee Jones

Publish date: July 22nd 2013

Publisher: Julie Patra Publishing 

Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Pages: 250

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: (Via Goodreads)

Infinite possibilities….
Infinite passion…..
Infinite danger….
His touch spirals through me, warm and sweet, wicked and hot. I shouldn’t trust him. I shouldn’t tell him my secrets. But how do I not when he is the reason I breathe? He is what I need.

At the young age of eighteen, tragedy and a dark secret force Lara to flee all she has known and loves to start a new life. Now years later, with a new identity as Amy, she’s finally dared to believe she is forgotten–even if she cannot forget. But just when she lets down her guard, the ghosts of her past are quick to punish her, forcing her back on the run. 
On a plane, struggling to face the devastation of losing everything again and starting over, Amy meets Liam Stone, a darkly entrancing recluse billionaire, who is also a brilliant, and famous, prodigy architect. A man who knows what he wants and goes after it. And what he wants is Amy. Refusing to take “no” as an answer, he sweeps her into a passionate affair, pushing her to her erotic limits. He wants to possess her. He makes her want to be possessed. Liam demands everything from her, accepting nothing less. But what if she is too devastated by tragedy to know when he wants more than she should give? And what if there is more to Liam than meets the eyes?


The book follows Amy who is in danger and has to go into a program almost like the Witness Protection Program. She is changing her whole life a second time when the book starts and she is forced to pick up and leave her city to go to a new home. On the airplane she meets Liam stone who is mysterious and entices her. They get to know one another on the plane ride home and the relationship goes from there. 

I read up to chapter 8 where I had to put the book down and stop reading. The main character was very unlikable and very unrealistic. One second she was worried about her life being in danger and then she was worried that Liam did not want her. Amy was a very aggravating character to read about and she made me want to tear my hair out. With Liam he was the average rich and mysterious boy that everyone finds undeniably attractive. After being on the plane for FOUR hours Liam gives Amy a ride home and then they have a sexual encounter. This aggravates me because she thinks he could put her in danger and risk her life, but then she's like 'yeah! Lets have sex in the hallway of my new apartment building!'. The sex aggravated me, because they barely knew one another and Amy is complaining about how she has a new identity, because of her mysterious past, and then she just gives herself to the guy that she believes to have apart in the whole Witness Protection Program.  I definitely discourage anyone from reading this book.



Goodreads Acount: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7888830-booknerdfrancesca


Sunday, December 1, 2013

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares Review

Title: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Authors: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Published: October 26th 2010

Publisher: Knopf Books

Genre: YA Contemporary

Pages: 260

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: (Via Goodreads)

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Dash was in a bookstore one evening and found a red moleskin notebook next to his favorite author. The notebook contains a book of dares that sends Dash on a scavenger hunt in the bookstore and then the notebook gets passed on to Lily through one of the clerks with a set of dares for her. The book goes back and fourth with the notebook being the only source of connection the two main characters have.

This book has been hyped up by a lot of people, that I look up to in the terms of reading, so I decided to give this book a try. I cannot say it was a good decision nor a bad decision. This book had a very unrealistic relationship bloom and even some unrealistic scenes that made me very agitated.I thought the dares were going to be more adventourous and wild, but they turned out to be little dares that help the characters discover more about one another (which I didn't mind, but I wasn't aware of that).


The book was a short read that was not that significant to me, but it did have good parts. The characters were mostly like-able, but not all of them, and it was just a light read. People who really love contemporary and believes true love conquers all, even in crazy situations, will probably like this book a lot more than I did.




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