The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg-Review

Reviewed by Aneeqah's Not So Real Life
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The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Release Date: February 21,2012
Source: ALA Midwinter [Thank you to the publisher!]


Brie has died, from literal heartbreak. Like, her boyfriend said, "I don't love you." and her heart broke, literally. So now, she must go through the 5 stages of death so she can move on. But things start unraveling with her old life, and Brie can't do anything but watch as things fall apart.

I really liked this book. Brie was so funny, and sarcastic, she was such an amazing protagonist. She was so realistic too, I really felt like I could go and meet her in person [which I would totally love to do, actually]. Throughout her whole journey, she made realistic descioins, although some were frustrating, and at some points, I got kind of mad at her. But overall, I really liked her!

I also liked the whole concept of this book, how you had to pass the 5 stages of grief to move on, and how you had "a little slice of heaven". I feel like it was really well thought out, and everything made sense. Plus, it was so easy to understand, which is a total plus.

Another thing I really liked was the plot. Yes, a few parts were slightly predictable, but there was one twist that I never saw coming at all, which, I absolutely loved. My mouth was literally hanging open! It was that much of a surprise for me. It made sense really, and from there, a lot of other things really clicked for me.

I could truly go on and on talking about this book! But overall, I really loved this book; it was such a cute and moving read. I'm not usually a huge contemp fan, but this is definitely up there in my favorites! You definitely MUST give this book a shot!




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Hallowed by Cynthia Hand Review

Review Done By: Aneeqah's Not So Real Life

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Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Genres: Angels, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

My Review: First off, I would like to thank the publishers of this book, HarperCollins, for giving me a free e-arc of this book. I appreciate it so much!

So, in this sequel to Hallowed, Clara is trying to piece together the fire, what was supposed to happen. She can't seem to figure out what she was supposed to do that faithful night. And all the while, things are changing. Clara is forced to learn things, whether she likes it or not. And not all of things are good.

Before anything, let's take a moment to admire the absolutely gorgeous cover! It's stunning! I'm going to seriously have to buy the book, if only for the cover! [If you couldn't guess, I love beautiful covers.] I totally judge books by their covers, and this book lived up to its cover!

I think it should be known that I stayed up until 3 AM reading this book. Yes, 3 AM. I'm not even exaggerating a bit. I finished the book at 2:56 AM, and then thought about it for another good 10 minutes, then finally fell asleep. I don't think the right word is addicting, but compelling. This book just made me want to read and read, to figure what was next, what was going to happen. There was a lot of suspense, lots of it, which is what really made the book compelling.

Another thing that made this book so amazing, so compelling, are the plot twists. There were just things that I half-suspected, things that I probably should have seen coming, and things that just plain surprised me, things I could have never expected happening, but they did. I don't think Ms. Hand over-did the twists, I think they were carefully placed to make you want to gobble up the book, which is in fact, exactly what I did.

But the main thing I must have loved about this book is that it grabbed your heart, made you want to cry. Characters in this book are facing lots of grief, and that grief is conveyed so so well, that at time, I felt like my heart was wrenched along with the character's, and I had tears in my eyes at multiple points and it was the middle of the night. So that's a pretty amazing thing, considering I never cry, especially when I'm reading in to the night. But I literally had tears in my eyes. The writing was just so phenomenal, I felt like I was with the characters, like I was a part of their life. It's a hard thing to do, but Ms. Cynthia Hand did an amazing job at it. I don't think I could have felt more connected to the story than I did.

I could honestly go on and on about the things that I loved about this book. But one important thing is that we did get to see more Christian in this book, and that's something I definitely liked. He was there in the last book, but I feel like he's a little more involved in the book this time around. We learn some pretty interesting stuff about him as well, and even though it wasn't utterly surprising, I think it was good information to know.

Also, we got answers in this book. It was about time. I hate it when authors stretch things out so long, where we get no answers for multiple books, but we got some pretty good answers in this book, about a multitude of things, things that I thought were minor at first, but really weren't. I really don't want to spoil it for anybody, so I'll just leave it that.

Why didn't I give this book a full 5 stars? Well, the main reason is our dear Clara herself. For basically the whole part of the book, except the end, she makes bad and plain stupid decisions, as well as a few other characters in the book. But it was mainly Clara. It just made me mad at her, even though I know I really shouldn't blame her. But, honestly, they were just so selfish and stupid and ignorant at times, I wanted to punch her. But she did really mature at the end, which is something I definitely liked, and that really made the book for me. Honestly though, having Clara be a pain throughout the whole book was just plain frustrating to me. She shouldn't have acted like she did.

Other than that, and a few minor problems that I had with the book, it was amazing. I was so afraid that this second book wouldn't live up to the first, especially with all the buzz and hype that the first book got, but I think this will please readers of the series, like me. =)

The book, thank goodness, didn't end with a total cliffhanger. I would say it ended similarly to Unearthly, in a place where you kind of wanted to know more, but you were okay with the book ending, unlike certain books I know *shoots scary look at particular books*. It's hard to explain, but I think the book ended well. But I still am dying to get my hands on the next one!

Overall, this book lives up to my expectations, and I think it may or may not live up to other people's expectations. Some may think it's alright, others might think it's amazing. I loved it in a different way than I loved Unearthly, and it was definitely different from the first book. This book deals with very real and true things, but Ms. Hand adds some things to it to make it, you know, fantasy. It's different from Unearthly, but in a totally good way. It's absolutely and utterly worth reading, and it's one of my favorites of the year!

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Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - Review

Review Done By: Aneeqah's Not So Real Life


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Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Magic

Review: This story is about a girl named Karou, who lives in a town called Prague, in the Czech Republic. She's a little unusual. She has blue hair, draws incredible well, plus other strange details, but the strangest thing being: she lives a double life. All of her life, she's been divided by her two lives, her normal one, and her not-so-normal one. And all of this time, she's always felt a little... off. But how could she not, working for a magical teeth-collecter?

I think I surprised myself in two ways while reading this book. Let's start with the good one. Even though there's lots of unfamiliar words and names in this book, I could remember them and keep them seperate without any problem. Usually, with lots of confusing names, I have to flip back in the book and try to figure out which person is which, what word means what, or I just keep reading and hope it makes sense to me. But I never found myself doing that in this book. Ms. Taylor made very distinct names and characters, and so it was very easy to keep up with everything.

The other thing I surprised myself with was that I easily guessed the whole mystery of the book. The whole question, the suspense, once I met the other important charcter, I guessed it with a snap. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be that obvious, because I'm absolutely terrible with figuring out the mystery. Seriously. Something could be so obvious, and I would totally miss it. But that wasn't the case in this book. Which very much surprised me.

One thing I also loved about this book is the description. I've read some very descriptive books before, and to be honest, I just skimmed through alot of those books. But the descriptions were so unique in this book, and it painted a picture of the whole scene to me. I think it defiantly added a whole lot to this book, and it made it better.

Also, I think Mrs. Taylor added lots of details in the magic aspect of the book. I don't want to give anything away, but I feel as everything is very well-thought out, and I don't even think I have any questions about how it all works, and trust me, I always have questions!

The things I didn't like about the book? The main problem for me would probably be that it dragged in places. I know the author had to set up the scene and everything, but for me, that took too long, and honestly, it got kinda boring in the beginning of the book. It took a while for me to actually begin to get really intrested, and even then, the book sometimes lost my intrest near the end. The middle was for sure the most intresting part for me, where there was some really good conflict and some action.

Another thing I strongly disliked was the fabulous cliffhanger. Honestly, I shouldn't have expected more from this book. I don't think I've read a book that came out this year that doesn't have a cliffhanger. It would have been nice if this book would have been different, but of course, it didn't. Cliffhangers are really starting to get on my nerves. But, hey, that's the price you pay for reading good books, right?

In the end, I think this book is great for more older readers. Younger kids won't really enjoy it, since it doesn't have much action in it. Honestly, I was expecting more action than what I got, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it was still a pretty good read. I'll be looking forward to the next one!


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Voice of the Undead by Jason Henderson - Review

Henderson, Jason. Voice of the Undead (Alex van Helsing, 2). HarperTeen, 2011. 16.99. 304p. 978-0-0619-5101-5.

Alex is finally training with the Polidorium, that CIA-like super funded group of evil fighters, and he feels like he's found where he belongs.  Unfortunately, Scholomance, the vampire training school, wants Alex dead.  They've sent the crazy blond, Elle, to bring him down and she's pulling out all the stops.  Whatever wild worm-like creature she set on him leads to him burning down his school, Glenarvon!  All the boys have to move to the girl school, LaLaurie.  Which is not so bad because they go to class with Minhi!

Yes, they are all back! Minhi, the ju-jitsu expert who saved Alex from a beatdown with bullies Bill and Steve, Paul, one of Alex's roomies who he rescued from Scholomance, and Sid, Alex's other roomie, vampire lore expert, and future writer.  The only problem: Minhi is dating Paul!   Okay, now back to the story.

The Polidorium is convinced that Scholomance wants Alex dead.  The buzz is that someone called Ultravox is coming in to do the job and they want Alex to get to Ultravox first.  Things, of course, do not go as planned! Alex gets too cocky and they kidnap him! He finds out the real reason Ultravox is here and he has to figure out how to get back and warn everyone.

Voice of the Undead is a fast-paced, action-packed caper.  Alex is in and out of trouble faster than you can say Vampire Rising.  There isn't much character development, Alex is too busy surviving to reflect on anything, but the mishaps keep the story moving forward.  Henderson takes a risk setting the story only one month after book one as not much has happened in that short time period. That allows Voice of the Undead to stand alone, though.  The writing here is uneven and seems to jump around instead of flowing from point to point.  Still, I can see students enjoying this one.  Alex has some cool gadgets and rides a motorcycle. There isn't much he's afraid of and he's got great friends to back him up.  This series is worth purchasing.

Thanks to Kelley and Hall Book Publicity for this ARC.

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Review - The Beautiful Dead: Jonas by Eden Maguire

The Beautiful Dead: Jonas

Eden Maguire

Sourcebooks Fire

March 2010

279 pg

Darina is devastated. Four people she knows has died in the past year. And one of them was her new boyfriend, Phoenix. Darina is drawn to the area around Angel Rock; and that's when she see's him. Phoenix. Alive. She thinks...

Then she gets to see and talk to him. Only he's not alive and he's not alone..

All of the recently dead ones are there and they need Darina. She can help them complete their missions and pass out of limbo. There are questions surrounding their deaths; were they murdered? Darina is their link with the mortal world or the far side as they call it. Darina accepts the challenge because it means she will get to spend more time with Phoenix. Even if he isn't really alive.

I really wanted to like this book but The Beautiful Dead is written in an overly dramatic way and is full of cliches. Many times I forgot that the characters were supposed to be teenagers.

"Will she think the worst?" He was still grinning, turning a little bit sheepish but also amused...

He embraced me one more time.

"My friends pussyfooted around me."

"He's our overlord, and without him we'd be out of here without a trace."

I didn't really get into the book until about 200 pages in. You don't really get to know any of the characters and therefore you don't really care what happens. Even the big scene when part of the group time-travels seemed unnecessary. I didn't see why Darina needed to be there since the group can erase people's memories. They can also hear everything. So, they should actually already know what's going on without her help. I'm hoping the next book gets better. Each book will focus on a different one of the four teens. I also didn't like Wuthering Heights, so maybe that's why I didn't get into this one...

Now, that being said, I'm sure I can find some readers for this series. I don't always get it but the students do. Plus, it's nice zombies... So, I'm passing this ARC on to some of my test readers. I'll update this in a month or so and tell you what we decided.

About the Author
Eden Maguire lives part of the time in the US, where she enjoys the big skies and ice-capped mountains of Colorado.

An abandoned farmstead two hours south west of Denver gave her the perfect setting for The Beautiful Dead. "It was as if time had stood still," she says of her first chance visit to the ranch. "The kitchen still had the old rocking-chair and iron stove, the ancient barn door really did blow open and shut in the wind."

It was here that the seed for a series of paranormal romance mysteries was sown. Eden Maguire's lifelong admiration for Emily Bronte's timeless classic, Wuthering Heights, ties in with her fascination for the dark side of life and informs her portrayal of the restless, romantic souls in The Beautiful Dead.

Away from her interest in the supernatural and the solitary pursuit of writing fiction, Eden's life is lived as much as possible in the outdoors, thanks to ranch-owning friends in Colorado. She says, "Put me on a horse and point me towards a mountain - that's where I find my own personal paradise."

Read the First Chapter
Beautiful Dead Book 1: Jonas - Chapter 1 Excerpt

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ARC provided by Sourcebooks Fire