Fated by Sarah Alderson

Fated by Sarah Alderson
Release Date: January 5th 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥

What can I say? After reading Hunting Lila and absolutely falling in love with Sarah Alderson (and Alex, of course *stares into space*), I could not wait to read Fated! Guys, it doesn't disappoint!

Evie is a 17 year old waitress who is just trying to earn as much money as possible so she can get out of her town and move to New York. Lucas (is really, really hot... *ahem*) is a half human, half Unhuman Shadow Warrior who would like nothing more than revenge on Hunters - Hunters killed his family. Evie Tremain finds out she is the last in a long line of demon slayers known as Hunters after being attacked in the alley behind her work by a demon who's tail can cut human flesh as easily as cutting through butter and a demon who's skin is green and deadly.

Evie is such a refreshing main character! She is just... I can't even describe it... You know how a lot of heroines in YA sort of have the same type of personality or voice? Well, Evie is just completely different! She is tough, angry and doesn't take things at face value. EVER. She questions everything but she asks the right questions! Evie has some major trust issues, but with good reason. However, she learns so much and grows throughout the novel, I ended up getting rather attached to her due to her outlook on life and I loved how she made choices for herself rather than for somebody else (I know so many people like that in real life, it drives me nuts)

Lucas... Oh, you *may* give Alex a run for his money... (But Alex is still my #1 tied with Etienne St. Clair) Oh. Wow. Oops, now I'm daydreaming. Anywayyy! Lucas, whilst not on par with the previously named sexiness, he is still pretty darn close. Sarah Alderson has a talent for creating incredibly hot characters. At first, Lucas seems just like a pretty face, but as this is told in third person (YAY!) dual-narrative, we get to know him so well and we follow his heartbreaking backstory with him. Lucas also grows immensely as a character, we get to learn how love can change somebody in such a dramatic way, and whether this is perceived as a positive or a negative thing.

I adored the world building in Fated. It gave youa little taste about the different types of demons and their world whilst leaving room for more detail in the books to come. The different types of demons were fascinating and I loved all of their relationships with one another. It was almost as if you were reading about one big family! As for the world building of the Hunters. Oh my. That was incredible! I loved learning about Evie's family history and the history of Hunters, I loved reading the Evie's book along with her and I adored the little twists and turns every now and then.

Fated is a well-written, fast-paced, funny and deep book that will keep you on your toes. If you loved Hunting Lila, you'll love this one as well :) Sarah Alderson has done it again! You magnificant woman, you! THANKYOU!

Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate

Fallen In Love (Fallen 3.5) by Lauren Kate
Release Date: January 24th 2012
Publisher: Random House
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥


I've done a mini-review for each story :)

*drools over cover*

Love Where You Least Expect It: The Valentine of Shelby and Miles
Rating: 1 star

Alrighty, first things first, I don't care about Shelby and Miles at all. Throughout the series so far, I think their both rather flat and boring. Miles sounds like every other guy with no personality and Shelby sounds like every other chick with no personality.

I don't think I have to explain these stories to you - they're pretty straightforward Valentine Day stories... I was hoping that this short story would make me care about Shelby and Miles more, but unfortunately it didn't. I felt like I was reading from Luce and Daniel's perspective again and so far, the two still haven't stood apart from any of the other characters. I felt it could've had the potential as it's stated that Miles is protective about his hat and Shleby wonders whether there is any sentimental meaning behind it - this doesn't get expanded on, and I feel it would have shaped Miles' character a lot more.

As for the writing so far - it's still pretty satisfactory.
"Lucinda hadn't even noticed - that was how lost in sadness she was"

"One of his long golden-black dreadlocks came loose from its elastic and tumbled from the recesses of his helmet"

That first example is a perfect case of telling rather than showing. There wasn't any need for the "lost in sadness" part, the reader gets it - she didn't notice something she should have, so she's clearly out of it, or sad (which had been mentioned multiple times beforehand).
As for the second example, I don't even understand that :|. I read that and had to do a double-take. If anyone can tell me how you have golden-black dreadlocks, feel free :)

I must admit, one part did make me laugh - there is a cute part where Shelby goes to swap something and in order to get the item, she says that it's a mark of the devil and gets really theatrical about it. That made me laugh!!

Overall, I was unimpressed, I didn't see a build in character or personality for either and would've liked to see that *something* that seperates them from the others in the Fallen series.

Love Lessons: The Valentine of Roland
Rating: 2 stars

Okay, I guess I sort of felt for Roland more, and I definitely enjoyed his story more than Shelby and Miles'. I don't have a hell of a lot to say about Roland's story because whilst I was more interested in it than the former, the writing still wasn't that great and the story was only marginally better!

HOWEVER, Roland's story helped clear up a plot hole-y type thing I picked up on in Passion. When Luce gives Daniel tattoos, why does he not have them in every other life? Turns out that angels can change their looks as they please and Daniel does it pretty much every lifetime (this may have been mentioned in Fallen or Torment but I can't remember), so yeah. I was happy about that.

Then there's the cheesy love references...
"At first, he was cautious in his ascent, but even in the creaky metal armor, he soon felt nimble again with light memories of love" AWWWW.

And we learn more about Cam, sort of. Kinda. Which was cool :)

Yeah. That's about all I have to say about this one :|

Burning Love: The Valentine of Arriane
Rating: 4 stars

NOW THIS ONE WAS COOL.

Firstly Arriane's true love was a woman. A woman. I couldn't get over it. I initially thought that I read it wrong and they were just friends, but it seems I've underestimated Lauren Kate and she actually had the guts to write a gay character. I am so impressed!

But you know what the saddest thing is? That I automatically assumed I read it wrong. We don't see enough gay characters in YA. Off the top of my head, I can think of Lola's parents (Dads) from Lola and the Boy Next Door, and now Arriane. And YA is my preference of genre!

I thought Kate did Arriane's love story really well and I loved that this story had so much more happen than the others, there was actual drama, action and hurt. As the story develops, I was *this* close to shedding a tear for Arriane because I felt so sorry for her.

As for the writing in this story, I thought it was definitely an improvement in comparison to the others (apart from the typos I found) and I was pleased to see another confirmation of how angel's bodies function.
"Except for their wing scars, every other ink mark or wound or scar in time would fade away"

Overall, I loved Arriane's story and I would have been extremely happy if this book just focused on her experiences.

Endless Love: The Valentine of Daniel and Lucinda
Rating: 2 stars

This is 2 stars because I enjoy their story in general. But this was nothing new. It was the usual "I love Daniel", "If only Daniel were here..." "He had blonde hair (blah blah blah), but *insert long dramatic pause* he wasn't Daniel. *insert so called cliffhanger*.

Yeah.

Overall
I loved learning Arriane's background and Roland's background (but mostly Arriane's!) and it was a nice, easy read. However, I really wish I actually cared about Shelby and Miles, and I'm really hoping to see more of them in Rapture. And the excerpt of Rapture was actually pretty interesting so I can say I'm somewhat looking forward to the last installment (AND GOD. I WANT TO KNOW WHY the curse has affected them, WHAT is so great about Luce? WHY does Lucifer wanna go all psycho and stuff-apart from the fact he is Lucifer and wants to destroy the world etc etc).  

Whilst I received this from NetGalley, this has in no way affected my review

Don't forget to check out my 100 follower giveaway!! and and and Taryn Browning's Dark Seeker giveaway! 

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

Hallowed (Unearthly #2) by Cynthia Hand
Release Date: January 1st 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥

I went shopping with my Mum the other day, and of course, I went into the bookstore (although I shouldn't be spending money I don't have!) and wasn't planning on getting anything, then I see this lovely gem, in THREE WEEKS early in Australia! I started squealing! Mum asks me what's wrong (probably thinking I saw a cockroach or something), so I show her and then I started jumping up and down squealing whilst the store-manager is busting herself laughing at me! Needless to say, I ended up buying it :D

All I can say is that I wish I could've rated this 6 stars (or 10) on Goodreads.
Cynthia Hand has done it again, this is far better than I expected as the second book in the series, and honestly as soon as I was finished, I wanted to re-read it all over again - this was at 2.00AM mind you!

Cynthia Hand has this beautiful way with words and story telling; If you've read Unearthly and thought that was a fluke, well I'm sorry, but in my opinion you're wrong. Cynthia Hand is an author all aspiring writers (especially YA angel writers) should look up to. Whilst this is an angel book, this book is so incredibly realistic, heart-warming, heart-breaking and incredible, it left me so emotionally strung that I read from page 30-the end in one sitting.

Of course, Clara and Tucker's cuteness personified relationship is as funny and as touching as it was in Unearthly. Their time spent together were so real. Whilst the plot of Hallowed may not be everybody's cup of tea, it was still amazing because it focuses so much on Clara and her relationships with Tucker and Christian (Yay! I personally love both of them - SO not ashamed to say!) and we make huge progress with Clara's mum. The character development in this instalment is as wonderful as it was in Unearthly, except somehow, better. One of my many favourite things about Hand is that she doesn't just introduce a character for the sake of it, they are introduced to help advance the plot - not just to make us "sympathise" for the heroine or to make her look better in comparison (ala, Nora Grey and Vee in Hush Hush). The major and minor characters are all so three-dimensional and lovable characters. Just quietly, I still want to meet Clara in real life. (Shh, I'll seem like a crazy person).

One thing that I was terrified about before reading this was the love triangle rumours I'd been hearing about, my thoughts were sort of like this: "NOOOO Cynthia! You can't do this to us! You can't follow in the footsteps of every crappy YA novel and do the unthinkable!" but IT'S INCREDIBLE.
Award to the best "love triangle" - and I put quotation marks because I don't want Cynthia Hand to have bad cliches associated with her, it's just THAT good - in YA literature goes to Cynthia Hand!
I was Team Tucker in Unearthly although I  had a bit of a thing for Christian, but now my heart is taken by both of them. Christian definitely won over my heart in this, but in saying that, Tucker still has my heart too (oh, the agony!). We see Clara and Christian's friendship bloom and we see Clara making incredibly smart decisions for the wellbeing of others and not just what she wants. Clara is easily the #1 heroine because she is so selfless, she is smart and she has flaws. I love her for it! Clara goes through an incredible amount of pain and the entire time I just wanted to give her a big hug.

This book had me crying, laughing, smiling and worried. I love a book that can make me feel so many things. Whilst some parts may upset some fans of Unearthly, I thought everything was so well-done and necessary.

I award this book with 6 shiny, gold stars and I would like to say, this is up there with Harry Potter as my favourite series ever (and THAT is saying something!)
Thankyou Cynthia Hand for once again delivering such an incredible novel.
I will without a doubt read and buy whatever Hand writes in the future (2013 for Unearthly 3? *sobs*) just because she really deserves everything for writing such an incredible series.

Oh, and we can't forget the poking-fun-at-Twilight lines :)

"This isn't going to become one of those creepy situations where you show up at all hours of the night to watch me sleep, is it? he asks playfully.
"Every moment I'm away from you, I die a little," I say in return.

Before I moved here, I never got the whole love-triangle thing. You know, in movies or romance novels or whatnot, where there’s one chick that all the guys are drooling over, even though you can’t see anything particularly special about her. But oh, no, they both must have her. And she’s like, oh dear, however will I choose? William is so sensitive, he understands me, he swept me off my feet, oh misery, blubber, blubber, but how can I go on living without Rafe and his devil-may-care ways and his dark and only-a-little-abusive love? Upchuck

It's not like I can be with him all the time. I did get so wigged out that I sneaked out to his house a couple of times in the middle of the night to watch over him while he slept, just in case, I don't know, his comic book collection decided to spontaneously combust. This was dumb and admittedly creepy in an Edward Cullen kind of way.

Hades by Alexandra Adornetto

Hades by Alexandra Adornetto
Release Date: August 30st 2011
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥1/2

This is rated 1.5 stars because whilst I still hated it with a passion, stuff happened (not necessarily a plot), but things apart from "I love Xavier's hair" happened.

I don't even know where to start. There is a countless number of contradictions and inconsistencies in this instalment... The first one I noticed occured in the first three pages...
"It was six months now since the ordeal with Jake Thorn"

THE NEXT PAGE...

"Since the violent encounter with Jake last year"

So, the book starts off in October around Halloween, six months before October would be April which is not the year before. That is just simply stupid Ally dear. Also, a few pages later, ANOTHER contradiction occurs.

"It [the party house] had been vacant so long that the power had been disconnected", then a few pages SENTENCES later...
"Someone plugged in an iPod dock and suddenly the house was filled with music so loud it shook the dusty chandelier above us"
This occurs in the same paragraph. If it was a battery operated dock, fine whatever. But she said "plugged in" which should be impossible, but once again this isn't convenient, so Ally added it in anyway.

Later on, after some cool exorcism and whatnot, "Ivy retracted her wings, and sank to her knees in exhaustion", alright that's cool. The next page, [after Gabriel retracts his wings] "He wrapped a strong arm around Ivy's waist to support her and she leaned against his shoulder, regathering her strength. A moment later her wings also retracted"
So, she retracted them twice did she? Without "unfurling" them again, she retracted them again. If I've read this wrong, please tell me.


Xavier and Bethany's relationship is still as sickening and obsessive as ever. They both enjoy smelling eachother's T-shirts in order to fall asleep... Mmmm... creepy!
I have no idea who the characters introduced in the first few chapters were and quite frankly, I don't care. But, I have to agree with one of them when she tries to tell Bethany how messed up her relationship is,
"What's your favourite football team?"
"Dallas Cowboys," I said without hesitation.
"And why's that?" Hallie asked.
"Because it's Xavier's favourite team"
The girls proceed to ask Beth a bunch of questions and try to make her realise that she needs a life outside of her boyfriend. Then, it's like Beth doesn't care, it's almost as if this entire scene was written just as an inconspicous "fuck you" from Adornetto, to the readers who hate their relationship. My boyfriend is obsessed with Rugby and I don't care. I don't know how it work and I can name two teams. Do I care? No. Does he care? No. Ally Beth, grow up.

The writing in Hades also did not improve since Halo.
"I couldn't bring myself to do what my friends called the "s'up nod" - it made me feel as if were in one of those music videos Molly watched on MTV where men in hoods rapped about "homies" and something they called "bling"
 Unless you're trapped in the 90's, nobody uses the words homies and bling anymore. It's not half obvious that Ally needs to get out more and 'live a little' (as said in my Halo review, haha)
Every time I begun to remotely enjoy something, it got ruined and my hopes were crushed by preachy sentences, quotes from the bible and by Bethy daydreaming about her loser boyfriend.

Bethany still takes the cake for stupidest YA heroine.
"Something was wrong. I could feel it. Every celestial instinct warned me that we needed to get out of here. Fast. I found a Weeping Willow in the front yard and leaned against its sturdy trunk"
What? Every celestial instinct is telling you to get out of there and you go and lean against a tree? And a Weeping Willow! Wouldn't you have to wade through a Weeping Willow's leaves or whatever in order to lean against it's trunk in the first place? This clearly hasn't been thought through. Beth once again demonstrates her intelligence and her ability to look after herself. Once in Hell, Beth decides to wander off and check it out and gets in trouble. But she defends herself right? Wrong. She just stands there and says "I'm Jake's guest" and almost gets raped, until Jake rescues her because she can't do anything for herself.

As for Xavier, he is still somebody I'd gladly punch in the face. He is a complete jerk who has no care in the world for any other person except for his Bethy-Boo (or 'Huggie Bear' hahahaha). He is meant to come across as caring, and you're meant to feel sad for him. No I don't. He pissed me off the entire time and I now hate him even more thanks to this instalment.

The characterisation in general is no better. Lucifer is nicknamed "Big Daddy" by his minions (haha, I love that word) and wears a white suit and cowboy boots. In my mind, he looks like KFC's Colonel Sanders. In short - Not very scary. OH. I almost forgot to mention... Lucifer is a fan of using Powerpoint presentations in Hell to demonstrate whatever point he wants to make. Geez. Although, one thing I'll give Adornetto props for is Molly/Gabriel. I actually gave a shit about them in this book. I would've been quite satisfied if Xavier wound up in Hell with Beth, and stayed there and in turn, we learned more about Molly/Gabriel's relationship (which still shouldn't be allowed to happen, but hey the rules have already been screwed).

And people, if you're wondering, the stereotyping and judgements didn't stop in Halo!!
Adornetto is back to her essentialist, naive and judgemental way by first making Hell a place full of clubs, party-goers, black people, homosexuals and people who wear mini-skirts. Oh, and she obviously doesn't like, "I'm in Miami Bitch" because this is a song that demons listen to in Hell. The descriptions of Hell are pathetic. There are a bunch of clubs full of people smoking, drinking and quite possibly having sex. I dunno about you, but drinking and partying sounds pretty good to me as punishment, probably not as good as heaven, but it's definitely not bad. One of the new secondary characters is black, wear leather miniskirts, drinks alcohol (and she has some cool looking shoes) and is named ASIA. WTF was Ally thinking? I like Asia though for the sole reason she says this to Bethany:
"So what's with the Mary Sue outfit?" Asia asked, plucking at the frilly sleeve of my dress. "You got some fetish for Southern belles? It's very pure. That's what this is all about, right? But did you really have to dress her like she's twelve?"
"No one dressed me," I snapped.
"Oh, how cute!" Asia threw me a scathing look. "It talks."
Oh, I just realised, this is another stab at the reader that Ally seems to be making.

There are so many things that pissed me off about this book, I have about four pages worth of bookmarks on my e-reader. One of the major things that irked me was that Ally is under the impression that there were girls in the Hitler Youth. NO. JUST NO. The girls had a completely different organisation called the League of German Girls in which they learned how to raise children and how to be domesticated. They weren't part of the Hitler Youth (or the HJ) and they certainly weren't allowed to be SS soldiers. I love history, in particular WW2 history and to see it screwed around like that seriously annoys me. Do your research Adornetto so you don't make stupid mistakes! Another stupid mistake is the TITLE OF THE BOOK. Hades is the Underworld and the name of the Underworld God in GREEK mythology, not Christianity. Hades is not Hell. Hades is not Hell. Hades is NOT Hell!

Apart from wanting to know more about Molly and Gabriel, the only thing I enjoyed about this was the exorcism scene. We finally get to see some angels in action instead of them cooking/cleaning and using the power of love to defeat demons. Gabriel and Ivy seem pretty darn cool in this scene and I was pleasently surprised as to how much I enjoyed reading this chapter.

All in all, another terrible piece of crap. Thank god I have a year until I inflict myself with torture again.

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
Release Date: August 31st 2010
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥

A taxi I caught recently had the craziest driver I have ever met. The minute I got in the taxi, he asked me if I was interested in politics, I said yes, I've studied it and I still try to keep up with the latest... He took that as an invitation to start preaching to me about the political party that he supports. He gave me the party's newspaper in which this political party compares the QUEEN to HITLER. They also have the nerve to say that the Queen is worse than Hitler and wants to kill off everybody because "YOU ARE 70% CARBON AND SHE HAS APPROVED THE INTRODUCTION OF THE CARBON TAX". Everything this taxi driver said to me was solely his opinion and the opinion of the preachy, ridiculous newspaper which wasn't my belief.

I felt the same sort of thing happened whilst reading Halo. As an athiest, I do not mind if somebody is religious or has different beliefs to me. However, the moment that somebody starts preaching their religion to me, I'm not interested. I just don't want to hear it. This book was EXTREMELY preachy and I'd like to apologise to my stepmum and Dad for random outbursts of frustration and laughter.

So, Halo follows three angels who have been sent to Earth to combat dark forces. Excuse me, but what dark forces? The plot of this novel was non existent and consisted of info dumps about nothing and long, boring descriptions of everything.

Every single character was flat and boring. Bethany was the single worst heroine I have EVER come across. Worse than Nora, Bella and Luce put together. She had the personality of a pole and the wits of a Barbie doll. She could not do anything by herself, she constantly clung to Xavier and thought about him when they were apart for 5 minutes. She also couldn't bear to watch the news for fear of seeing something bad. What the fuck would she do if she was shoved in the middle of a war zone instead of VENUS COVE where a few people have died of illness and some chick had a car crash.
Xavier was an overprotective, boring, popular guy with ALMOND shaped eyes and WALNUT hair (anyone else thinking that Ally likes nuts?) who did nothing but want to hang around Bethany and protect her. I'm sorry, but this is not a healthy relationship. If my boyfriend wanted me to spend every waking moment together, and if we got to the point that we felt like we would rather die than be without eachother for an hour, then I think we'd have a problem. Wanting to do that and just wanting to touch, smell, hear, see, taste the other person constantly is not love. This is Ally's problem. Seems to me, she is a teenager who has been raised perfectly, has parents who are still together, went to a private school and was published at an extremely young age and therefore has very unrealistic ideas as to what is evil, what is good and about the world in general. Also, Bethany should have fallen but she doesn't... Ugh.

Not only are the primary characters flat and boring, the secondary characters are too. Bethany's friends are the worst. I'm not kidding when I say all they talk about is boys, makeup, shopping and prom. They have no substance whatsoever. Bethany's "siblings" are also flat and boring. For instance, Gabriel (yes, that Gabriel) just fucking cooks all the time and looks moody on occassion, and Ivy cooks, sews and cleans. Wow. That's just awesome.

Everything in this novel is stereotypical and essentialist.. for example, ALL people who like music have messy, shoulder length hair and carried instrument cases, ALL people who were artistic liked to accessorise and wear berets and scarves. Also, she is extremely essentialist toward "goths", "'And what is the center of goth culture?' Gabriel said. Ivy looked at him, her eyes wide. 'Death.'" Oh really? So every single "goth" loves the concept of death and cemetarys do they? Live a little Adornetto, you may realise that not everything is black and white. It's ridiculous.

Ally not only has a habit of preaching religion, but also her ideas. For example, Xavier would like to get into design (which I hate, just because I want to throw a computer when using Photoshop) but isn't going to because "[It] Isn't considered a serious career, is it? The idea of having invested all this money into my education only to have it end in unemployment doesn't thrill my parents". Seriously, if my parent's told me I couldn't do Journalism or Public Relations, I would tell them, "It's not freaking up to you, it's my life, I'm determined, I'm going to go far". I mean, the people who work for DISNEY and PIXAR did design. If you're determined enough, you can do it (Oh, look. Now I'm preaching!).

Also, Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet is mentioned throughout. Romeo and Juliet was not a great love story. Shakespeare was not an idiot. His point was, if you fall in "love" really quickly, you will be messed up and quite possibly die. Yeah.

After about 200+ pages, Ally suddenly thought "oh hey, I mentioned dark forces, better do something about that" and introduced the worst villian ever. JAKE THORN. Oh god. He wears black, he has green eyes, he has a tattoo, he is British and he rides a motorbike therefore he is evil. Again, with the stereotyping! After about another 100 pages, Ally thinks "wow, I forgot about dark forces again", and so some shit goes down at prom, then some more weird stuff happens then there is this weird battle thing between Jake and Beth/Xavier and Jake is "defeated" by the power of love.

Ally also seems to have a problem with men (who aren't walnut-haired and named Xavier) in general. "Although the boys looked dashing in their tuxedoes, they were only really there as escorts; the night clearly belonged to the girls", so really, boys can't enjoy themselves. Are girls just controlling bitches who just use men as an accessory? Enough with the preaching of your ideas Adornetto, go away.

I think I read somewhere that Ally doesn't even have an editor. IT SHOWS. If she had a good editor, a good 100 pages could have been cut from this garbage. This book was the most apalling thing I have ever read and I don't appreciate having the author shove their beliefs down my throat.

Overall: TERRIBLE.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Release Date: September 29th 2011
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughten
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥

Daughter of Smoke and Bone tells the story of Karou, a 17 year old art student living in Prague. Whilst she may seem like a relatively normal teenage girl with blue hair, she was raised by a wishmonger and runs errands for him which involves collecting human and animal teeth. The wishmonger has other people such as murderers and grave-diggers working for him by also collecting teeth, the wishmonger pays these people in wishes. Karou lives in between her world and the wishmonger's world and feels like she doesn't belong in either. An angel named Akiva comes along and changes everything for Karou.

I don't even know what to say about this. This novel was mindblowing. Laini Taylor has created a fantasy world so rich that after reading, I guarantee you won't know what to do with yourself*. I will try my hardest not to write in jilted sentences, however I'm not making any promises (this book makes it difficult to write a review that does it justice).

The writing, oh my god. The writing! Laini Taylor has given me faith in YA literature again and the fact that authors can write better than the average person. Every single word and sentence was written for a reason, there is true purpose from Laini Taylor's writing - she doesn't just write a sentence let alone an entire paragraph just for the sake of it or to fill space. Even telling the reader what Akiva looks like is completely different to other YA novels.

"What people saw was a tall young man, beautiful - truly, breath-stealingly beautiful, in a way one rarely beholds in real life - who moved among them with predatory grace, seeming no more mindful of them than if they were statuary in a garden of gods. On his back a pair of crossed swords were sheathed, and his sleeves were pushed up over forearms tanned and corded with muscle. His hands were a curiosity, etched both white with scars and black with the ink of tattoos - simple repeating black lines hatched across the tops of his fingers"

Isn't that beautiful?

The characters, primary and secondary, were awesome. Karou was incredibly awesome and strong-willed. Quite possibly another favourite literary character EVER. To Stephanie Meyer, Lauren Kate and Becca Fitzpatrick... this is how you write a tortured character the reader cares about. It's almost as if Laini Taylor has collected all the cliches in YA, two of which being forbidden love and angels/fallen angels, and has twisted them into something new and brilliant. For example, the fallen angel in this novel is absolutely hideous, he isn't beautiful and he doesn't have wings - why would God banish angels from heaven and still allow them to have their wings?
I loved the moral of this novel. It teaches you that one can be bred for and raised to hate something else simply because of what they are. It teaches that prejudice is a huge issue and is something that not many people stand up against in their own country or world. Instead of giving a negative message across to her readers, such as abusive relationships being portrayed in a positive light, Laini Taylor presents a different kind of issue and teaches that war is the product of hate and prejudice.

I honestly don't know what else to say about this book. I love different languages and cultures and it's incredibly refreshing to see that this isn't set in America. I loved the world building - it was absolutely phenomenal. I loved how everything linked together and everything that was written had a reason as to why it was written. I loved Karou, Brimstone, Akiva, Zuzana and the puppeteer scene and I'm pretty sure my mind exploded with the ending.
The only thing I hate? I have to wait god knows how long until the second installment *cries*.

I can't believe you read my review when you really should be reading this book.


*Note: I do not promise anything to the reader of this review if they find something to do after reading this book. 

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
Release Date: January 4th 2011
Publisher: Harper Teen
Add it: Goodreads
Overall:  ♥♥♥♥♥


Ahhhh. Unearthly is the story of a 16 year old quarter angel named Clara. Every angel or angel blood on Earth has a purpose and they find out hints through visions, daydreams or dreams. Clara begins to have visions of a forest fire and a boy she has to save. Her mum packs up and moves them (Clara and her brother) from California to a place called Wyoming.

This book is everything I could ask for in terms of paranormal romance, in particular angel YA. I for one really enjoyed Fallen (shh) and I managed to not despise Hush Hush, but Unearthly shits all over any other YA angel novel.

I loved so many things about this, it's refreshing and gave me hope that there are authors in the YA/Paranormal genre that don't just stick with the cliches - So far, I've decided Kiersten White and now Cynthia Hand, they are both AWESOME - Once Clara moved to a completely new town for her purpose, she goes to a new school where she actually has to try to fit in and doesn't just attract every second guy for no particular reason. I love how Clara actually struggles. She eventually finds the boy in her vision - Christian - at school, and is drawn to him, however, this is not the kind of instant love that makes you want to projectile vomit.

The characters, oh, how I adored each and every one of them. They were all rounded, they weren't boring, they had personality. It's so refreshing to read about characters that have a personality, and if I could, I would immediately befriend Clara, man I love her, I really felt like I could relate to her certain situations (apart from the whole angel shiz). This is largely due to Ms. Hand's writing. It's beautiful and clever. Unlike other YA authors, all of the character's dialogue is how people would really speak. I found myself relating to Clara because I basically talk and think the way she does most of the time. Throughout the novel, we see that Clara has a close friendship with her mother, but they still have beef everynow and then, which is realistic, and her relationship with her brother is exactly how my bestfriend is with her brother. I love it! Angela and Wendy were awesome. So was Tucker, and Christian and the Black Wing. Ahhh, this book just makes me sigh :) Another thing I loved is that Clara knew she was an angel blood straight away, but didn't necessarily know how to fly or reveal her wings straight away. We learn with her and share her frustrations as she tries to prepare herself for her purpose.

 Now, the twists and turns this book takes! Ohh man it's freaking awesome! I was shocked several times and honestly, I knew something was up with Christian but I never guessed exactly what was up with him, this is awesome. The relationship building in this was brilliant. Clara did not immediately fall at her love interest's feet, wanting to makeout with the ground he walked on, but it was realistic, they were strangers, it wasn't love at first site, they actually FORMED A FRIENDSHIP (*shock, horror*) before declaring their love to one another. This. Was. Amazing. My god, I enjoyed Fallen, and Twilight and all those other YA novels - apart from Hush Hush, that wasn't really my cup of tea - but I always secretly hated the love at first sight crap. 

I don't know a hell of a lot about angel mythology because I haven't had the intense desire to research it yet like I have with other topics, but from what I know and can compare to other angel books, this book was brilliant in regards to it's mythology. It's refreshing to know that some author's do actually do research. I also loved the way Ms. Hand delivered her knowledge of angel mythology, it wasn't shoved down your throat like some other angel books, but it was subtle, like I loved the thing about the sadness and the fallen angels, and I loved how the fallen angels and nephilim were distinguished apart from their wing colour. 

I definitely recommend reading this because damn it's so worth it. I probably don't have to recommend it seeing as I'm probably the last YA reader on the planet to read it, but if you haven't DO IT. My head is swimming with the marvellousness (is that a word?) of this book. 

I WANT THE SEQUEL NOW.