Jane Stain: Kilts (Rennaisance Fair 1)

I love the idea of travelling through time. I love the idea that it would be possible for ordinary 21st century women to be part of such adventures.
This book was good, I liked reading it and I got through it so fast! When I reached the end I was like "What, it's done already? But I've only been sitting here for... Oh.. 3 hours...".

That being said, there were a couple of things that near ruined this book for me. I can't look at this book as a nice, stand alone book.
This feels more as a rushed prequel to another book. Is this a bad thing? Well no, not really. As I said, for the most part I liked this book. It was a very mushy romance kind of book and I kind find myself in that.
It's not filled with steamy scenes.. But I'm glad it was this way. It shows that a good romance doesn't need to be covered page to page with steamy scenes that make your ears go red to actually be a good novel.

Other than that, I had a few issues. She goes to this Rennaisance Fair with her best friend. Ok, no problem there. She meets a guy and is attracted to him. Again, no problem there. After 8 hours of knowing eachother she is about willing to give up her entire life for him. What.
I get how novels like to bring everything to true love, soul mates. Knowing you love the other person just by looking in his or her eyes.. But you don't KNOW someone that fast... Even Disney movies have stepped away from this idea..
'You can't marry someone you just met that day'. Thank you Christoff and Elsa for pointing this small, yet important detail, out.
I just think that there could have been a stronger built up to their beautiful relationship.

The second thing that kind of made me go haywire was how Emily seems to know that Dall is from the past just from hearing his accent. Since when are all scottish men from a time past? Okay, his accent and his "ways". I want to believe this but I would never think someone is from the past just because they talk or act weird. Let's not forget that they're at a RENNAISANCE FAIR. He's supposed to act and talk weird. He doesn't drop the act like the others do but still, I mean where does she get this! Am I lacking the imagination genes? I've always been told I had too many, maybe the problem has always been that I have too little.

All in all loving this book, I feel like so many things were rushed and it sadens me because it could have had such a stronge built. I also feel like a lot of the story line didn't het explained or answered near the end. I had about as many questions in the first half of the book as I had in the second half. However, this could be ignored if you look at how it's a series. Maybe this really was a prequel

I'm sure going to read the second book, 'Highlander', because I want the answers to all my questions and I just want to know where this relationship between Dall and Emily is going. I feel like a lot of their chemestry was lost to us.
I feel that if this book would have been longer, more elaborated, it would have worked. If Jane Stain would rewrite this book, make it more elaborate, give Emily and Dall a proper chance to meet, fall in love all a bit slower, I would totaly go with it. Give the story line a bit more of a chance as well... I would buy it and read it all over.
I feel the emotional connection in this book would suggest it to be for a more mature audiance, but at the same time I feel like I would be able to suggest this to YA's just the same.

As for the cover I have to admit that I'm just kind of past having hunky half naked guys on there.. It's like yeah, we know it's one of "those" books..

P.S: I just noticed that all the stories from this series can be bough as one book for 8$ on Amazon. I have the feeling readin it as one book could make it better. We shall see! Up to book two!

Price: 2/2
Cover 1/2
Characters: 1.5/2
Story: 1/2
Overall: 1/2

Leaving this book at a 6.5.. I feel like this is a fair scoring as this book wasn't amazing. But the most important thing is, this book didn't let me down. I was satisfied after reading it.

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D.B. Reynolds: Raphael (Vampires in America 1)

this book was a very nice surprise. I didn't remember reading any of Reynolds books and I didn't know what to expect... But, oh boy, was this worth it.

The price for this book is about the same as any other Paranormal Romance with some standing. After reading the book all I can do is say that the price was right.
The cover is one of those 'let's just put a half naked man on the cover so women will buy it' things... I mean sure it worked! But I always love it when covers are just that bit more. That being said, I have to admit that the half naked man thing is a good way to identify this books as an ADULT novel... I wouldn't mind teens reading this.. But high teens... 16-19. Definitely not a book to reccomend to your 13 years old daughter!

I like the Cyn as a person, going way beyond her role in the book or he standing towards Raphael.. I just like her. I feel like I can identify myself in her which is always a good thing in books. It causes you to be more capable to feel the character's emotions.. See them more as real people and not just words in a book.
Raphael is like.. Yeah kind of a douche.. But it's like a normal deal in most vampire novels right? Old grumpy vampire had a shit life then turned vampire, was weak, didn't have any power and now he's the allmighty lord and has forgotten what it's like for people to be treated shit and he's so used to people being scared of him that he just does whatever he wants without thinking about feelings... I think you get my flow.

The one thing in the book I wouldn't have minded more attention to is a built up in how they feel and why they feel it.. There is this carnal desire but the underlying emotions, the love, is left a bit in the dark.. i have finished the book and I still don't know why Cyn loves Raphael other then his body and his total awesome vampire strength..

All I all I loved this book though, it's a great step-up towards wanting to read the second book, I CRAVE to know what happens next, how Cyn will feel, what Cyn will do, What Raphael is going to do about the.. euhm... situation...
I would say it was the perfect first novel for a series!

I do find however that there could have been some more focus on the story, on the events that take place and into developping them.. Right now the main story line is nothing less or more than Raphael and Cyn getting the hots for eachother, the reason why they met and Cyn's purpose feel like it's just the background line sort of thing.. Which actually considering it isn't a bad thing because it is a Novel...

Other than just liking the Protagonists, I very much enjoyed, loved or hated the bystanders in the book and how they're allowed to have a small but significant part in the story without upsetting the balance.

Price: 2
Cover: 1
Characters: 2
Story: 1.5
Overall: 1.5

Giving this book an 8 feels right... It's like.. Not the book that changed my life and I will carry with me forever but it was sooooo much better than half the books I've read!

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Series VS Standalone...

I do not like Standalones at all. One book does just not give me any satisfaction at all. I need to know there's more to the story..
However.. I get bored really fast of series that go on and on and on about the same people. I prefer series where it's about the same group of people but always has someone else in the spotlight. A great example of this is "Love at Stake" by Kerrelyn Sparks. I loved these books to death and I so wish that it's not over yet. (She has announced the last book to be the last book FOR NOW, so who knows).

When it keeps going on about the same two people in the spotlight, I often feel like the author does some weird things with the storyline and just keeps inventing things to keep it going even if those things would not be considered very high standing or good for that matter. Just to keep it going because it sells. I think we all know a couple of examples.

Series I loved to death:

Love at Stake
Stookie Stackhouse
Desperate Debutantes
Harry Potter (I mean come on, who didn't love this)
Black Daggar Brotherhood
Warriors of Posseidon

I would recommend these books to anyone, they filled endless moments with joy and they kept me interested every time a new book came out. They made me wanting more and more!

Series I started out loving but ended up hating:
We all have it, we start reading books and eventually we just can't help but getting tired of the books, finding the plot twists all too far fetched, wondering how the story ever came the way it did...

House of Night.. I can't help it. I know there are a lot of fangirls and boys out there and I loved the start of it, but after what book 7 or 8 I just couldn't be bothered with it any more?

Gemma Doyle books by Libba Bray. I loved the first one, I don't remember how I felt about the second one but I know it took me forever to get out of the third book. I always get sad when I end up hating a book I've been looking forward to for so long because I don't want to hate these characters I've been spending so much time with (be it in my mind). It's like ending a friendship that's taken you to your highest and lowest points.

The Vampire Diaries. I think this is one of the only times I can say I actually loved the ts show more than the books. I enjoyed the first couple but then it just felt like the books weren't doing it for me.. Shortly after hating the books the tv show came out and I ended up falling in love again.. Just to get my dreams and feelings crushed again when I lost interest in the tv show.

Another one here could be the Divergent books. I read number one and two but lost all interest for number three. Got some more interest back when Four came out but lost it rather quickly again.

It's such a thin line between not going far enough as an author and going that one step to far causing your readers to lose interest. I like to think this is wrong, but sometimes I feel like certain series keep getting more books published just because they sell. Like now, even if I don't like House of Night as much as I used to, I would still buy the books and read them to see if maybe I would start liking them again.
Maybe this isn't just the Authors fault. Maybe it has something to do with me, as a reader, getting older and outgrowing certain books. Which brings me to a whole new level of depressed but that's for another time...
If you want to have a series to read, I reccomend all of the above because once, I did love them. I think the real trick to not hating them after a while is trying to read these books with a couple of other books in between. For example you could read Love at Stake One (How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire - the title alone made me buy this) and then you read one or two books that have nothing to do with Love at Stake, or maybe even more depending on how long it takes you to read a book. After you've read a couple of other books go back to Love at Stake two.
This might be hard because a lot of the books are sold in Box sets now and it can be just oh so tempting to keep reading when they're in reach... It's easier to do when you're actually with the Author. You read a book, love it, look at when the next one is a available only to realize you have to wait a year! This is frustrating but it makes sure that you don't overindulge yourself and get a series overdose!

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Taylor Laini: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

The cover is nothing great but it isn't bad either. It's just.. Ok. But in this case it was good enough to persuade me (plus a recommendation from Goodreads).
I'm happy with the price, it's not expensive and it's not cheap. Sometimes when I see a really cheap book I will just buy it because it's cheap but I never really expect much from it.

Now to the story.. I loved the first half. I loved how she is different, I loved the art part, I loved the confusion (there was a lot of confusion). This confusion was good because Karou feels the same. I loved her blue hair.
However, I hated the second half. Soon after the Revelation, the story just collapses. filled with Flashbacks that in my opinion should have been more devided, not all thrown at once. I felt like the story just didn't go anywhere after that. There is so much that should happen, so much they work towards but none of it happens. Because you're stuck in the past and all the explenations are thrown at your face page after page.. I feel this could have been done somewhat more subtle.
When I got to the final page, I was dissapointed that not more had happened. That they didn't get any further.

I liked Akiva.. I get what he stands for and I get how he feels. The one thing I don't get is how their love works. I feel like there is a lack of chemestry between Akiva and Karou. They are soulmates, ment for eachother but I just don't feel it. Which makes me sad because I really want them to be all lovey dovey.
I feel like all in all the chracters lack a little bit of personality.. A bit of depth.
This book started out with great potential and for that potential alone I would reccomend this book. Maybe if I read the next one in the series (Days of Blood and Starlight) I will feel more satisfied and the book will go where I'd like to see it go.

Cover: 1
Price: 2
Characters: 1
Story: 1.5
Overall: 1.5

The rating for this book is doing my head in. I liked the start and I liked the concept but the second half of the book just makes me want to trash it a bit.. With an open mind I think this books deserves a 7 for the way it made me get into it at the start and in the end, I still really want to read the second one so yeah... I guess I didn't hate it as much as I think I did..

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Ashley Kristen: The Golden Dynasty (Fantasyland 2)

I read this book after not liking or hating the first book. Why? Because I WANT to love KA's magical world, she creates a world full of magic that you just can't hate.. I mean TIGERS talk to women. How cool is that?
I juist hate how she tries to make romance out of shitty situations.

The cover, such as the first book, I liked. It's symple yet gets the message across. Nice. the price however.. I hated this book so much more than the first book and it was about triple in price (probably because the first one, Fantasyland, was an absolute joke in price).
I'm not a lightweight when it comes to cursing and using strong language. Not at all. But I feel like it's so out of place and so overused in this book. It just didn't feel right for the character or the situations most of the time. I have to admit, certain moments I would have used a lot worse than what Circe used. But most of the time I was like.. Language!
Secondly, I'm sorry but there is nothing romantic about the situation. She gets raped after being hunted, raped 3 more nights after that... But on the 4th night, he uses some forplay and suddenly she's enjoying it and wants it.
I feel like this is a spit in the face of all women who got raped and will get raped in the future. It's saying if your rapist is handsome just fall in love with him. Everything will be fine. It's saying, if your rapist tries to give you some pleasure, it's okay.
No! It is NOT okay.

I understand that her stories are based on finding the strength and some sort of romance in making the best out of a horrible situation but the whole rape at the start of the book and I love you at the end of the book.. Just.. No... I see that either people rate this book 5 stars, thinking Lahn is hot and hunky and he is romantic.. Or they rate it 0-1 stars because of the rape scenes.

I feel like I want to look past the rape point and find some sort of story of how Circe gets through it. How she makes the best out of it because she has no way out. But there are lines I feel as a woman I don't want to cross. I refuse to believe in love after rape.. In love when your husband gets angry if you ask to not sleep with slaves anymore..

Another thing that bothered me about this book was how it felt SO SO SO much like Game of Thrones. Daenerys and Khal Drogo. I wondered if I was the only person wondering this but Goodreads showed me that about EVERYONE reading this book had the same feeling.. Should there be some rule against that? I mean I think it's obvious to notice where her inspiration came from..

I didn't like the main heroine again.. I liked her more than Fantasyland.. But again the overuse of a certain word. Cool this time. The way she just goes with it. Atleast this time I had a feeling she held more intelligence.. Circe was somewhat able to get more sympathy out of me.

I want to like this world, I want to enjoy these stories... But when rape is excused by saying "it's their way".. I can get it if it's in some historical context but I can't accept it as a novel. An epic tale of romance. I just can't.

By the way.. Circe always seems to be shopping or eating with friends while Lahn is out doing kingly stuff and being too busy to spend time with her.. She being queen and all, should she not be doing something interesting? I feel like nothing really happens in the book...

Cover: 2
Price: 1
Story: 0.5
Characters: 1
Overall:1

this book gets a 5.5.. I wish I could give it more.. Again the world is awesome.. But the situations in the book make it that I just totally want to burn this book out of frustration. I feel like it's disrespectful to women to imply that if you try a little bit you could fall in love with a rapist. I don't know if i'm making a bigger deal out of it than it is but for me, this is a step too far.

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Genevieve Cogman: The Invisble Library (The Invisible Library 1)

The cover of this book is amazing! Golden letters standing out on a green background.. I'm totally in love.
This was one of those times where I went to a bookstore with no clue what I wanted to get or what I was looking for. I have to say I'm glad I did.

So I might have judged a book by it's cover but it's just so awesome!!! It was slightly more expensive than other books I've read recently but still nothing exaggerated.

When I started reading this book, I felt so confused.. GC has made this amazingly beautiful universe, but it's so complicated. Maybe it's because she doesn't explain a great deal of it or maybe it's because it's just simply that hard to get. Or I'm just stupid. All of these are valid possibilities.
I think it took untill Chapter 10 for me to fully get it and finally allow me to get fully into the story.

The one thing that bummed me out the most with this book is that there is no chemestry at all. I don't specifically mean between characters (although, yes, this lacked aswell) but between Irene and me, Kai or me and even Mr. Vale and me.. I just don't feel anything! They could be dieing, rotting in sewers for all I care and I wouldn't feel a thing. Several times while reading this book I thought that maybe I should be feeling my heart pound or my palms break a sweat.. But nothing! I feel no empathy for any of them. (This is actually really sad because I'm someone who cries everytime someone dies in a book I'm reading, or laughs every time a joke has been made..)
I would've liked to have more info about the exact time setting, we can only guess by the little info we get and I would have preferred there to be more about all the different species. I felt like it was all taken so for granted that they were in this world while for the reader it isn't. For the reader it's something special.

I have the feeling that this book is more of a prologue or something.. That more will happen in the next book? I hope so! Because all in all this book wasn't bad..
I absolutely love the universe GC has created, I love how easy to read this book was (confusing parts aside, I didn't put the book down untill it was finished and I didn't notice time passing), I love the setting of the book.. Old London with tweaks of Magic and Technology and there was a large variety of Characters (Dragons, Fae, Werewolves, Vampires, Librarians, Detectives,...)

Cover: 2
Price: 1.5
Story: 1
Characters: 1
Overall: 1.5
The picture of the cover doesn't really show it well but all the yellow bits are actually gold and like if you move your finger over it, you can feel the letters and drawings).

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Jennifer L. Armentrout: Opal (Lux 3)

So I totally fell in love with Daemon. I can't help it. He's like the perfection of secret fantasy crushes. He really just goes full out for Katy and I swear I turned green numerous times!

I like how they used the same people for the cover, representing Daemon and Katy. Sometimes they bring out different models or drawings and it makes me sad. Like why would you change the face of the person I've been so emotionally attached to for hours?!

But it gives me the same weird feeling as before. They just look kinda too... Old. No teen looks like that. I get that it's Fiction... Just something that bothers me personally. But other than that, I feel like the over is actually a scene that happened in the book which makes me all giddy about it because I actually recognised something! 

As for the price, this one was more expensive than the previous books and I don't really understand why.. Still cheap but I don't know, I just don't get it. 

This book was a little bit different then the others. It's like... It wasn't boring, more that every time I wanted to shout 'can you get on with the story yet' JLA new exactly what I was thinking and threw a plots twist at my face that made my heart nearly explode. 

Reading this book you can be certain to expect LOADS of heartbreak and heartattack moments together with the further relationship work going on between Daemon and Katy. 

After the last book, a lot of things have changed and I feel like this book is more about dealing with those things and fixing them than anything else, ending with a major cliffhanger, opening up to the next book. Origin. 

If you liked the last two books, then you will love this one as well. Just don't read all of them straight one after the other when you've got a week of or something. Because that, I feel, would just be ruining if for yourself. There is something with putting the series down for a while, not thinking about them and then picking it back up again after having read a couple of other books and.. It's like a warm welcome when you get back to something like this. 

I feel like the boring moments were masked with the plot twists.. But somehow that just doesn't fully make up for it. Eventhough it shakes you up, wakes you up, hell nearly destroys you while reading it.. After reading it I still kinda remember the moments where I thought.. Why are you blabbing on! Just go for it! That was a little downer but in the end.. Trust me. It is so worth it. 

I think I might actually need some mental help to get through this! Can't wait to read the next book!!

All jokes put to rest now though.. This Cliffhanger might actually be the end of me. I feel like so much rage is surrounding me now. And not the good kind of rage that you let out and get over with but the kind of rage that will not end even when I read the 6th or 7th book, if they may ever come out. I'm so bad at dealing with these sort of endings. Damn. Need more books. 

Cover: 1

Price: 1.5

Story: 1.5

Characters: 2

Overall: 1.5

Leaving this book at a 7.5/10 I feel like it's been rated fairly and definately worth a read!

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Marie Lu: Legend (Legend 1)

To start off, I bought this book in the wrong language. Honestly this annoyed me more than it should have but being the cheap bastard I am I decided to read it in the bought language anyway.

The Cover isn't anything too special, it's not bad but it didn't blow my mind. It was a bit the same as all those Divergent style stories. The whole Dystopian thing. They all seem to have the same covers, I don't know why but I don't think they're special.

I bought this book during some summer sale so the price was downgraded, leaving the book at around 8-ish.
It's more expensive than some of the other books/genres I read but it wasn't so expensive that it made me cringe.

 While reading this book you keep getting swapped between reading the book as Day and reading the book as June. I thought this was really nice because I always like to know what's going on in BOTH the hero and heroines head. The only thing I have to remark to this was that their personalities weren't always split up enough. Meaning, if you start a chapter and you didn't read who it was about (yes, I often skip the title of a chapter) you could get a little bit confused as to who is talking.
That being said though, I felt really connected to both of them and I did see them as two different people. Mostly I would read 3 sentences in a chapter thinking Day is talking and be like 'this isn't right' or the other way around. I'm sure this confusion can be blamed to my lazy reading techniques.
If you liked Divergent and The Hunger Games, I'm pretty sure you'll like this book. I feel like I would recommend this book more to the younger teenagers though and not to young adults/ adults. This doesn't make it a bad book it just means it's directed at a different audience. Like my cousin of 14. He would love this book.

Overall I enjoyed this book, it was such an easy read. I think it took me about 2hrs to finish this book. I was really into it and it was just so smooth!

Cover 1
Price 1.5
Characters 1
Story 1.5
Overall 2

Giving this book a total of 7/10! A total recommendation for the younger age and for the older age (if you're looking for a quick, fun read).

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Kristen Ashley: Wildest Dreams (Fantasy Land 1)

Okay soooooo....
I don't really know what to think about this book.. Like sure it was a nice story and all. At first when I started reading I thought it would be a bit like the Divine series by P.C. Cast but soon I saw why exactly it wasn't going to be any bit like it.

First impression: KA has a thing for marking words in cursive. lots of them. On one page. This I felt was more at the start of the book and diminished as I was reading and in a way it gives certain tone to what they are saying..
Second impression: how do you pronounce all these names?!?

So this woman travels to another land, say another dimension, that has a twin copy of everyone. Some people are in one world and aren't in the other and stuff like that.
She marries The Dragon, Frey Drakkar..
I really want to like him! I'm honestly trying to but he is such a jerk. Right I think you get my flow. It's another one of those "super sweet nice girl meets jerk and they fall in love and she changes him" things. But the truth is, sure he can do nice things and it warms you up to him every time he does, but right when you start to like him, he turns right around and you want to strangle him again or hit some sense into Finnie.
Finnie doesn't take all of his crap but in the end she still always gives him exactly what he wants and it infuriates me at times.

I think it's important to look at the historical context to understand this book and not be appalled by what women call romance. It's some kind of medeival setting where emancipation hasn't happened yet. The guy thinks he can get away with anything and that it is his right to decide everything. But seriously everything.
Keeping in mind this context, seeing how they were an arranged match I feel that I'm willing to look past this and when I do I have to admit he does pretty sweet things.
It's just.. In other books guy are jerks at the start, I can deal with that because later on in the book it reveals why they acted this way. Here it's just the basic fact of 'I am the man, I have all the rights, you are the woman and you can be happy if I give you what you want and not happy if I do not'.

I think KA created an amazing world and I love the fact that it's all snow. I love snow! They also have multiple mythological creatures we all just have to love. Although this could have been milked a little bit more but I guess in the end it's a way you decide to get with the book as Author or not. And KA decided not to go there. Which is fine. The one giant downer though was that it just kept going on and on and on and on.. Every time you entered a new room, a new house, a new bar, a new city the descriptions kept being thrown at you and I'm ashamed to admit that somewhere 3/4th into the book I started skimming over the pages when I saw a description and stopped actually paying attention. There is something about books that allows my imagination to run wilde, imagining how the place would look etc.. But KA's need to describe everything down to the fiber of the carpets or the last bead hanging on a necklace drove me crazy! My imagination couldn't follow how specific it all was which made me sad because the place was honestly beautiful..

Another thing I loved in this book was how open sexuality is. As in the wife doesn't have to be a virgin when they get married, sexual relationships pre-marriage happens and it's all fine. No one things badly of it and it doesn't matter if people want guy on guy action, woman on woman action or whatever they feel like. Like I said. Open minded.

The cover of the book is simple and it's a nice step away from the usual hot guy on the cover and CHEAP! Again I bought it as an Ebook and it was 1.99... For that price, this book was more than worth! It was longer than most of the books I've been reading lately which was also a nice change, but I feel like a lot of that being longer didn't actually make the story.. More. It just made everything more detailed.

All in all for the price and considering the other elements this book was a nice opener for a series that, I already checked, continues. It's a nice introduction if you want to keep reading and a nice stand alone story if you don't.

On the scale of book I've been reading it goes something like Selection > Wildest Dreams > Lux...

Cover 2
Price 2
Story 1
Characters .5
Overall 1

Leaving this book at a 6.5, seeing I loved the cover and the price. Which i think is exactly right. It's average, but a lot better than what i had expected... And I have to admit.. In the end even I decided I liked Frey,.. (Although he never REALLY apologized for any of it..)

Note: One thing I did have a problem with, was that the Ebook version holds a lot of mistakes.. Meaning wrong punctiation and sometimes when it should have been "he said. it was "she said. And the other way around. I don't know if the actual book holds the same errors but I felt like this somehow annoyed me a little bit.

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