Black Heart by Holly Black

Black Heart (Curse Workers, 3)
Holly Black
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Fantasy
Source: purchased

This is the final book The Curse Workers trilogy.  We are reunited with Cassel who desperately wants to gain Lila's forgiveness.  He's also being "trained" by his brother, Barron, to be a government agent when he leaves school.  Add to this trying to negotiate the strained relationship between his roommate Sam and Sam's ex-girlfriend, Daneca.

Black Heart is about lies.  The ones we tell to protect loved ones that just end up being the ones that hurt.  I really enjoyed this one but it didn't really feel like the end to me.  Or I just don't want to see the end of Cassel.

About the cover - they changed the cover on me after I'd already bought books 1 and 2.  I loved those covers so much more than these new ones.  I thought they old ones had character.  Also, now my set doesn't match. Book!

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Struck by Jennifer Bosworth- Review

Reviewed by: Aneeqah's Not So Real Life
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Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genres: Apocalypse, Urban Fantasy
Release Date: May 8th, 2012

Source: Publisher- thank you to Macmillan!
My Review:

In Struck, we meet Mia Price. She is what you would call a lightening addict. She's been struck by lightening many, many times, and she craves the energy she gets when she gets struck. Mia lives in Los Angeles, and they're in the aftermath of a terrible earthquake, trying to rebuild. Mia has to care for her younger brother, Parker, and her mother, who may or may not have a mental disorder because of the earthquake. But Mia meets two different groups of people, who want her to do different things, things that she doesn't thing she's capable of. In the end, Mia has to make a choice. Who will she side with? What will she sacrifice?

The cover of Struck is really pretty. You can slightly see the scars she has on her arms, if you look carefully. And all the colors create such a nice setting, it's so pretty to watch. Overall, it's really nice!

First off, let's talk about Mia. I loved her. She's so smart, and sassy, and she's a pretty tough girl. I loved her sarcasm. I'm a pretty sarcastic person, so I really appreciated it. Even though she had a tough-girl appearance, she wasn't exactly tough on the inside. I loved how she was a little bit layered; there was more to her than at first sight. She was a really well-done character.

The whole idea of this book was also really unique. I mean, a lightening addict? Yes please! It's so cool! Totally not your whole typical vampire or werewolf thing. There was a lot more to the story though, and there were a lot more elements. Overall, it wasn't too confusing of a world. It made sense, and it was well thought out. Definitely kudos to the author to coming up with such an awesome idea that I've never read about before! That's hard to do in YA now-a-days!

I enjoyed the romance during the first half of the book. It wasn't too rushed, and I liked how Mia was freaked out by Jeremy [who is the main guy in the story] at first too. It wasn't insta-love. However, more towards the end of the book, it seemed way too rushed for me, and it didn't exactly work. They were supposed to have this 'connection' that I didn't get. It wasn't even explained.

At the end of the book, I was left with questions. I'm not going to list any here, because I don't want to spoil anything for you all, but there were some things that weren't ever explained. I think the author could have added just a little more information, and everything would make sense. That being said though, I'm really glad this story is a stand-alone. I'm pretty sure I've never read a Apocalypitc/Urban Fantasy book that hasn't been part of a series, so it was a total relief to learn I don't have to agonize and torture myself waiting for another book. Yay for stand-alones!

Overall, I enjoyed the story. It was a really good read, and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a unique story that hasn't been told before!




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Bitterblue [!!!] by Kristin Cashore- Review

Reviewed by: Aneeqah's Not So Real Life
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Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genres: Dystopia, Fantasy
Release Date: May 1, 2012

Source: ALA Midwinter
My Review:

In the third book of The Seven Kingdoms series, Bitterblue is now 18 and queen of Monsea. Her kingdom is still recovering from the rule of King Leck, and Bitterblue is trying to put it back together again. She starts sneaking out of the castle at night, and finds out about the world outside of her palace. She meets new people, and comes to the realization that she needs to find out more about the past, to fix her kingdom.

Before anything, let's just stare at that cover. *drool* It's gorgeous isn't it? And next to Graceling and Fire, it looks even better! When the books are right next to each other, you can tell they're part of a series, but they're not exactly alike either. It's a really amazing cover!

So now, onto the real book itself. In Bitterblue, we get to see characters from the past books. Katsa, Po, Giddon, Bann, Raffin, and even Fire all are in there. We get to see more of Giddon, and I really liked that we got to get to know him better. Katsa isn't in the book very much, just a few scenes, although she's important. Po was there, and played a role in the story, and I LOVED that he was in the story! We also got to experience Katsa and Po's relationship with each other from Bitterblue's perspective, which was very interesting, something I hadn't thought of when I was reading Graceling.

Let me say that I loved the last part of the book. I think it was fantastically written. We see some character growth, some unexpected things, and lots of things happen. The story twists, things come up that I wasn't expecting, and it just got interesting.

Here's basically a summary of what I thought as I was reading Bitterblue:

Beginning of the Book



Middle of the Book



End of the Book


So, in short, it got progressively better.

But there were a few things that didn't work for me. For one, Bitterblue was kind of a problem for me. She just didn't act like she was 18, and that she had been ruling the kingdom for 8 years already. She seemed more like she was 15, and had been ruling for only a few years. She never seemed 18 to me, and I don't think I ever thought of Bitterblue as 18. Her personality, her way of thinking, her attitude, it just never seemed like she was 18. 18 means your an adult, right? Well, she just didn't seem like an adult. She acted more like a child, or teenager rather than an adult.

That being said, I don't think it affected the whole story that much, except that it was kind of annoying. However, there were also some things that were predictable in the story. I don't like being able to guess things in a story, but I did correctly guess some things. There were some things, though, that I never saw coming, which was great.

The romance, also didn't work for me. It seemed way too rushed, and I didn't see any chemistry between Bitterblue and the other person [whose name I won't say, because I don't want to give anything away!] It didn't take over the story though, so I guess I should be thankful for that.

Putting those things aside, I loved the story. Alot. There was some action, some very well-developed and slightly flawed characters that I could believe, and a little mystery. It's what your looking for in a good series!

Overall, I really liked the book. I can say that I really, really liked the book. But there were a few things that stopped me from giving this book a full 5 stars. It was a good ending to one of my favorite trilogies.




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Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler- Review

Reviewed by: Aneeqah's Not So Real Life
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Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genres: Contemporary
Release Date: June 1,2009
Source: Library
My Review:

In this story, we meet Anna. Her best friend is Frankie. Her other best friend was Matt. But they were becoming something more. And then he dies. This book is about Anna, a year after Matt's death, going on a trip with Frankie's family to California. They all are still trying to cope with Matt's death. So Frankie plans a game. They meet 20 boys in 20 days, and maybe Anna can finally have her romance. But Anna's heart is still broken from Matt, and here's the thing- Frankie never knew about Anna's budding relationship with Matt- because he died before he could tell her.

This is one of those books where my heart just ached, especially towards the end. By the end of the book, I was so attached to the characters. I really felt for Anna, Frankie, and Aunt Jayne. I wanted them to find their "Happily Ever After" and to move on. I was totally rooting for them, which is not something that I usually do with books. I really felt all the characters, which was amazing. They felt so real.

I also liked how not everything went as planned. Not everything you plan for a vacation actually happens, in real life. And that's how it was in the book, too, which added an even more realistic feel to the book. Not everything was perfect.

Also, the cover makes sense in the story. Yes, it's gorgeous, and that was definitely one of the reasons that I wanted to read it [because, you know, I absolutely love pretty covers!]. But after finishing the story, it totally makes sense. It's so well-thought out and fits well with the story. It's not a random girl in a dress, which most book covers are right now... So it's pretty, and it works with the book. Perfection.

However, there were some small things that I didn't like. For one, it's been a year since Matt's death. And it seems like it happened yesterday. Everyone is still depressed, crying, and everything. Shouldn't they have moved on? I've observed that it takes less than a year to accept death. Crying a little bit makes sense, but not full-out bawling all the time. Remember him, but try to move on.

There were a few other tiny things that I didn't like, but they're kinda spoilerish, so I'll just leave it at that. Overall though, it was a cute, heart-warming contemporary read.







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