Book Review: Unspoken - C.C. Hunter

Unspoken - C.C. Hunter

Despite her superhuman strength and enhanced senses, Della Tsang's life as a vampire certainly hasn't been easy.  Especially since she was reborn and bound to the mysterious, infuriating, and gorgeous Chase Tallman.

But if there's one thing that's always kept Della going, it's  her dream of being an elite paranormal investigator.  Her newest case is the opportunity she's been waiting for, but as Della tries to solve the twenty year old murder and clear her father's name.  She uncovers secrets about the vampire council.  And about Chase.

Feeling betrayed by all the secrets he's kept hidden from her, Della is determined to keep him as far away from her heart as she can.  But she'll need his help to solve the case that will lead them into the darkest and ugliest vampire gangs in town and into the scariest reaches of her heart.

4/5 stars (really liked it)

Sometimes I wanted to smack Della and sometimes I wanted to smack Chase.  And sometimes I just wanted to smack both of them at the same time.  This book was everything I expected and more.  I absolutely love Della.  Although I still say there need to be at least one book about Burnett and what he was like as a young vampire.  I love all the characters in this series and I really hope that there are more coming!

Book Review: Nightfall - Jake Halpern, Peter Kujawinski

Nightfall - Jake Halpern, Peter Kujawinski

The dark will bring your worst nightmares to light, in this gripping and eerie survival story, perfect for fans of James Dashner and Neil Gaiman.

On Marin's island, sunrise doesn't come every twenty-four hours--it comes every twenty-eight years.  Now the sun is just a sliver of light on the horizon.  The weather is turning cold and the shadows are growing long.

Because sunset triggers the tide to roll out hundreds of miles, the islanders are frantically preparing to sail south, where they will wait out the long Night.

Marin and her twin brother, Kana, help their anxious parents ready the house for departure.  Locks must be taken off doors.  Furniture must be arranged.  Tables must be set.  The rituals are puzzling--bizarre, even--but none of the adults in town will discuss why it has to be done this way.

Just as the ships are about to sail, a teenage boy goes missing--the twins' friend Line.  Marin and Kana are the only ones who know the truth about where Line's gone, and the only way to rescue him is by doing it themselves.  But Night is falling.  Their island is changing.

And it may already be too late.

2/5 stars (it was ok)

Maybe it's because I did not like Marin and she is the main character but I didn't think this book was that great.  I guessed why they had to do all those strange rituals.  I thought the book just kind of ended and I found myself satisfied enough with the ending that I don't need another book.

Book Review: Dark Places - Gillian Flynn

Dark Places - Gillian Flynn

Libby Day was just seven years old when her older brother massacred her family while she hid in the cupboard.  Her evidence helped put him away.  Ever since then she has been drifting, surviving for over 20 years on the proceeds of the 'Libby Day Fund'.  But now the money is running out and Libby is desperate.  When she is offered $500 to do a guest appearance, she feels she has to accept.  But this is no ordinary gathering.  The Kill Club is a group of true-crime obsessives who share information on notorious murders, and they think her brother Ben is innocent.

Ben was a social misfit, ground down by the small-town farming community in which he lived.  But he did have a girlfriend - a brooding heavy metal fan called Diondra.  Through her, Ben became involved with drugs and the dark arts.  When the town suddenly turned against him, his thoughts turned black.  But was he capable of murder?  Libby must delve into her family's past to uncover the truth - no matter how painful...

3/5 stars (liked it)

This book has a lot of people that are not totally innocent.  The books goes back and forth between characters (mostly Libby, Ben and Patty) and time (the day of the murders and present day).  We learn things about Libby and what her life is like now.  She basically has never learned to take care of herself and was not grateful to those who did take care of her.  Also we see what Ben was like as a kid and what he is like now.  I did not see how the events would unfold and I like how all the pieces fell into place.

Book Review: The Grownup - Gillian Flynn

The Grownup - Gillian Flynn

A canny young woman is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly harmless fraud.  On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in.  A keen observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful, rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a drama injection.  However, when the "psychic" visits the eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan's terror and grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in ghosts anymore.  Miles, Susan's teenage stepson, doesn't help matters with his disturbing manner and grisly imagination.  The three are soon locked in a chilling battle to discover where the evil truly lurks and what, if anything, can be done to escape it.

3/5 stars (liked it)

This is so much more than a ghost story.  Its creepy and even though it was a short story I feel like I got a whole story.  I felt like I knew the main character so well and we don't even learn her name.  I thought the Victorian house was creepy.  The ending was so unexpected, either scenario presented at the end was believable.

Book Review: The Book of Life - Deborah Harkness

The Book of Life - Deborah Harkness

After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness' enchanting series, historian and with Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies.  At Matthew's ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches--with one significant exception.  But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.  In the trilogy's final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences.  In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.

3/5 stars (liked it)

I waited so long to see the conclusion of this book.  I thought this book was a little long and drawn out.  Although I loved seeing some of the old characters make an appearance, especially those I thought we would not see again.  I would love to see a story of Rebecca and Phillip (the twins) as they grow up and what they are like when they grow up.  Also thought it was so sad that Emily died.  Overall I'm glad to have a conclusion to this trilogy.

Book Review: The Merciless - Danielle Vega

The Merciless - Danielle Vega

Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned

Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged.  No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she's here.  No one can hear her scream.

Sofia Flores knows she shouldn't have gotten involved.  When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day of school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways.  They said they wanted to save Brooklyn.  They wanted to help her.  Sofia didn't realized they believed Brooklyn was possessed.

Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn--but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation.  All Sofia wants is to get out of this house.  But there is no way out.  Sofia can't go against the other girls...unless she wants to be next...

In this chilling debut, Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page.  By the shockingly twisted end, readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all:  Is there evil in all of us?

2/5 stars (it was ok)

This story pretty much takes place in one night.  Riley and her friends trying to exorcise Brooklyn.  They do this by cutting her, torturing her and turning on each other.  I though the ending was pretty predictable and I thought more could have been done with Sofia and her past.

Book Review: Soundless - Richelle Mead

Soundless - Richelle Mead

For as long as Fei can remember, there has been no sound in her village, where rocky terrain and frequent avalanches prevent residents from self-sustaining.  Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beigou, a mysterious faraway kingdom.

When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink and many go hungry.  Feir's home, the people she loves, and her entire existence is plunges into crisis, under threat of darkness and starvation.

But soon Fei is awoken in the night by a searing noise, and sound becomes her weapon.

Richelle Mead takes readers on a triumphant journey from the peak of Fei's jagged mountain village to the valley of Beigou, where a startling truth and unlikely romance will change her life forever...

3/5 stars (liked it)

I was very much looking forward to a Richelle Mead book but this book was not as great as her other ones.  Although it was a nice change to read a stand alone book instead of a series.  This book is set in a very beautiful place, I very much imagines the beautiful mountain that Fei's village was set in.  Also her treacherous climb down to save her village.  Although the ending was very predictable.