Lesser Known Books

     I currently read a couple lesser known books. One called Of Poseidon (by Anna Banks), The other being the first two books in Brigid Kemmerer's Elemental series: Storm (the first), Spark (#2). The Elemental series focuses on four brothers who can control the four elements, Micheal can control Earth, Twins Nick(Air) and Gabriel(Fire) and Chris(Water) Merrick.

Storm focuses mainly on Chris and a girl named Becca, both juniors in high school. While leaving school one evening Becca sees a couple guys beating up Chris and intervenes, causing him to begin to fall for her. But Becca, having had a horrible experience with another guy over the summer, is reluctant to get close to him. Enter Hunter, a new guy at school, he's sweet and mysterious; Becca lets herself get close to him, so there's the love triangle. Usually, I hate love triangles, they are often a bit of a gimmick used to force a story, but this one kinda worked. The story was less about a love triangle and more about Becca discovering what the Merrick brothers can do and help them escape another elemental that wants to kill them. There's a little more to the story, but I don't want to spoil it for those that want to read the books.

I really freaking love Storm. I'm not really sure why but I love that book. I actually have read it a few times in the past couple days. It's a really quick read I finished it in a couple hours, but it's an all around great story. When she has the male characters speak, they actually sound the way guys in that age bracket sound when talking. There's a lot of "F-Bombs". But if we're gonna be honest angry teen-aged boys talk like that. Often, when a female author is writing male characters, they don't really come off as sounding 100% male. But as a woman myself, and I can say that when I have written male characters in stories that I've written, it is rather hard to give a fully male voice to those characters.

Spark focuses mainly on Gabriel, and him meeting a girl named Layne. Layne is a sophomore, Gabriel is a senior. Their love story is far less interesting and realistic to me than Chris and Becca's story. In this story, Gabriel, the hot head of the family, gets blamed for the string of arson cases in the town. But he's not starting them he's putting them out, with a little help from Hunter. I have a little less to say about this book than the first one. It's not a bad book, it's just not as interesting to me as the first. I think it has to do with me just really loving the characters Chris and Becca.

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Of Poseidon "Is about Emma,  a girl from Jersey with white blonde hair, porcelain skin and violet eyes. While on vacation in Florida with a friend Emma meets Galen, tall dark and sexy and a Syrena (merpeople). While Emma and her friend, Chloe, are paddling out into the ocean disaster strikes.

Back in jersey with school starting she sees Galen again in her class. Galen is convinced that Emma is one of them and has followed her to convince himself and her of what she can do." (what Goodreads says the book is about)

It was a good book, told from both Emma and Galen's P.O.V. but the problem I have with that is, when told from Emma's perspective it's written in first-person, and when told from Galen's, it's told in third-person. And while I liked the concept of the story, I don't really think I'll be reading its sequel, there were too many plot holes and cliche circumstances. The book just wasn't really for me.

Prodigy by Marie Lu

Legend #2

Summary via Goodreads:

       "Injured and on the run, it has been seven days since June and Day barely escaped Los Angeles and the Republic with their lives. Day is believed dead having lost his own brother to an execution squad who thought they were assassinating him. June is now the Republic's most wanted traitor. Desperate for help, they turn to the Patriots - a vigilante rebel group sworn to bring down the Republic. But can they trust them or have they unwittingly become pawns in the most terrifying of political games?"

"The Feels"

That is what will happen when you read this amazingly fantastic sequel by Marie Lu.

The romance, the excitement, the espionage... the unrequited romance. Then there's the heartbreak... Marie Lu builds up your love for this character she's made, gives him happiness, that makes us happy, then she goes and punches us in the heart, slapping away the brand new shiny thing she's given us saying "No! You aren't allowed to feel joy, this is my story of heartache." Then I am left weeping in the corner over a fictional character.... thanks a lot Marie Lu. *grumble*

But in all seriousness, this book is amazing. As I've said before, a good book makes you feel this way about its characters. Makes you feel so much a part of the story that you feel what they feel. It hurts, but it makes the reading experience all the more enjoyable.

What not to do when reading books....

     I recommend to never go from reading one dystopian book to another. I read four in a row (I am on the fifth) and I think it's starting to get to me. And since the ones I've read are mostly the sequels of the first books in their respective series's, I don't have the conclusion to the story to either make me feel better or to make me have "the feels". I'm left in this vortex of uncertainty wondering what is going to happen to these characters I've grown to love. I think it starting to make me nervous, and might just be leaking into my personal life. I keep having to make sure I just don't randomly blurt out things like "What is going to happen to Four and Tris?" "What is going on with Warner and Juliette, and is Adam ok?" "Will June and Day make it through safely?" "What's going to happen to Alex and Lena" 

It's kind of becoming pathetic.  And I'm only a little ashamed of myself over it all. A good book should make you feel so connected with the characters, and characters you connect to bring you into the book and story with them.

Legend #1

     So basically I have been dragging myself through these multiple dystopian societies. And I end up feeling all the heartbreak these fictional characters feel and its starting to affect me. I just read Legend, by Marie Lu. Oh my, so many feels. I think this book got to me the most, and now that I'm reading its sequel Prodigy, I am starting to think I need to take a small break. So many heart-wrenching things happened in Legend and so many things have already happened in the 120 pages I've read so far in this sequel. The relationship between June and Day is interesting and kind of sweet. He makes her not so hard and cold while she gives him the strength to believe that he can be more. They better each other, rather than just one bettering the other. I think June is my favorite female charter in YA fiction, only next to Tris. Well, June, Tris, and Isabelle are the best female characters in books out there.

But what has happened so far between Day and June, it makes me nervous for them. I love them together and I want them to stay that way. There is so much potential for their character development, and it could go either way for both of them. As I said, I'm only 120 pages into the sequel, 120 pages out of 371 that's not even half way, and the plot is already getting me so nervous for everything that could happen. I mean I can safely assume that neither of them dies because the third book has both of them in it, but so many other things can go wrong, and it's making me nervous.

Ok, enough of this. I just need to hurry and finish the book so I can move on to another book to distract me from all the heartbreak that I have been reading. I should read something more upbeat when I'm done reading Prodigy, something Jane Austin has written.

Ugh... Allergies. Oh and books.

Summer is upon us, and I hate it. Summer time for me means allergies and a very fussy me. I hate the heat of summer, and I hate that I have allergies even more. Ever since I went to Romania I have had the worst allergies. I walk outside on a dry hot day and pollen and dust just attack my fave like the Romans did to Troy. And this year my apartment has a little garden out front, so the best time I can work out there is in the morning before it gets too hot and the pollen gets bad. 

 On a different note, I have read a lot more books lately. Uh, I didn't make it very far into Matched before I got bored with the story, I made it 30 pages in. I just finished the third Percy Jackson book, they are getting better. I have read so many books since December I can't even name them all. So I'll just name my favorites and the ones that I think are interesting. Divergent is in my top 5 new favorite books. So good, I really like those dystopian stories, and quite a few of them try too hard. Delirium was also pretty good, but not quite as good as The Hunger Games or Divergent. Shatter Me, is a really different take on that genre, and Unravel Me, its sequel so far, is also pretty good. But I can not forget the shining jewel of books I have read this year; Clockwork Princess. That book, oh my that book. It had me smiling, it had me crying, it had me wanting to throw the book across the room. I was on the edge of my seat reading it. It is the best book Cassandra Clare has written. I can only hope that the final book in her TMI series and the other series's she is writing is written as good as Clockwork Princess. 

I found a book series that focuses around Norse Mythology (Dead Embers [Book Two], Dead Radiance [Book one]). The main character is a Valkyrie, which is what drew me to the story. There are so many books that have come out, that are coming out that are biased on Vampires and Angels. A story that focuses on Norse Mythology is quite interesting and very different. Norse mythology is one of the more interesting mythologies out there. But  have to admit that one of my other favorite series that I read this year is biased on Angels, well, fallen angels. And while I like the books the titles are just terrible. It's the Hush,Hush series. I found a couple of fairly good books about Werewolves, but it is hard to find books about Shapeshifters that don't suck, or bring in another supernatural being. 

Well now that I talked about the good... I have to mention the bad. I found a series that is worse than Twilight, I didn't think it was possible. It was so bad, I didn't even finish the series, I mean Twilight kept me interested enough to the end of the series. It's the Fallen series, I do not recommend it at all. I read all the way to through to halfway into the third book. It was an interesting concept but nothing ever really happened. So that's my reading adventures since December.