Review: Unbound by Georgia Bell

 

*********************

 

 

 

Author: Georgia Bell

Pages: 475 pages

Publisher: ?

Recieved From: Giselle from Xpresso Book Tours

Release Date: November 2nd, 2013

Status: Ebook, All Good Things (#1)

 

After her father dies, Rachel realizes she is scared and stuck. Scared of heights, of cars, of disasters harming the people she loves. Stuck in a life that is getting smaller by the minute. Stuck with a secret she has kept all her life: Someone has been watching over her since birth. Someone who tends to show up when she needs him the most. Someone she believes is her guardian angel.

Eaden is a 1,500-year-old immortal who wants to die. Drained by a life stretched too thin, he has requested his final reward – a mortal sacrifice bred specifically to bring him death. But something went wrong. Rachel’s ability to grant death has mutated in ways that threaten to upset the uneasy alliance between mortals and immortals. And utterly beguiled, Eaden discovers that although Rachel is the key to his death, because of her, he no longer wants to die. And he will do anything to protect her.

Swept into a world of legends, caught between the warring political factions of immortals, and carrying the future of mortal kind in her flesh and bone, Rachel must risk everything to save her world and the man she loves.

 

********************

 

Review

Firstly, I'd like to thank Giselle for giving me an opportunity to review this book! It was an enjoyable read!

 

Rachel (poor girl) is afraid of everything, to the point where she's made life predictable for herself. I sympathized for her throughout the story, because she'd lost pretty much her whole family after her father's death. This book was a YA paranormal romance, so there was a lot of OTP/shipping moments throughout the book. Usually for me, it means that this is the point where the book gets overly sappy. But fortunately, the romance wasn't sappy/over done at all.

 

Because Rachel has lived (pretty much) her pre-teen to teenage years confined and stuck, Eaden James MacAlister (*swoon*) brings her to life. They bring the story to life. Literally. When the two finally meet after many years, things start to get complicated.

 

What I liked about this story was the world of the Immortals that Bell has created. It's complicated and mysterious, and totally makes Rachel's dull life more lively. I also loved how she incorporated some Arthurian legend in the book.

 

It was a good story, and the plot was okay. I found that it did drag in some places, but it didn't take too much away from the overall story. I liked how I got to see Rachel's character development- she goes from being scared to hero, which I love. And I like how the characters (even the side characters) are all unique in their own way. What I didn't like was how the side characters (Stuart, Sita, Mara etc) weren't in the story as much as I wanted them to be- they're amazing characters, especially Stuart. And I didn't really like the fact that we didn't learn that the story took place IN CANADA till near the end of the book, when Rachel ends up in London. I went back, and tried to search for a clue as to where it said she was from Canada before that point. But I was really happy when she got into U of T (that's the University of Toronto my non-Canadian pals) :D.

 

Overall, it was a good story. It was a little slow in places, but the world was built lovely, the characters (especially Rachel's) were developed fine, the plot was good and leads in well to UNKNOWN, the sequel. And she's Canadian. ;D

 

*********************

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

*********************

 

ARC Review: Salt by Danielle Ellison

 

************************

 

Author: Danielle Ellison
Pages: 365 pages
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: January 7th, 2014
Received From: the publisher, for an honest review
Status: PDF (ebook), Salt (#1)

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Penelope is a witch, part of a secret society protecting humans from demon attacks. But when she was a child, a demon killed her parents—and stole her magic. Since then, she’s been pretending to be something she’s not, using her sister’s magic to hide her own loss, to prevent being sent away.

When she’s finally given the chance to join the elite demon-hunting force, Penelope thinks that will finally change. With her sister’s help, she can squeeze through the tests and get access to the information she needs to find "her" demon. To take back what was stolen.

Then she meets Carter. He’s cute, smart, and she can borrow his magic, too. He knows her secret—but he also has one of his own.

Suddenly, Penelope’s impossible quest becomes far more complicated. Because Carter’s not telling her everything, and it’s starting to seem like the demons have their own agenda…and they’re far too interested in her

************************

 

Review:

 

This book was totally worth the read! Even from just the synopsis, I knew it was going to be a good book.

 

Penelope is a unique character: she's a witch with no magic, but she can take magic from her immediate family. But when she's out one day, she discovers she can take magic from Carter, a really mysterious witch who declares himself a "demon tracker", the same way she can take it from her family. In her world, if you are unable to do magic, you are deemed as Static, and removed from the witch community. Penelope wants to be an Enforcer so she can find her demon, but as she gets closer to her goal, she realizes that not having any magic is the least of her worries.

 

I liked her as a narrator, and I really do feel sorry for her. She knows she's a witch, even without any magic, but her grandparents do their best to discourage her from becoming an Enforcer to save the rest of them- they go so far, to the point where she is almost married off. But what I liked about Penelope is that she is a total fighter- a total badass- who knows her worth, gets her way, and does her best to protect the ones she loves. She's like a magical version of Rose Hathaway.

 

The story, overall, was really interesting. I found it beautifully executed. It was really good, and while I was reading it, I tried my best to figure out what was going to happen next using the foreshadowing. I found the foreshadowing, but I was completely off when it unfolded later on in the story!

 

When it comes to reading debut novels/the first book of any series, I've kind of fallen into the pattern of getting to know the character, getting to know the world, figuring out what happens next in the plot before it unfolds (sometimes it happens way too early), and get gut-punched every time my OTP fails. But with Salt, Ellison does an amazing job with keeping everything at a good pace, developing the characters (to lead to the next book), throwing me curve balls that I knew I should've gotten right away (but alas, I didn't), and leaving enough loose threads hanging for the next book.

 

This story was such a good read, that I seriously am upset that there isn't a sequel already written. I had a good time reading it, even when I got mad that I got a lot of things wrong (*cough*Carter*cough*).

 

************************

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

************************

Throw Back Thursday: the Modern Faerie Tale series by Holly Black

It's my first Throw Back Thursday!

Today we're going back to 2004 with the release of the first book in the Modern Faerie Tale series, Tithe by the amazingly talented, amazingly awesome Holly Black!


Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms - a struggle that could very well mean her death.

Favourite character: Kaye
Favourite line: "Kiss my ass, Rath Roiben Rye."
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars









Synopsis (from Goodreads):


When seventeen-year-old Valerie runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system.

But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends.
And when one talks Val into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature with whom they are all involved, Val finds herself torn between her newfound affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

Favourite character: Luis...Val...NO LUIS!....Val?...I can't decide :(
Favourite line: “You carried my heart in your hands tonight," he said. "But I have felt as if you carried it long before that.”
Overall rating: 3.5 stars



Synopsis (from Goodreads):

In the realm of Faerie, the time has come for Roiben's coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure of only one thing -- her love for Roiben. But when Kaye, drunk on faerie wine, declares herself to Roiben, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Now Kaye can't see or speak to Roiben unless she can find the one thing she knows doesn't exist: a faerie who can tell a lie.

Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth -- that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother's shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben's throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?

Holly Black spins a seductive tale at once achingly real and chillingly enchanted, set in a dangerous world where pleasure mingles with pain and nothing is exactly as it appears.

Favourite character: Loved Kaye in this book, but I loved Luis and Corny the most.
Favourite line: "Maybe it's good we split up. I mean, as far as boyfriends go, he was always working. Running an evil court takes a lot of time."
Overall rating: 4 stars

Holly Black is literally the reason why I started reading more and why I started writing. Once I finished the Spiderwick Chronicles in the fourth grade, I started looking for more books that could ever live up to the series. When I learned that Holly herself had her own series apart from Spiderwick, young me had my first fangirl moment.

Being nine-ish/ten-ish at the time, I had a hard time getting used to the vocabulary and older writing style; I didn't know that I was reading Young Adult at the time.

However, if I didn't read Tithe, I probably wouldn't have gotten into  the YA paranormal/fantasy books that I so adore till this day!

So thank you Holly Black! And if you haven't read these books yet, go out and buy them now! You'll fall in love and find yourself so emersed in the world!

Happy Thursday guys!