Review: The Keep (The Watchers, #4) by Veronica Wolff

JUST BECAUSE YOU WORK FOR THE DEAD DOESN’T MEAN YOU WANT TO JOIN THEM.

Drew has just started her second year on the Isle of Night, and the weather isn’t the only thing changing drastically. She has ascended to the rank of Initiate. She’s also found an intimate love in the handsome vampire, Carden. But most of all, she no longer dreams of escape. She dreams of vengeance.

Her friend, Emma, was brutally wounded by the savage vampire Alcántara, and may have been taken to the dreaded castle, from which none of the living return. But there are so many different stories from so many people with so many of their own deceits and machinations, Drew can’t be sure of anything—except that she must find a way into the castle to discover the truth and take down Alcántara once and for all.

But Drew isn’t the only one out for revenge. Someone very dangerous on the island is also out for blood…

Hers…

The action continues and mystery still abounds in Wolff's fourth installment of The Watchers series.  While Carden played center stage in the last book (and is still featured here) Wolff decided to bring Ronan back to the main events.  I most certainly wasn't complaining about that.  This love triangle has always been a bit unique but I've always thought Ronan and Drew were better suited and dare I say, destined for one another.  Let's face facts, without Ronan, Drew wouldn't have survived as long as she has despite her prowess on the island.

This time around the trainees and initiates aren't playing so nice...but it's not like they've ever been striving for Junior League or Debutante status.  Assassination 101 is on the forefront in everyone's mind and of course there are casualties.  Attack after attack after attack, Wolff kept me on the edge of my seat, desperate to know how it would all play out.  And talk about secrets being revealed!  Let's just say the front door isn't the only way into the off limits Keep and Drew never let the saying "curiosity killed the cat" deter her.

Great risks are taken, Alcantara's mind games would drive anyone crazy, the action doesn't stop and the suspense will keep the pages turning for sure.  While readers wait for Wolff's fifth installment to be scheduled for release, Dark Craving, a novella for the series with Ronan's narration should tide us over, at least temporarily.

Review: Opposition (Lux, #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Katy knows the world changed the night the Luxen came.

She can't believe Daemon welcomed his race or stood by as his kind threatened to obliterate every last human and hybrid on Earth. But the lines between good and bad have blurred, and love has become an emotion that could destroy her—could destroy them all.

Daemon will do anything to save those he loves, even if it means betrayal.

They must team with an unlikely enemy if there is any chance of surviving the invasion. But when it quickly becomes impossible to tell friend from foe, and the world is crumbling around them, they may lose everything— even what they cherish most—to ensure the survival of their friends…and mankind.

War has come to Earth. And no matter the outcome, the future will never be the same for those left standing.

It's come to my attention this past month that a lot of my favorite series' are coming to an end.  While I have no shortage of titles on my TBR list, it's sad and bittersweet that I've had to say goodbye to so many wonderful worlds, characters, and stories.  Armentrout pulled me into her Lux series a few years ago when the first installment came out and I felt as though my countdown would never end to get the chance to find out what would happen to Daemon and Katy in Opposition.  But find out we did.

 

Craziness abounds in this final installment and Armentrout does it at break neck speed.  Her writing style as always flows quickly but in a fluid way that readers will never complain about.  The siblings were reunited so to speak with their own kind and they were without a doubt outnumbered.  The Luxen presented a unique addition when they showed up and no longer were the Origins at the top of the food chain.  But Armentrout's characters have never been the type to lay down and give up and nothing changed when the obstacles mounted and their hopes dwindled. 

 

I went through just about every emotion possible with each page I turned and the stress I experienced while reading this book left me reeling.  I'm always surprised when authors are able to draw me in so completely that I have trouble doing anything else in my daily life.  I love it when I can't stand the thought of putting a book down, staying up late to finish even just one more chapter, wishing more than anything that characters found weren't works of fiction.  These are all experiences that I have each and every time I pick up one of Jennifer's books.

 

I hate that the series is over, but Jennifer found a way to leave me content with how things turned out, and eager for her to start a new and fresh series filled with equally wonderful people inside!

Review: Taming Darkness (Artemis Lupine, #4) by Catherine Banks

Things aren't going like anyone planned and life keeps throwing one curve ball after another at Artemis and Ares. Can she live up to the prophecy or have they been wrong this entire time? Join them as they try to right the balance of light and dark in the final installment of Artemis Lupine's life.

I know this series doesn't have a following quite like some others that are out there now, but for the life of me I can't really figure out why?  Has it just not gotten enough exposure?  Is it because it was one of Banks' first series and her name is still unfamiliar to some readers?  Whatever the reason is I'm hoping with crossed fingers that it changes, and sooner rather than later.  Readers who haven't had the chance to check out this series couldn't come into it at a better time.  All four installments are out and available now so there won't be any waiting for the next title, or counting down until a copy can be theirs.  Readers don't have to take a break in between each book, but can fly through all four as quickly as they like.  But be warned...it will most definitely feel like it's over in a blink and like me, readers may find themselves disappointed that a goodbye must be said to these characters and the world that Banks has created.

 

I myself, was one of the readers out there that admittedly did not pick this book up in any part due to the cover art.  There isn't anything wrong with it, but there's no denying the fact that there is cover art out there now that will just blow your mind and leave you with no other choice but to see if the writing found between the the pages can live up to that beauty.  But that aside, there isn't too much I can say in the negative when it comes to Banks' Artemis Lupin series.  It might not flow the same as other stories do, and it's not without critique that I write this review, but this series was just so entertaining that I enjoyed it from the series opener all the way through the final installment.

 

Her characters are simple, but in the best possible way.  They wear their hearts on their sleeves so to speak, and readers get to know them a little more with each turn of the page.  Banks left her readers with a mind blowing cliffhanger in the last installment and I wasn't sure how things would progress after that doozy, but somehow she managed it flawlessly.  As much as I love our leads, Artemis and Ares, it was nice to see Victor play a more dominant role is this book, and the addition of even more new faces and names was a great bonus.  I most definitely wasn't sure how she would wrap up the series, and as crazy as it turned out to be, I wouldn't have it any other way.  While I'm sad to see this series end, I think Banks did her characters, her series, and her readers justice.

Review: Beautiful Oblivion (Beautiful, #3) by Jamie McGuire

The Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster phenomenon continues in the first heart-pounding new adult romance in The Maddox Brothers series.

Fiercely independent Camille "Cami" Camlin gladly moved on from her childhood before it was over. She has held down a job since before she could drive, and moved into her own apartment after her freshman year of college. Now tending bar at The Red Door, Cami doesn’t have time for much else besides work and classes, until a trip to see her boyfriend is cancelled, leaving her with a first weekend off in almost a year.

Trenton Maddox was the king of Eastern State University, dating co-eds before he even graduated high school. His friends wanted to be him, and women wanted to tame him, but after a tragic accident turned his world upside down, Trenton leaves campus to come to grips with the crushing guilt.

Eighteen months later, Trenton is living at home with his widower father, and works full-time at a local tattoo parlor to help with the bills. Just when he thinks his life is returning to normal, he notices Cami sitting alone at a table at The Red.

As the baby sister of four rowdy brothers, Cami believes she’ll have no problem keeping her new friendship with Trenton Maddox strictly platonic. But when a Maddox boy falls in love, he loves forever—even if she is the only reason their already broken family could fall apart.

In the first installment of the Maddox Brothers books, readers can experience the rush of reading Beautiful Disaster for the first time, all over again.

It's no secret on this blog that I love everything Jamie McGuire puts out on the bookshelves.  She quickly stole my heart when Beautiful Disaster came out, and ever since I've been craving everything and anything that she puts in writing.  This first installment in the Maddox Brothers books was no different.  Readers will see that all of their old favorites are back and new favorites have been added to the scene as well.  I've always marveled out how well she develops her characters, how quickly they turn from just people on pages to people I'd love to call friends of my very own.  And honestly who can resist these male leads that steal your heart and leave you swooning with their persistence and huge hearts!

As a fan of Trent Maddox from the earlier Beautiful series installments, I was over the moon to be given the chance at seeing more of him, learning more about him and his situation, and realizing that Travis isn't the only Maddox boy that was raised right.  The Maddox men may have lost their mother at a young age, but between their dad and their brothers, they grew up with great values and genuine outlooks on life.  It's not just how McGuire has these men treating the women they're interested in either.  It's the bond and relationships they've made amongst themselves that really always get to me the most.  I can't imagine a family closer and whether it's because of the huge loss they suffered early on, or just how McGuire imagined they'd be, they're just about perfect in the most wonderful way!

I'm more than pleased that McGuire has decided not to stop her Beautiful series with the end of Travis and Abby's story, and that we'll get to see more of this Maddox family down the road.  The twists and turns she threw into this installment left me more than shocked and oh so very excited to see what she'd come up with next when we get a closer look at Thomas Maddox.

In My Mailbox (135)

This is a meme that I first heard about from Kristi over at The Story Siren and immediately wanted to jump on board. I'm always picking up new books, because I never tire of reading, but the other thing I like about this meme is that it gives everyone an opportunity to check out what other book fanatics, bloggers, etc... got for themselves. I've gotten great recommendations from this meme and hope that keeps up in the future.

Here's what I got, what did you guys get this week?

  For Review:

 

Dark Craving (The Watchers, #4.5) by Veronica Wolff

 

WE'VE FOLLOWED ANNELISE DREW'S JOURNEY AS SHE'S FOUGHT TO SURVIVE THE ISLE OF NIGHT.

NOW IT'S TIME TO HEAR RONAN'S SIDE OF THE STORY.

Tracer Ronan has cared for only one person in his life: Charlotte, his sister. With her death, a consuming desire for revenge and destruction ignited in his heart. But when new recruit Annelise Drew arrives on the island, Ronan finds he craves more than revenge. She is a threat to his mission, his sanity, and his heart. Now Ronan will need every ounce of will and strength to avenge his sister and prove where his true allegiance lies.

Tracer Ronan shares his secrets with no one. But will he survive his darkest cravings?

 

Beauty At Home by Aerin Lauder

 

Style icon Aerin Lauder reveals what it means to live beautifully

Extravagant and fun to be around, Estée Lauder, Aerin's grandmother, loved jewelry and chocolate-covered marshmallows. She adored flowers and rooms full of exuberant patterns. When Aerin was a child, weekend visits with Estée meant ice-cream-and-late-night-TV adventures and spending time together at her grandmother's dressing-room table with its intriguing lipsticks and creams. From an early age, Aerin understood that Estée's passion for family was equal to her love of beauty.

Now, Aerin has made this legacy her own. For the first time, she shares memories of the family celebrations and world travel that formed her sense of style. Aerin opens the doors to her New York apartment, where on any given night she might host a relaxed dinner with firends under a vintage French chandelier or, just as often, an impromptu get-together for her sons. Aerin also reveals how she preserved Estée's heritage in her former Hamptons home while adding her own twists. The traditions Aerin has created in her own family--from pool parties with her sons to walks along the beach collecting sea glass to breezy summer lunches--blend elegance and fun in equal measure.

Throughout this book, evocative photographs by Simon Upton show Aerin's world in inspiring detail and enhance Aerin's insights into surrounding oneself with beauty and family in every aspect of life.

 

Full Moon (The Crescent, #3) by Jordan Deen

 

You know her story. You know her painful initiation into the werewolf world and you’ve seen her struggle to find the truth.

Now, Lacey Quinn is ready for the war to be over. Are you?
Lacey has been used, lied to and cheated out of the only thing she ever wanted: independence. Struggling with her newfound knowledge of being pack leader, Alex coming back into her life and the kidnapping of Lily’s mate—Matt—Lacey is faced with one of the biggest decisions of her life: fight or flight. While she knows running from the war will risk many lives, but staying means she would never have the life she wants and quite possibly never know a world without werewolves, witches and war.
Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t always the first or most obvious choice. Lacey Quinn is about to challenge what everyone thinks is the right thing to do. Unfortunately for her, most will not agree with her decision or the painful outcome.

Sometimes, love means death.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar with her boardinghouse roommate stretching three dollars as far as it will go when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a tempered smile, happens to sit at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a yearlong journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool toward the upper echelons of New York society and the executive suites of Condé Nast--rarefied environs where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.

Wooed in turn by a shy, principled multi-millionaire and an irrepressible Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, befriended by a single-minded widow who is a ahead of her time,and challenged by an imperious mentor, Katey experiences firsthand the poise secured by wealth and station and the failed aspirations that reside just below the surface. Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her life, she begins to realize how our most promising choices inevitably lay the groundwork for our regrets.

Review: Consequence (Significance, #4.5) by Shelly Crane

Maggie and Caleb are married, leaders of their people, parents to their children, and happier than they ever dreamed, even with the visions they saw of it to prove it so. The council is still rebelling against Maggie’s changes, but this time it’s different. It’s almost as if something…or someone is behind them, pulling the strings and making decisions for them.

And Maggie is having strange visions that only she can see, leaving Caleb helpless to help her. But when her visions start to warn her that their daughter, Ava, will one day be in danger, they’ll do anything it takes to find out what’s going on and how to stop it, even paying a visit to a previous Visionary.

Maggie and Caleb must find out who or what is behind it all and stop them before Maggie is one vision too late.

Lately it's felt like my favorite authors are throwing me a bone.  Crane's Significance series is one of the few that I wish could go on forever no matter how crazy the story lines would become.  It's a combination of all the right elements, tied up in a fantastic package that's been created.  The main characters, the supporting characters, the world that's been created, the elements of surprise and suspense.  It's an addicting combination for sure.  It had been a while since the forth installment had been devoured and completed and to be honest I think it was just plain luck that I even found this addition. 

While it was a novella, to be honest it read to me like each of the other full installments did.  Crane's sense of humor hasn't dwindled, and her characters are as lovable and strong as ever.  The cliffhanger she left with had me both anxious and completely over the moon to learn that the series hadn't yet reached it's end.  The fifth installment is on the horizon and I'll be counting down to the very last day!

Review: Just One Night (Just One Day, #2.5) by Gayle Forman

After spending one life-changing day in Paris with laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter, sheltered American good girl Allyson “Lulu” Healey discovered her new lover had disappeared without a trace. Just One Day followed Allyson’s quest to reunite with Willem; Just One Year chronicled the pair’s year apart from Willem’s perspective. Now, back together at last, this delectable e-novella reveals the couple’s final chapter.

I know I've said it before, but honestly novellas were just never really something that interested me for the most part.  I always felt like I'd be let down by their short length or less involved plots, etc...but this is now the second one I've read in a short period of time that has decidedly proved my assumptions wrong.  And yet again I was pleasantly surprised.

Forman gave her readers a great gift when she introduced her characters, Willem and Allyson.  I fell in love with these two as they were falling in love with each other.  While I enjoyed reading their stories, I was of course sad to see their story come to a close.  So when I saw this novella I grabbed it like a lifeline and was anxious for even a few more pages and scenes with these two.

Each and ever tidbit that Foreman gives her readers is to be cherished.  It's not everyday that we're able to find stories that not only are enjoyable but move us as well.  This series was one that touched me and really felt special.  So while I'll always want more and find myself sad when I've read the final pages of their story, I always feel lucky to have even been given the chance and peek into Foreman's world.