Sisters of Blood and Spirit

Sisters of Blood and Spirit: Kady Cross 
Publication Date: March 31st 

Wren Noble is dead—she was born that way. Vibrant, unlike other dead things, she craves those rare moments when her twin sister allows her to step inside her body and experience the world of the living. 

Lark Noble is alive but often feels she belongs in the muted Shadow Lands—the realm of the dead. Known as the crazy girl who talks to her dead sister, she doesn't exactly fit in with the living, though a recent suicide attempt and time in a psych ward have proved to her she's not ready to join her sister in the afterlife. 

Now the guy who saved Lark's life needs her to repay the favor. He and his friends have been marked for death by the malevolent spirit of a vicious and long-dead serial killer, and the twins—who should know better than to mess with the dead—may be their only hope of staying alive.

Going into this novel, I wasn't sure what to expect. I heard mixed things about it on goodreads, but when I first saw the cover and read the description I was super intrigued. I mean look at that cover! It's beautiful! So the story follows Wren and Lark who are sisters. Wren died in childbirth but Lark can still see and communicate with her and other ghosts - a lot of people think Lark is a freak as a consequence of that. 

"I'd rather eat glass than have Kevin around. It wasn't that he was a jerk, though he could give me a run in the obnoxious race, it was that I didn't trust him with my sister." 

I really liked Lark but I wasn't a fan of Wren. I guess it wasn't so much that I didn't like her, more that I just liked Lark a lot more. She was cool as shit - she kicked serious ass and was snarky as hell! Also, I totally ship her and Mace (The guy who saved her from a recent suicide), but he has this annoying girlfriend, Sarah. I hate her life. She is rude, jealous, bitchy, insecure, among other things. 

The biggest problem I had with this book were the descriptions of the characters. I loved their personalities. They were very well-written, but I couldn't picture them for the life of me. I wanted to know their hair color, eye color, weight, clothing, relative height to each other. Instead you get things like "he's gorgeous". A few of the characters you get their hair color, but that's it. The most description you get is of a ghost… Can I get more of a description of Mace, though? 

The book never really goes into more about why Lark and Wren are so special. Also, why does Wren, as a ghost, grow up? The other ghosts in the book stay the same age as when they died but not Wren… she ages the same as a human would. The timeline seemed off as well. I'm pretty sure this book happened over the course of one weekend, looking back it just seemed odd to me to squeeze so much information into 3 days. 

I will be continuing this series. Even though it wasn't my favorite and I wasn't shaking with anticipation, there were really awesome characters and enough of a cliff hanger to make me wonder what is going to happen next. I'd give it 3 stars. 

"His eyes were so wide I could see the whites around his irises

'Jesus Christ!'

'No,' I whispered, my voice a growling, terrible vortex. 'Not quite.'"

Obsidian

Obsidian (Lux #1): Jennifer L. Armentrout

There’s an alien next door. And with his looming height and eerie green eyes, he’s hot…until he opens his mouth. He’s infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, he marks me. Turns out he has a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal his abilities and the only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to him until my alien mojo fades. If I don’t kill him first, that is.

I guess I'm probably the last to read this series. It's not that I first heard about it, my friends kept telling me to read it… it's just that I was reading other stuff, you know how that goes? I am SO glad I finally read this book. Daemon Black was damn, I have no words!!

"Beautiful face. Beautiful body. Horrible attitude. It was the holy trinity of hot boys."

I loved the sexual tension between Katy & Daemon, like even from the very beginning it was so GREAT. Then when Dee made him spend time with her and be nicer to her. LOL. Speaking of, how adorable is his relationship to his sister? The characters were so well built like it was just amazing. I thought it was funny that Katy was a book blogger, talk about appealing to your target audience.

“Swimming was the last thing I wanted to do. Drowning him? Maybe.” 

One thing I usually end up not liking about these types of books is that it ends up seeming like a book about romance with action/plot thrown in as an after-thought. This didn't seem like that at all! It was super developed and the action and romance blended so seamlessly. It never seemed like one drowned the other out to the point of wondering 'what is the point of this'.


So basically, I'm pretty glad my friends have been trying to shove this book down my throat. The ending was kind of cliche' to be honest. I was hoping it would be some kind of cliffhanger instead of being about their relationship, but I heard the series gets even better than this and this was pretty freaking great. I'm pretty sure you all probably read this book and probably the whole series, so I'm the last one to this party! I'd overall give it 4.5 stars!

None of the Above

None of the Above: I. W. Gregorio 

Publication Date: April 7th 

What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?

When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She's a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she's madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she's decided that she's ready to take things to the next level with him.

But Kristin's first time isn't the perfect moment she's planned—something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy "parts."

Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin's entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?

Kristin had a pretty good life besides her mom passing away from cervical cancer. She was a track star, had great best friends and a hot boyfriend, and was also voted homecoming queen. She was just dealing with normal high school stuff when she found out that she was intersex.

I loved everything about this book. This author just gets high school and how friends are in high school. I feel like this is so important for people to read!! There are so many judgmental people on topics surrounding not only this, but also transgender issues all together. This book will teach you about what intersex is without being preachy. I'm sure we all know people like Kristin's friends. Those people who will selfishly manipulate your problem to suit them.

"'I mean, what was I supposed to do?' she said defensively. 'I had to tell someone. It's all so fucked up. I mean, I was so traumatized-'" 

You will feel like you are there with Kristin through her journey from her diagnosis to trying to accept what it means to be intersex. Not only does she have to try to figure this out for herself, she has the added drama and pressures of high school weighing on her during this time. How will her boyfriend react when he finds out that she is intersex? The school?

"It was like, when Mr. Morris used the word, he wasn't just saying 'female'. He was saying 'not Kristin Lattimer.' 

The author is a practicing surgeon and during her residency, she met an intersex patient who inspired this novel. That hits really close to home to me because I'm a physician assistant student, and I know the feeling of wanting to follow your patient's story. Unfortunately, most times it doesn't work out that way unless you work in a family practice. Intersex is also a term that isn't used as often as it should be. As noted in the book, hermaphrodite carries a lot of stigma. When I took multicultural psychology for my minor, intersex wasn't a term that was used. I don't know if maybe we were using an old text book or what, but I think that it should have at least been addressed as a modernized term.

I don't know if anybody has ever seen 'Faking It' on MTV, but Bailey De Young plays Lauren, a character with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS).

I'd recommend this book to anybody who has an open mind and wants to broaden their horizons to learn something new. It was truly inspiring, and I hope this book helps to take some stigma out of the word intersex. I can see this being one of my favorite contemporary books, and I give it 5 stars!

"The Mona Lisa is a masterpiece whether it's in a pitch-black room, under a strobe light, or on the sun." 

World After

World After is the sequel to Angelfall by Susan Ee and the second book in the Penryn & the End of Days trilogy. The first book was a breath of fresh air and I really loved how dark it was for a book about angels. The first book leaves off with Penryn being stung by a scorpion hybrid - everybody thought she was dead but her body was just temporarily paralyzed and she was still completely alert. Raffe gave Penryn's supposedly dead body back to her family and left.

One of the best parts about this book was how strong and independent Penryn was becoming. I mean, she was before but this was just a whole other ballgame. Her mom is still crazy, she is in turmoil over if her sister really is a monster or not, and she lost the only person she trusted even a little bit.  

"Did I think for a second that I could have my own agenda among them? That I could beat any of them? I'm a little nobody, a nothing. By all the laws of nature, I should be crawling under the table and crying for mommy. Only, relying on mommy is what other people do."

There were a lot more emotional scenes in this book, and they were really beautifully written. I like the fact that Susan can go from writing these disturbing scenes about the apocalypse to these extremely moving scenes that you just would never see coming. My favorite chapter was chapter 16, where Penryn sees her and Raffe's first encounter through his perspective.

"Rules. Custom. Danger. It's dangerous to be with me. 

It's dangerous to be without you." 

One of the things I disliked most about the book was how little Raffe was in the book. I don't need romance or anything in a book to keep me interested, but he was probably my favorite character in the first book besides Penryn. He was introduced in a major way in the first book, I think he was probably the second main character. I don't think he was forgotten about in the second book - because he certainly wasn't. I just think he should have been in there more, especially since the description of the book says: "Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can't rejoin the angels, can't take his rightful place as one of their leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?" With this being part of the description, I assumed it would be a big part of the book, not just the last 30%. 

"You're the devil's bride and these are his creatures. He carried you out of the fire and is letting you visit us from the dead." 

Overall, I think this book was pretty good but not as good as the first one. I really missed Raffe and his sarcastic attitude, him and Penryn just make a better story together - even if they aren't dating. The emotional flashbacks in the book made up a little bit for Raffe's absence, but not enough. World After definitely answered a lot of questions that Angelfall left open, so I think that was great. I am really interested in how this series will pan out especially since Raffe is immortal and Penryn is mortal. Also, the description for the third book looks amazing. End of Days comes out on May 12th. 

99 Days

99 Days: Katie Cotugno

Publication Date: April 21st 

Molly Barlow is facing one long, hot summer—99 days—with the boy whose heart she broke and the boy she broke it for . . . his brother.

Day 1: Julia Donnelly eggs my house my first night back in Star Lake, and that's how I know everyone still remembers everything. She has every right to hate me, of course: I broke Patrick Donnelly's heart the night everything happened with his brother, Gabe. Now I'm serving out my summer like a jail sentence: Just ninety-nine days till I can leave for college and be done.

Day 4: A nasty note on my windshield makes it clear Julia isn't finished. I'm expecting a fight when someone taps me on the shoulder, but it's just Gabe, home from college and actually happy to see me. "For what it's worth, Molly Barlow," he says, "I'm really glad you're back."

Day 12: Gabe wouldn't quit till he got me to come to this party, and I'm surprised to find I'm actually having fun. I think he's about to kiss me—and that's when I see Patrick. My Patrick, who's supposed to be clear across the country. My Patrick, who's never going to forgive me.

This book was pretty awkward to read. I can’t really say much about the plot without giving anything away so I’ll only tell things that won’t spoil the book. Molly Barlow was dating Patrick Donnelly since forever. Then, one day sophomore year she slept with his brother, Gabe. Molly told her mom everything that happened between them, and she turned it into a bestselling book! Molly moved away to a boarding school and now she is back for the summer, and everyone is still hating on her.

So, right from the start you know this story is about cheating. I don’t even really think it’s about cheating, I think it’s about the double standards surrounding cheating. I guess if you are sensitive to that then probably don’t read it. It was hard getting attached to the main character. I really didn't want to feel bad for her in the very beginning because I think what she did was wrong. However, how everyone was treating her was wrong too. It was brutal bullying and it was just unfair to her because they weren't treating Gabe the same way. I kept thinking to myself the whole time, "jeeze this is why people commit suicide". 

Overall, I felt the plot was alright. It was intriguing enough for me to keep going, and there really wasn't any point in which I had that "is this over yet" feeling. But the ending just kind of fell really flat for me. I didn't think it should have ended the way it did, it was just dull. I think this book should have had a little more about Molly Barlow realizing what she did was wrong, and reflecting on it. She wasn't a perfect main character and I never wanted her to be one - I even like main characters with a lot of flaws.  But there should have been some point for her to say "when is enough, enough?".  

"I never felt stuck or cut off or like there was other stuff I'd rather be doing, never felt like there was anyplace else I'd rather be. At least, not until the moment it did."

I think the one thing that saved me from giving this book a lower rating was how funny the characters were. They had really witty comebacks and they were just really likable people despite all of the drama that was surrounding them. I could visualize them very well as well as the town they live in and that is very important to me when reading a book. 

"'Hey, stranger,' he says as I climb into the passenger seat, in a voice like I'm not one at all. 'Wreck any homes today?' I snort. 'Not yet, I assure him, rolling my eyes as I buckle my seat belt. 'But, you know. It's early.'" 

The book as a whole was alright, it wasn’t my favorite but I wasn’t struggling to read it. For a contemporary standalone novel, I just feel the ending should have had more of a sense of finality. I really enjoyed the characters as well as the town they lived in. I give the book 3.5 stars and I'd recommend it if you're looking for an easy read, but it wouldn't be the first book I'd recommend. 

Angelfall

Well – Angelfall by Susan Ee was kickass! The angels just came down and destroyed the whole entire world. Now, people are basically savages doing anything they can to survive. The main character, Penryn lives with her mom and her paralyzed sister. When they are trying to make it to the highway, fighting angels land right in front of them. It’s a 10 on 1 fight and when the group of angels cut off the lone angels wings, Penryn’s sister makes a sound. So – they fly away with her. Penryn does the only thing she thinks will help, she scoops up the wingless angel in her sisters wheel chair because she thinks he can take her to where they are taking her sister.

One thing that immediately shocked me about this book was how well researched it was. The angels had biblical names so it was all very realistic. They talked about Gabriel the messenger of God - that immediately made me like the book so much more. It just makes it more real, because I can relate it to things I have always known about angels.

“When I was little, I always thought I’d be Cinderella, but I guess this makes me the wicked witch. But then again, Cinderella didn’t live in a post-apocalypic world invaded by avenging angels.”

This book is so good. I can’t tell if I like the angels or not. They are described as essentially otherworldly hot, but at the same time they are also really bad. I'm probably gonna go with no, or it's circumstantial because I like a few of the angels but I don't like most of them. 

“They’re all wide and solid, every graceful move, every casual bulge of muscle, declaring them to be athletes. No, athletes isn’t quite right. Warriors is the word that rattles around in my brain.”

Penryn's family was so perfectly written. I feel like I know them. Her mom is crazy. Basically, they live in Crazytown and her mom is campaigning to be the mayor. How does Penryn know her mom is around? A corpse is messed with, yep - her mom likes to play with dead people! She has some sort of psychological problem I would guess, and since the world is in an apocalypse she has no way of getting medicine anymore. It is implied that it is her moms fault why Penryn's sister is paralyzed, but it's never said for sure. 

“Six butter knives stick out of his flesh in a circular pattern. Someone has drawn a powder-pink lipstick pentagram with the knives at the endpoints.”

In other words, I think this book was amazing. There were times throughout the book I caught myself thinking "maybe I should have like an underground bunker and start storing food in it or something just incase an apocalypse ever happens" then I'm like … "what am I saying?!?!". I thought I was going insane. It had everything I like in a book, it wasn't focused around romance but it had just enough of it. I'd definitely recommend Angelfall to anyone who likes young adult fiction. I give it 5 stars - and I'm excited to read World After, which is the second book in the Penryn & the End of Days series. 

Crown of Midnight

Crown of Midnight is the second installment of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. So if you haven’t read that, probably don’t read this review any further than this sentence if you don’t want to know what happens in the first book. Crown of Midnight starts with Calaena doing her job as the King’s Champion… except not really because she is just pretending to kill the people she is being told to kill.

It took awhile for me to actually figure out what the plot of this story was. At first I thought it was going to be her being the King's Champion, but she spent a lot of time doing other things. I kept thinking, "Isn't the King suspicious at why everything is taking so long?". 

One thing I really liked in this book was seeing another side to Calaena, both good and bad. We heard in Throne of Glass about her snapping at Endovier and just plowing down a bunch of guards, but we didn't know why and we didn't really know what was going through her head when she was doing it. More information is given on that as well as more about her past. At one point she just goes kind of crazy, and there was no getting through to her - and I thought that was pretty awesome. You see the side of Calaena that everyone is afraid of and all of the rumors about "Adarlans Assassin" are about. 

In Throne of Glass, I was team Dorian. I didn't even know how to pronounce Chaol, and I really didn't even care. Now, I totally changed my mind. Don't get me wrong, I still like Dorian and everything - but I just think her and Chaol should be endgame at this point. I feel like Chaol did a 180 around Calaena from last book to this book. He was a lot sweeter and cared more about her wellbeing in general. 

My favorite thing about this book was the ending, it was pretty shocking to me and I was honestly quite upset about it. Despite the large chunk at the beginning of the book where i was sort of confused as to what the plot was going to be, I think everything that happened at the end made up for it. There was a lot that happened to each character and not just Calaena, either.  Every character changed immensely throughout the course of the book, I want to say they almost discovered themselves. I am excited to read the next book but at the same time I'm hesitant because I don't want any relationships to change because I think they are perfect how they are right now. I give this book 4.5 stars.