Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

You remember Will Scarlet from the legend of Robin Hood? Well, this is that legend from his (or, more accurately, her) eyes. That's right, there was a woman in Robin Hood's band of Merry Men! And, of course, a love story!

My Thoughts:

1. This book has Robin Hood as a love interest! THE Robin Hood!!! Reading this book inspired me to trace the evolution of my undying love for said legendary character, which you can read here, if you are so inclined. 
2. I absolutely LOVE novels set in the days of yore, and this delivered nicely in that department. 
3. One thing I didn't really like about this was the Marian/Scarlet thing. See, Scarlet is a "tough girl" type character...and I just don't identify with women like that. I can respect women like that, but I am just not like that. How can you have this heart-stopping romance without the element of he is a nobleman who has defied the system to be come an outlaw, she is a noblewoman who has to choose between him/life in the castle type element. I don't know, Scarlet just struck me as coarse, and I'm sure that's probably accurate, but it just didn't do it for me. The author even says in the back of the book that simpering Marian didn't do it for her, and Robin deserved someone strong, a fighter. Well, I'm a proponent of opposites attract, and I think there's something to be said for people like Marian in BBC's 2006 Robin Hood, who spy for information, distract the bad guys etc. Not everyone has to whip their weapons around to make a difference. (Not that 2006 Marian doesn't do a bit of that as well, but you get the idea). All I'm saying is, I prefer the more traditional Marian, but you obviously know what you prefer in your heroines, so don't discount the book for that reason.
4. This had a fair amount of adventure and suspense, and it didn't drag either.
5. At the end, the author put historical info/recommended works on Robin Hood, which I thought was great because, geek that I am, I am SO into stuff like this!
6. This was a nice book. It was a quick read, it made you think, but not too much and, while it didn't have a profound impact on my love of Robin Hood, it is worth reading. 

Who Should Read It:

• Fans of Robin Hood. (Yes, you, don't tell me you're not out there.)
• Fans of historical novels
• Romance lovers!

Final Score: 8/10 I had a really hard time deciding on this. I think the reason I'm hesitant to give this book a higher score, is because I've had so much exposure to the story of Robin Hood that I've sort of taken aspects of the different adaptations and put together in my mind my perfect version of the legend, and, obviously, this isn't my perfect version of the Robin Hood legend, it's A.C. Gaughen's.

Siren by Tricia Rayburn

This book is about Vanessa, a teenager who spends her summers in Winter Harbor, Maine. It's an idyllic place, until her sister dies and men start washing up on the beach, bruised but with wide grins on their immobile faces. Also, romance between Vanessa and a local, Simon.

My Thoughts:

1. First off, the cover has women standing on rocks out at sea, and it was called Siren, so I was thinking classical Greek myth sirens, i.e. head of a bird, lured sailors to wreck their ships. These creatures seem more like mermaids to me, murderous ones at that. Not that I have a problem with books about mermaids, but, if you're really into Greek mythology and that's why you pick up this book, you might be disappointed. 
2. I like that Vanessa has a pathological fear of lots of things, as that is something I can identify with. 
3. I love the Justine/Caleb and Vanessa/Simon relationships as a whole, though Simon is not really my type, per se. 
4. There were good parts, like the explanation of the history of the sirens and such, but there were also parts that really broke verisimilitude for me, like the explanation of Justine's jealousy. 
5. It wasn't that this was a bad book, but it didn't make my heart race or anything. 
6. This is one of those books you read because you enjoy the act or reading, not because you're particularly interested in the plot of the book. 
7. I'm not going to go out of my way to go and get the sequel, but I'll pick it up if I ever see it when I'm browsing through the shelves. 

Who Should Read It:

• This book is probably not so very different from most young adult novels, but it just didn't really work for me. If you're a reader, I'd suggested checking it out; I mean, it's in paperback, and what's $8.99? Nothing, really, so you should at least read the back or flip through a bit. 
• Like I said, if you like to read and you want something quick and not particularly analytic, this is worth checking out. 

Final Score: 7/10

Next, I'm reading Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen...it's about Robin Hood! :) :) :)

Angel Fire by L.A. Weatherly

This is the sequel to Angel Burn. Yesterday, at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, I was on page 200 of this 638 page book. I just finished now (10:31 PM). OH MY GOD!

My Thoughts

1. The first 200 pages were a little slow, as they mainly comprised Alex and Willow drifting apart to enable the formation of a love triangle, but, by the time you get to page 350, 400, there is MAJOR squee going on!
2. This book has everything: love, loss, grief, passion, adventure, tragedy, death, compassion - Ah! 
3. SEB! Oh, wow! He is perfect! Bad boy with a heart of gold, curly hair, accent - he is just amazing! My heart broke for him as much as it broke for Alex! 
4. Something that I love about this book is its sense of real tragedy. So many young adult books lack what I'd call grit. They don't feel grounded in real, raw human emotion, but this IS. Oh, man, I can't tell you how amazing this book is!
5. The cast of supporting characters was very fully realized and the setting - the stark, beautiful landscape - was just amazing and captured so sincerely by L.A. Weatherly. 
6. This is another one of those books - the kind that makes your heart contract so that you can barely speak. The kind that makes you laugh out loud and brings tears to your eyes for characters you never thought you really cared about. The kind of book that becomes a part of you, becomes as much a part of your consciousness as your friends or parents or life experiences. This is the kind of book that makes people love reading. If I hadn't decided to become a writer after reading Harry Potter, I'd decide right now. 
7. This book was so great, plot-wise as well. It's broad and sweeping but also a very human experience and I can't explain why but this was an amazing book. I feel like for a book to be truly a great book, then you can't explain why. If you can choose an individual element that you like more than the rest, than it's not a great book; it's a good book, written by an author with a great sense of humor or whatever the element might be. 
8. This is one of those books...it's just...poignant. And engaging. I feel so emotionally spent right now. Totally in a good way, of course, but I want to express how vivid this was. And sensual. It's like the author and I am have the same taste in romance or something, the way this was written so perfectly to my tastes (except for the hair cutting part. I am absolutely neurotic in my preference for long hair and I teared up when Alex cut Willow's.). 

Who Should Read It:

• This is for the romantics out there. You know who you are. 

I have no idea what I'm starting next, but I've got lots of options! 

Need, Captivate and Entice by Carrie Jones

This is a series, and I decided to wait until I finished all the ones that are out now (the fourth comes out in May of this year) to review this book. I don't think this was such a good idea anymore, so this is going to be a fairly truncated review.

This book was really great in terms of its mythology: pixies, elves, weres, Norse gods etc. As someone who absolutely loves folklore and such, I really appreciated all the details that Carrie Jones included. This book was also a quest/adventure type plot and who doesn't like that? Plus, the romance aspect was really great. You're supposed to be rooting for her and Nick, but I found Astley (cool name, no?) to be much more compelling and much more my type. If you've read the book, you know that probably says something!

Final Score: 8.5/10

I enjoyed these books and I will pick up the next one, but I wasn't absolutely floored by them like I was by Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly or Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. So, read them if you like adventure/romance/folklore, but I wouldn't say these are going to be classics.

Next on my reading list is Angel Fire by L.A. Weatherly :)

Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly

Oh my God! This book was fabulous! It takes place in a world where angels are actually evil (well, most angels) and they feed on the life force of humans, giving them angel burn, which can be anything from cancer or MS to depression or other mental illnesses. The main female character is Willow Fields, half-angel and psychic.  The male lead is Alex, Angel Killer (or AK) and assassin sent to kill Willow. However, he realizes she's different and that Project Angel (run by the CIA) has been infiltrated by the angels. So, they embark on a mission to save the world from the next wave of angels...falling in love in the process!

My Thoughts:

1. Wow! This book was VERY good! It's another one of those books where I almost don't want to try to pick out individual things I liked, because it was all so great that it almost didn't feel like a plot and characters and a setting and such, but just this world with no edge or formula to it. 
2. First off, the book is given through multiple perspectives. Mainly through Willow (in first person) and Alex (in third person) and some from Raziel (head of the bad angels) and their contact inside the Church of Angels. First off, hearing a romance from both perspectives is something I absolutely adore! Especially since Alex is so very romantic about Willow and Willow is such a lovely character. Another thing I liked about this was that lots of books sort of do alternating chapters, like Simone Elkeles' Perfect Chemistry series, which is great, but this one just shifts whenever it suits the plot, kind of like what Cassandra Clare does. I think it gives the story a more natural flow, I guess, and I really like it. 
3. Willow is great! I find it hard to like a book if I don't like the main character, and I absolutely loved Willow! She was fun and sweet and spunky and selfless and romantic and just a perfect heroine. 
4. Alex! Oh, wow, Alex! First off, dark hair and blue-gray eyes? SO hot! He was so so so great! You think he's this tough guy type, just into killing angels, but when you get his thoughts about Willow, you find out that's he's really pretty romantic and sweet and when he thinks about his brother Jake there's just so much vulnerability I wanted to cry for him! He is an AMAZING love interest! I would so brave the angel apocalypse if it meant spending time with him! 
5. The Alex and Willow romance is to die for! Oh, wow! I haven't read a romance this believable but still compelling since Etienne and Anna in Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins! Their physical scenes are just so ... so ... charged! It's amazing! It's the perfect combination of just lying next to each other or Alex commenting on how soft Willow's hair is and heated kissing. My heart was all a-flutter the entire time :). This, to me, was the perfect romance. So many relationships that I see in real life are purely physical and/or between two people who don't think they're old enough to know what love is and I just hate that. This relationship is a full on, love at first sight, undying devotion, I would DIE for you love. And that is the only kind of love worth having. And reading about, of course. 
6. The style was just so expressive. I finished this last night around 11 o'clock (which I blew off reviewing my friend's essay to do, but no sacrifice is too great when a book is concerned) and I can honestly tell you I cried non-stop for the last 30 or so pages. I cannot believe I have never heard of L.A. Weatherly until now. I got some BN gift cards for my birthday (Woo! I'm an adult.), and I plan to purchase everything she's written tomorrow. 
7. This book had a very satisfying conclusion AND a sequel! It's the best of both worlds! 
8. The actual plot of this book was great! Adventure, action, save-the-world type awesome! 
9. This book is just one of those books that is amazing! I can't explain it, it just is. I haven't done the book justice, but I hope I've given you an idea as to how amazing this book is!

Who Should Read It:

• Romance fans! Oh, my God, you will die!
• People who are looking for a new take on a supernatural element. 
• People who like to read! L.A. Weatherly just does an amazing job!

Final Score: Infinity/10!

For more info, check out the author's website here. I recommend you go to the UK one. They have an about the author section then links to different blog posts she's done, and they are AMAZING!

I'm going book shopping tomorrow, so who knows what will be next!

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Oh my God! This book was so amazing I can barely make my thoughts coherent enough to form a post! It takes place in a dystopian future where the environment has gotten so bad (plagued by Aether storms etc.) that people have resorted to living in Pods and experiencing things virtually (in the Realms). However, unlike the Dwellers, some people lived outside these things - they're known as the Outsiders or Savages and are a primitive, tribal people. Some of them have been Marked by the Aether with special abilities. Unfortunately for Aria, a terrible situation leads to her being exiled from her Pod, where she meets Perry, a "Savage." At first, they both just use each other to try to get back something of theirs, but, you know what they say about opposites.

My Thoughts:

1. I picked this book up on a whim from the Teens' New Releases section on Barnes and Noble's website. It came at 6 PM from UPS yesterday, and I've just finished (8:45 PM Thursday). This book was just so riveting and gripping. It's like the entire thing could have been italicized it was such an invigorating rush of a read. 
2. This book was perfect. Absolutely perfect! I can barely go into what I liked about it because everything was just a seamless whole. It was an experience! An enigma! Oh my God! Go read this book! Stop reading this review and go and read this book!
3. Aria was a great heroine. She was tough, but relatable and she opened up to Perry/was sweet to him in a decent amount of time. (As you know, I love the hate turns to love type romance, but if they're awful to each other for too long, I tend to not go for that.)
4. Perry. Oh, wow. Just wow. He was perfect. Handsome in a rugged sort of way, brooding, protective, caring, sweet, strong, sensitive - oh, he was just wonderful! There was a line of his that was just so lovable I might have wept a bit from happiness. *squee!*
5. The romance was beautiful. It was sensuous and sweet and passionate and heart-wrenching. This relationship was so beautifully rendered I can honestly say I had moments of doubt about my intended future of solitude and cat lady-dom. The build-up was great, but the crowning moments were even better. It was magnificent. 
6. The world. Oh, my God! It was perfect. You don't know everything and it's tantalizing yet not annoyingly out of reach. It's rich and fully realized in a way that the young adult genre rarely sees. 
7. The plot was also very captivating. So much is left to discover, but the journey they've already taken was very fulfilling. It's like a classic, fairy tale quest but re-imagined so fully as to warrant its own genre. 
8. It was just so almost luscious in tone. I can't place it, but my heart was in my throat the entire time. It just felt luxuriant in it's emotion. It was genuine and engaging and just something I've never really experienced before (and I read A LOT).
9. It has it. That undefined, undefinable essence that I peruse shelf after shelf searching for. I finally understand why the Romantics appreciated the unclassifiable. 

Who Should Read It:

• Literate people of the world: you NEED to read this book. If you have an ounce of emotion in your body, you will appreciate this book. 

Final Score: There is no numerical value I can give this book that will do it justice. This is a masterpiece. This will be the classic of our generation. (Apart from Harry Potter, of course, which is a given.) I'm not sure if people who read the literary canon as new releases knew what they held in their hands, but I know that Under the Never Sky is something special. 

For more info, check out the author's website here. I have tons of new books, but I'm thinking either Overbite by Meg Cabot or Entice by Carrie Jones will be next. 

The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

This book centers around Katerina, Duchess of Oldenburg in 1888 Russia and necromancer. Different supernatural groups are vying for the throne/choosing one side or another (including revenants, witches, vampires, fairies and werewolves). Katerina's power is sought after my member's of all sides and she is forced into a relationship with the evil Prince Danilo...but wait! Will she be rescued by the utterly amazing Grand Duke George Alexandrovich?

My Thoughts

1. First and foremost: the relationship between Katiya and the George was just amazing! He starts out hostile towards our heroine, but he gradually warms to her and it's just so charming. And, of course, he's dashing and sexy but cute and sweet too (especially when he's jealous...aw!) This is one of those romances that I'm not even going to describe because I can't find the words! And Princess Alix and the tsar's eldest son were just adorable!
2. You know I love historical fiction, and the portrayal of the Russian Imperial Court was just great - it was like Anastasia, only without the songs!
3. In that vein, most historical fiction books are either centered in England or France or America, and I'd never really read one centering on Russia before. I was a little wary (you know me and change), but I absolutely loved it! The author provided a little info on some stuff at the beginning and it was definitely a nice change. 
4. Also, I'm not familiar with Russian folklore, so all the aspects of it the author included were completely new to me - which I loved, since I am such a nerd about stuff like that. 
5. I feel like I'm not explaining this book well, but it was a really amazing and engaging read. I probably spent a total of five hours on it over two days, since it was so good.
6. The overall plot was also really amazing. It was very complex and kept you guessing, but never to the point where you couldn't make a guess about what might happen. I loved the elements of mystery and intrigue that flowed seamlessly with the supernatural elements and the personal drama of Katiya and her relationships. 

Who Should Read I

• Romance fans who want to read about a really awesome romance with a really wonderful love interest!
• Fans of historical fiction!
• Fans of paranormal or supernatural or folkloric literature!

Final Score 10/10 A very enjoyable read!

I really recommend you check this book out, since it was something I really liked and I feel like you might like it too! For more info (it's part of a trilogy! YAY!), check out the author's website here. 

The stuff I ordered from Barnes and Noble came in the mail today, so I'm starting Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi!