Mini Review: The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead

The Ruby Circle
(Bloodlines #6)
Author: Richelle Mead
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Publisher: Razorbill
Format: E-book
Source: Personal copy
Review by: Nahomi

Their forbidden romance exposed, Sydney and Adrian find themselves facing the wrath of both the Alchemists and the Moroi in this electrifying conclusion to Richelle Mead’s bestselling Bloodlines series.

When the life of someone they both love is put on the line, Sydney risks everything to hunt down a deadly former nemesis. Meanwhile, she and Adrian becomes enmeshed in a puzzle that could hold the key to a shocking secret about spirit magic, a secret that could shake the entire Moroi world and alter their lives forever.

4 stars out of 5 stars

        It’s bittersweet getting to the end of The Ruby Circle. I’m going to miss the characters, and all of their shenanigans. There is so much happening in this last installment of the Bloodline series; it made my head spin.

       I was glad to see Sydney recovering nicely after the all the trauma from in Silver Shadows. The pacing is a little slow in the beginning although it speeds fairly quickly. I have mixed feelings about everything that happened in this book. I was totally thrown for a loop with who ended up being the villain. I had many theories but I was way off.

      One of my favorite parts is that Sydney finally gets to kick ass. I am happy with her and Adrian’s ending. Although, I’m iffy about certain things that happened at the end, but I don’t want to give any spoilers. I will say though that I ship Eddie and Jill! I wish there was a story about these two! I’d read it in a heartbeat.

     After all was said and done The Ruby Circle was an enjoyable read. It was action packed and quick paced. Richelle Mead did a great job with this series.

Favorite Friday (#27) - Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Have a favorite book? Series? One that you've just read or are currently reading? Favorite Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Books and Swoons where we spotlight some of our Favorite Reads. Everyone is welcome to join. Just enter your information on the linky or leave us a comment!

This week pick is: Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins.

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father—an elusive European warlock—only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.

By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tag-along ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.

As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

This is one of Jenn's favorite books. She loves Sophie's snarky voice and was completely sucked into the story.

About the author:

Rachel Hawkins was born in Virginia and raised in Alabama. This means she uses words like "y'all" and "fixin'" a lot, and considers anything under 60 degrees to be borderline Arctic. Before deciding to write books about kissing and fire (and sometimes kissing while on fire), Rachel taught high school English for 3 years, and is still capable of teaching you The Canterbury Tales if you're into that kind of thing.

She is married to a geologist, which means that they have incredibly strange dinner conversations ("So today at work, I wrote a chapter where killer fog, like, ATE PEOPLE." "Huh. Well, I was chased by an angry reindeer while trying to map parts of Norway." "Um...okay.")

Rachel also has a little boy whose main hobbies are playing video games, running around in circles, and plotting his Future Intergalactic Take-Over.

When not writing books, Rachel enjoys reading, travelling, and knitting (very terribly.)

Author's links: Website / Goodreads / Twitter

I hope you can join us in sharing and talking about some of your favorite reads. Book talk always make me happy. 

What are one of your favorite reads?

Review: Consume by Melissa Darnell

Consume (The Clann #3) 
By Melissa Darnell
Release Date: August 27, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: Harlequin Teen through NetGalley
Reviewer: Jenn
Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Goodreads / IndieBound

My rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars

Summary:
Tristan Coleman has survived the change from Clann magic user to vampire, much to Savannah Colbert's joy—and despair. By changing the Clann's golden boy and newly elected leader, even to save him from death, she has unleashed a fury of hatred and fear that they cannot escape.

As the Clann and the vampire council go to war, Tristan and Sav face a new threat—a fracturing of the all-consuming bond they share. To fight for peace, they must forge a new trust and risk everything to take down their deadliest enemy, even as they must run for their lives. Soon they will learn that some bonds are stronger than love—and some battles cannot be won without sacrifice.

              Consume picks up where Covet left us and we're thrust right into the action. This book definitely had faster pace than the previous two and for that I'm very happy. One of my complaints from the first two books was that it was so slow going that it dragged on for me. However, Consume is a go from the start. 

Savannah has to deal with the consequences of her actions and considering everything, from what happened in the previous books and now, I think she has certainly grown from that naive girl in Crave. As for Tristan, there were times when I wanted to shake some sense into him because he was being so stubborn. However, considering the circumstances, he was acting out because his grief and so I can't blame him. Both Savannah and Tristan did a lot of growing up throughout the series that I can appreciate this book a lot more due to that. I have to give it to Ms. Darnell for doing such a good job in their character growth.

I have to say that I'm very surprised by how much I like this book than the previous two. I guess because the other two were so slow and had a lot of useless information that I just couldn't love them. All the questions were answered and even though I had figured out who was behind everything, the surprise twist was definitely well done.

Overall, I found Consume to be a lot more entertaining and I was glad that Savannah and Tristan got their happy ending.

Review: Spellbinding by Maya Gold

Spellbinding by Maya Gold
Release Date: April 1, 2013
Publisher: Scholastic Point
Source: Scholastic Point through NetGalley
Reviewer: Jenn
Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Goodreads / IndieBound

My rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Summary:
There's more than one way to be powerful...

It is during a routine school project that Abby Silva - sixteen and nearly friendless - makes a startling discovery: She is descended from women who were accused of witchcraft back in the 1600s Salem. And when Abby visits nearby Salem, inexplicable events start to unfold. Objects move when she wills them to. Candles burst into sudden flame. And an ancient spellbook somehow winds up in her possession.

Trying to harness her newfound power, Abby concocts a love potion to win over her longtime crush - and exact revenge upon his cruel, bullying girlfriend. But old magic is not to be trifled with. Soon, Abby is thrust headlong into a world of hexes, secrets, and dangers. And then there's Rem Anders, the beautiful, mysterious Salem boy who seems to know about Abby than he first lets on.

A reckoning is coming, and Abby will have to make sense of her history - and her heart - before she can face the powerful truth.

After reading the summary of Spellbinding, I was really excited about starting this book. It sounds like it would be full of adventures with some romance thrown in; I love those kind of books. However, after a slow beginning, I realize that this may not be the book for me. This book really dragged for me. I tried to get in the right mindset for it but I just couldn't get there.

My biggest issue is with Abby, the protagonist. At first, I thought that she was way too dense. She could not or would not see things that were happening right in front of her until the last moment. She would have these “aha!” moments but I believe that the reader had already seen what was happening. Also, Abby kept giving a whiplash with how fast she would change her mind. With both boys and with her dad’s new girlfriend, she couldn't make up her mind and honestly, it drove me insane.

Another issue I had was with the storyline and that I felt that it moved much too quickly. Yes, I was bored and I had been reading this galley forever and I couldn't wait to be finished, but the storyline moved much too quickly for it to be believable. When she found out she was a witch and couldn't believe it then a couple of paragraphs later she was decided that it made sense since she was always a little bit strange. Also, how quickly she started doing magic on her own. With one little book of spells and she was set. And the whole insta-love with Rem just didn't work for me. I know they had their “history” but it just wasn't believable.

Thankfully, I’m glad that I didn't waste my money on this book but I am frustrated that I spent time reading this book.

Review: Covet by Melissa Darnell

Covet (The Clann #2) by Melissa Darnell
Release Date: September 25, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: Harlequin Teen through NetGalley
Link: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Goodreads

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Dangerous to be together. Painful to be apart. Savannah Colbert knows she broke up with Tristan Coleman for the right reasons. Most of all, to keep from killing him with her new vampire abilities. But try telling her heart. Now, lost in a sea of hostile Clann faces, Sav tries to come to terms with what that means for her future. And that someone is doing their best to bully her into making a terrible mistake.

Tristan can't believe Sav won't even talk to him. If being apart is her decision, fine. Just don't expect him to honor it. But even as he prepares to fight for the girl her loves, forces beyond their control take them both in directions neither could have foreseen or prepared for.

A reckoning is coming and not everyone will survive.

         Covet is the second book of The Clann series and Savannah and Tristan are just returning home from an impromptu trip abroad. We start off in a quick pace, we learn about what happened during Savannah and Tristan absence and the consequences because of it. After a heartbreaking event occurs, the story start winding down. It slows down and the plot begins to lag. When it pick up again, I was so surprised and I had to sprint to catch up with the characters.

What I did enjoy about this story is that Savannah wasn't as helpless as she was in Crave, she had some backbone. She wanted to learn how to use magic and so she dedicated herself to learning how to use it. She kept her promise to The Council and broke up with Tristan even though he fought against it. She also stood up to him when he refused to see that what she doing was for his own good.

Although, I did felt like some of the "secrets" that Savannah found out were fairly obvious. Like with Anne's ex-boyfriend's, Ron, secret. She didn't get what Anne and Ron were showing her, even though they had just explained it and so, Anne had to tell her. It feels like either Savannah is very much obtuse or that the author expects her readers to be unable to figure things out for themselves even though it had already been foreshadowed.

And just like with Crave, Ms. Darnell decided to leave her readers with yet another cliffhanger. I know a lot of series depend on cliffhangers but what bothers me about this is that the author is finally picking up the pace of the story and then she cut it short and end the book right when we're getting somewhere good. It like stop and go with this series. It doesn't have a good flow of introduction to climax to resolution.

I found Covet to be an alright read. I enjoyed it more than Crave and I think it had more to do with Savannah's dad and Ron, both of whom were very funny and diffused any awkward tensions. Other than that, I'll be waiting for book 3 and I hope that it'll have a much better flow.

Mini Review: Crave by Melissa Darnell

(source)

Crave (The Clann #1) by Melissa Darnell
Release date: November 1, 2011
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: Library epub

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary (from Goodreads): "Savannah Colbert has never known why she's so hated by the kids of the Clann. Nor can she deny her instinct to get close to Clann golden boy Tristan Coleman. Especially when she recovers from a strange illness and the attraction becomes nearly irresistible. It's as if he's a magnet, pulling her gaze, her thoughts, even her dreams. Her family has warned her to have nothing to do with him, or any member of the Clann. But when Tristan is suddenly everywhere she goes, Savannah fears she's destined to fail.
For years, Tristan has been forbidden to even speak to Savannah Colbert. Then Savannah disappears from school for a week and comes back...different, and suddenly he can't stay away. Boys seems intoxicated from just looking at her. His own family becomes stricter than ever. And Tristan has to fight his own urge to protect her, to be near her no matter the consequences..."

I picked up Crave because I was approved for Covet without knowing that Covet was the second book of the series. Reading the synopsis of Crave, I was intrigued. It seems to have a lot of the formula that many paranormal young adult novels have, such as vampires, witches and a good dose of cliches. I enjoyed reading this book. It was a fairly quick read and it was the type of book that, if needed, I could put it down and not be worried that I was in an "OMG MUST FIND OUT" part.

Savannah and Tristan's relationship was one the parts that I really like. They were so cute and sweet together and I was cheering them on the whole time. I found Tristan's best friend, Dylan, to be quite the bully and predictable. I knew he was going to do what he did and so it was one of the cliche moment that I wasn't impressed with.

There were times though that I found myself irritated by how much filler details there were and not more information that moved the plot forward. I feel like most of the action happened in the last 30% of the book, and while I know that there are two books remaining, there were parts that could have been edited out of the book. However, I will be reading the second book of the series and I'll be excited to see if there will be some answers to the questions.

Covet is set to be release on September 25, 2012.

About the Blogger

Jenn is a 23 years old, avid reader and who decided to try her luck on blogging. She enjoys reading Young Adults novels with swoony boys and with a twist. When she is not reading, she can be found watching The Big Bang Theory or watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls and Friends. Books and Swoons is her baby.
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Books and Swoons

Upcoming releases in 2012

* This post will be two parts, first part for the books that already been released and the second for those that are yet come out.*

2012 is an exciting year for new releases for me. I spent most of 2011 catching up on new-for-me books that many people had already read, since before 2011 I was in school which left little-to-no time to read for fun. So I played catch up and now I can join the rest of the publishing world in excitement for new releases that just came out or are releasing this year.
    I have three books that came out earlier this year that I am super excited about. I own two of them but haven't had the chance to read them yet. They are:
Hallowed by Cynthia Hand and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver. Can I just squeal over here for just a second? *jumps around clapping and squealing* 'Kay. I'm good.