Gates of Paradise by Melissa De La Cruz

So, I have been reading this series since high school. I have never seen a more unique take on YA vampires. 2013 seems to be the year of YA endings. Reading the ending to this series was bittersweet. I was dying to see how everything would tie up; yet, I kept postponing finishing it because I did not want it to be over. I literally put the book down to get some exercise. I don’t usually do this…

 I was kind of expecting it be depressing. The last book ended with a sad goodbye for the “it” couple. Jack left Schuyler for a final battle to the death with Mimi, his twin. And Mimi kind of signed over her soul to save her new love, Kingsley. All of the soul mates were kind of broken at the end of the previous book. Some seriously bad deals were made with Lucifer. At least some old enemies had become good friends. Mimi had become way less awful and actually became sort of besties with Oliver, who thankfully found a way around his Schuyler obsession.

The book begins with Schuyler, Kingsley, and Oliver living it up in London. The boys are partying every night, dealing with what they are dealing with. Schuyler is in a perpetual state of worry. She doesn’t know if Jack is alive. And she’s scrounging for time to learn more about the gates she’s meant to protect. Jack and Mimi are alive and kicking it. They’re playing as double agents, double-crossing Lucifer and doing what they can for blue bloods as a whole. The rest of the blue blood community is in hiding from the terror of what Lucifer has in the works with the silver bloods. Bliss has recruited a pack of hell wolves and comes to realize she has been underground for one whole year, only to come back to NYC and realize everything has changed for the worse.

Mimi and Jack are assigned with some seriously bad missions for Lucifer. Eventually, they are both ordered to murder the ones they love most. There’s some seriously great wolf drama and mythology thrown in with the fallen angel and vampire story. Schuyler learns a lot about her family –particularly her human father and grandmother who didn’t know she existed. Oliver finally seems to be into someone else. And it all comes down to everyone needing to work together, and to Schuyler having to make the ultimate sacrifice.

There’s the sizzling romance you come to expect from this author, plenty of fight scenes (my favorites being between Mimi and Kingsley), a college party, more international travel, questions answered, one epic battle at the end, and one crazy/awesome ending! The book also had just the perfect amount of nostalgic flashbacks to the beginning of the series. Also, there were some serious flashback chapters that went way back in time, to ancient Rome. At first, I hated that these chapters kept interrupting the current stories, but eventually I became just as hooked on the history as I was on the present.

The amount of detail that goes into each of these books is spot-on! I love all the artwork mentioned, the notes about architecture, the fashion, and the humor! I have come to love all of these characters. Characters I hated in the beginning turned into some of my favorites. There is one character I am just so beyond happy for at the very end. I won’t spoil it. I just need to say that I shouted out loud: “YES!”

I love all the different mixings of mythology that this author throws together. I also love all of the points of view you get. This very well might be the only YA book that successfully switches to so many different points of view without screwing up the story at all.

There’s always a tiny part of these books that weirds me out. The whole twin thing still kind of gets to me. And in this one, there is blood paint…But whatever, I kind of come to expect some weirdness. I also come to expect a lot of surprises. And I guess I’m glad for both. As far as endings go, I was really impressed. This final book was cohesive with the rest in the series. Sometimes it read like a book 2 or 3 and not really like a final book, and it took a bit of time for me to realize if that was a good or bad thing. But, overall, I think this was good. It means that the author didn’t change things to make the ending come off a certain way. She kept to her characters, her writing style, and her humor without seeming to stress about the way her end sounded. And I’m grateful.

I give this book a 10/10, and as I say for my other book reviews for final books in a series, I feel like I’m rating/reviewing the series as a whole, and not just this last book. This was one scary, sizzling, unique, dramatastic, epic ride, and I’m so happy to have read these books. I look forward to whatever else this author has to write.

A Good Week in Books (50)

I have been having internet issues. AKA: my roommie and I got a new router, and have not quite managed to set it up correctly…So, I’m sitting in Panera Bread right now, about to post up about a week’s worth of blog entries (in advance), starting with this post that I meant to put up yesterday.

So, I finally gave in and became an Amazon Prime member…I have a book-buying problem. I am now officially a member of both Barnes and Noble and Amazon, on top of owning both a Kindle and a Nook…But, I did the math. It definitely makes sense for me to be a member. And well, I ordered a lot of books. In my defense, a ton of books recently came out.

Chosen at Nightfall by C.C. Hunter
This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
The Elite by Kiera Cass
Dead Silence by Kimberly Derting
Timepiece by Myra McEntire
Emblaze by Jessica Shirvington

How was your week in books?

Waiting on Wednesday (42)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week, I am waiting on Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas (8/27/13):

Description on Goodreads:

After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes.

Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king's bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice.

Where do the assassin’s loyalties lie, and who is she most willing to fight for?

So, I ate up book 1 in this series. I’ve been waiting on this sequel for what seems like forever! It sounds interesting. Not a lot is given away in the description, but I kind of like not knowing too much. The covers for these books have not been my favorite, but they’re not awful. I remember just being completely sucked into the story of the first book and I can’t wait for this to happen again.

What are you waiting on this week?

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

This is one of those books that I have had forever, but only now just go to. I have no idea what I was waiting for. Seriously, this was so much fun to read!

It’s about Emerson, a girl who has been through a lot in the past few yeas. She has survived the deaths of both her parents, guilt at survival, depression, and even being institutionalized and medicated into numbness. And just when things start to look up for her, and she moves in with her brother and sister-in-law, she starts seeing people from the past again. Before all the meds she started taking, Emerson was seeing people that no one else could see, people who disappeared when they were touched, people sometimes dressed in hoop-skirts or people riding horse drawn carriages.

She thinks of herself as crazy. She had been really depressed. And she did decide on her own to just stop her meds. Of course she would then start seeing these people again. She’s been doing a lot better. She’s back with her bestie from the past, working at a coffee house, and agreeing to meet with specialists her brother is hooking her up with.

And then she meets Michael, a consultant for the Hourglass. Not only does he believe that Emerson is not crazy, but he admits to seeing the same people she sees. He introduces Emerson to the crazy world of the supernatural. Emerson learns about the past, about the future, and about time travel. Michael and Emerson also have a crazy connection. They literally make lights go out when they touch. It has something to do with Michael’s ability to see people from the future and Emerson’s ability to see people of the past. Together, they make quite a pair.

Too bad for Emerson, Michael promised her brother that his relationship with Emerson would be purely professional. And Michael behaves as the perfect gentleman would. He sort of has a gentleman/hero’s complex. However, his best friend, Kaleb, has no gentleman’s complex whatsoever. There’s a bit of a love triangle. And while things get a little steamy, it’s always obvious which boy Emerson chooses. But, will her choice matter if the man of her dreams gets left behind in the past? And can Emerson actually pull off time traveling? And can she go back in time to save a friend’s father, simultaneously knowing that she can never do the same for own?

This book deals with mental illness, with loss, grief, and then of course with growing up and learning to deal with the bad along with the good. I’m not the biggest advocate for a main character deciding to go cold turkey on meds she’s prescribed…this can actually have fatal consequences…I do however like how strong Emerson is. She never forgets the pain she feels, but she also doesn’t let it stop her from living her life (at least by the time this book starts). I also like that the loss of her parents is with her all the time. Sometimes in YA books, characters survive such loss and then never think about it again. This is definitely more realistic.

I love the whole time-traveling group and all the elements that made time travel possible. I found the politics of the people with “gifts” to be fascinating. I loved that Emerson, while tiny, could kick serious butt. She was going for a black belt! I loved her best friend, her family, and just her overall sense of perseverance.

There was a bit too much insta-love going on with Michael. And their connection was uber cheesy. I actually think Emerson had more in common with the other part of the love triangle (Kaleb), but it is what it is. I still swooned along with her at all the appropriate moments.

I think my favorite thing about this book was the sense of humor. I loved the main character’s level of sass. She kept her slippers on when Michael came over. She dressed to make a point. And she didn’t let anyone get away with calling her small. I do wish she was a little more rebellious. I kind of wanted her to break more rules and try to save her parents anyway. But, there’s always book 2 and soon a book 3.

I give this one a 9/10. There wasn’t a ton of unique plot points. The romance was a tad bit on the cheesy side. But, the author writes the stereotypical YA stuff really, really well. She will have you hooked from the first page, swooning over the cheesiest of lines, and laughing out loud at some seriously great dialog. It’s the perfect book for a lazy Sunday afternoon. I already ordered book 2.

A Good Week in Books (49)

I had a decent book week! I found an excellent used bookstore near me that I definitely plan on going back to. I purchased two books there. I received two books for review. And I ended up using a Target gift card on a new book (plus some makeup).

Blood Moon by Teri Harman (ARC for review and part of blog tour – 6/22/13)
Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
Furious by Jill Wolfson (Thank you, Macmillan!)
The Demon’s Covenant by Sarah Reese Brennan
The Demon’s Surrender by Sarah Reese Brennan

How was your week in books?

Impostor by Jill Hathaway

This is my first non picture book that I have checked out from my new library! (I’m a youth services librarian…we read a lot of picture books). I remember super enjoying Hathaway’s first book in the series. I got to meet her last year too, and was also impressed by how awesome she was.

If I remember correctly, I have now read both of her books in one sitting (separately). Granted, they are sort of short for today’s YA crowd. But still, I was really hooked in Vee’s story. The first book was about Vee recovering from her losses and simultaneously figuring out who was murdering teens at her school. There’s no long line of murders in this one, but in some regards its even scarier than the first book. Vee, who can slide into other people by touching objects that they once touched, is coming to realize that someone must be sliding into her now.

Probably the only thing scarier than an unknown murderer is an unknown person with the same strange, supernatural ability as Vee, using Vee’s body to do bad things (like crash cars and ruin revenge schemes). So, Vee never really seems to have it easy. Between loosing her mother, her first love, and then having this weird ability and few friends, she doesn’t have much going for her, besides her best friend, Rollins. Rollins saved her from a really terrible situation in the first book and he’s the only one who knows Vee’s secret.

Unfortunately, just when Vee is starting to realize she might return her best friend’s feelings, in enters a new girl in Rollins’ life. Thankfully, though some friends from Vee’s past kind of redeem themselves and watching the girls plot a revenge mission against the scum of the earth character from the first book was pretty epic. And Vee had a lot of things to distract her from the new girl in Rollins’ life. But of course lots of things get in the way of the revenge mission. And just when I thought there would be no more murders, I found out I was wrong. There’s more teen murder, more supernatural mystery, more family drama (with a long lost aunt), more romance, and more growing up.

Plenty of questions get answered in this one. It was interesting to hear more about Vee’s mother. And it was fun getting to see how much more in control Vee was of her powers. She specifically aimed to slide into people in this one to get some answers. And this made her stronger.

I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, trying to guess who the other slider was! I was hoping for Vee and her bestie to hook up since the last book! I love that she kind of addresses her hyperactive caffeine addictions. And I super loved the jerkface who took advantage of Vee and other various other females kind of getting what was coming to him.

It was fun watching Vee hang out with her old friend. I felt her pain when she was given a makeover. And I understood her mistrust of her long lost aunt. Vee has a lot of flaws, but who wouldn’t after going through what she did? At least she still has hope for a better understanding of her unique abilities.

I still kind of find her dad a little unbelievable. Like why has he not noticed his daughter’s caffeine intake? Does he not know about the final deaths that happened in the last book? I kind of wanted him to be more worried about his daughters. Though, I was super impressed by how Vee’s sister has developed into a decent character.

I also kind of liked that Rollins wasn’t perfect. The other girl complicated things for Vee, but also kind of just made Rollins seem more believable. Sometime the guy interests in these books can seem too perfect. And Rollins, while still the best listener, and hero of distressed Vee, is now more human.

I was really impressed by how Hathaway continued the story. I still have some questions. I hope she still continues the story. I want to know more about possible other sliders. I want to see where things go with Rollins. Overall, this one gets a 9/10 from me. I had so much fun reading this!

Waiting on Wednesday (41)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week, I am waiting on The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen (6/4/13):

Description on Goodreads:

Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo's sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.

Emaline's mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he's convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?

Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she's going?

Sarah Dessen's devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.

So, I have been reading this author since I was 13. And yes, she can be a bit formulaic. And yes, I always kind of know how her books will end, but I love these books. I love YA contemporaries that take place in summer. I love how much growing her characters all do in such short periods of times. And I love how relatable all these characters and their problems are. Also, I’m a sucker for the romance. This one comes out at the perfect time. I’m loving the cover. Her covers (old and new) always attracted me to them like magnets. I’m excited to see what more Dessen has to say.

What are you waiting on this week?