Review: Omens

Omens by Kelley Armstrong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



As a start, the premise of Omens was a "hook, line and sinker" all on its own. Olivia Taylor-Jones, born to privilege with what seems to be a perfect life -- family, fiance, future life, the works -- suddenly learns that she is adopted. On top of that, her biological parents are notorious serial killers. Suddenly, her life isn't as sunshine and pink bunnies as it used to be. Suddenly, everything just seems to fall apart on its own.

How can you NOT be interested in a premise like that? I didn't even need coercion or influence of other reviewers to WANT to read this book, so badly.

And so when I started reading, I was ecstatic to find that the premise wasn't the only strength going for Omens. The book starts off amazingly strong, and pretty much dives right into the heart of the conflict by setting up Olivia's lifestyle as she knows it, and then shattering it right before her eyes within moments.

But what I loved the most about the circumstances: Olivia (despite maybe having little choice to resist against the matter) is the one who chooses to walk away and chooses to seek understanding of her situation. She doesn't hide out and hope that things blow over. She doesn't cry for help for someone to rescue her from this new development. She doesn't wail to her mother or to her fiance about the unfairness of life and what she's been handed. She doesn't sit still like a little trophy daughter of the wealthy and let people walk all over her.

No, she may have had her moments of confusion and her moments of "running away" (which is something you can't blame her for), but before she even has time to start moping, she decides to start searching for answers.

I might have developed a small girl crush on Olivia. She's quite the spunky heroine, although I'm almost going to admit that her behavior and her reaction to her entire scenario might be a little too calm and too collected. If not for those few moments where her doubt and her fear and her anxiety surfaces for brief moments, I would have thought she'd been in this situation for more than those few days or weeks.

Also she's a bit of a smartass... Did I mention how much I love that she's a smartass?

I like that this book builds heavily on character. The reactions that Olivia, her mother, and her fiance, James, have to the discovery of her real identity was so human that it was heartbreaking. The mob of reporters storming someone's private property seemed a little over the top, but then again, it might not have been that exaggerated. The reactions from strangers, condemning Olivia due to her biological connection with a couple of serial killers -- the fact that just knowing who her parents are and what they had done would bring about such reactions of disgust and contempt, all directed towards Olivia, who had been merely a two year old child when the murders occurred with no control over what two developed adults did for their own sick pleasure... It's such a disheartening matter, because it's a truth in society. You are defined by who you're connected to, even if you had no choice in the matter.

I thought it was interesting to bring that little topic briefly into the first few chapters.

I liked the mood and the setting of the story, that was made all the more amazing by the writing. There's a very ominous feel to the entire thing, but at the same time, it feels pretty natural, like a contemporary drama or crime thriller with a tame atmosphere. There are the hints that Olivia's biological parents, Todd and Pamela Larsen aren't the true serial killers. And this is where the mystery aspect comes into play -- there is no concrete evidence suggesting that the couple is innocent, but then there are also doubts flittering around from one thought to another.

It's an intriguing backdrop to set up the action on.

However, if I loved the beginning of Omens, then I'm slightly conflicted about the ending. the book stands quite strong throughout, taking us from the reveal, to the mystery, to the investigation, to the partnership... but once we start getting some headway on the investigation, things seem to become slightly disjointed. Suddenly, the genre changes a little and we're thrown for a loop on the track that this mystery is taking. I'm not sure I'm a fan of how the mystery panned out in the end, especially since it's not a complete resolution, nor was it very satisfactory even if it DID manage to tie strings together and make some semblance of sense.

The entire book was awesome, really. I was dead set on giving it a full five star rating. But a weakened ending really DID deflate my excitement enough to drop the rating a full star. Because I honestly LOVED almost everything about this book. I loved Olivia, I loved Cainsville, I loved the characters, I loved the story progression, the interspersed insignificant (because honestly, they changed nothing about the story) omen sightings that Olivia made (I'll talk about these a bit later), and the mystery and even the brief interludes of discussion about serial killers, supernatural beliefs, fae folk... that kind of stuff.

But the ending... I'm not sure I loved that as much.

For a book I really, really loved, however, there was still something that bugged me throughout the book. Those randomly inserted third person chapter-lets. They were... I'm not sure I know what their purpose was, aside from showing us something that Olivia didn't see or know about first-hand. And most of the time, they seemed rather meaningless. For instance, one of the first inserts involved an old woman musing about how she believed the Larsens were framed for the serial killings. Was this supposed to help us build doubt about them? Because I already had my mind set on "there's got to be more to the story than that" concerning the Todd and Pamela Larsen being convicted of killing eight people. Or was that just a "not everything believes everything they hear" type of an aside. It was confusing.

Some of the other small between chapter inserts were also a bit strange, leaving me with a feeling of "What the heck was THAT all about?" only to be forgotten when something more exciting ended up happening on Olivia's side of the POV. So I'm not sure if those inserts were to help the story progress along, or they were really better off not being in the book altogether. I certainly didn't understand them and maybe I'm just missing the link somewhere.

And then there's that supernatural backdrop of "having a power she didn't know she possessed". There is an underlying tone of supernatural powers at work being shown oh-so-subtly, sprinkled throughout the entire book. I liked them. Olivia's reading of omens to interpret possible occurrences got me REALLY excited. But by the end of the book, I'm not sure if they were really all that necessary. I was definitely waiting for SOMETHING to come of all of it: the omens, the strange psychotic man Olivia met at the motel, the strangeness of Cainsville, the ravens, the dreams... I was all geared up for some sort of big reveal...

And once again, the ending just kind of deflated for me.

All this boils down to the fact that we're probably just building up for the rest of the series. It's a bit of a cop-out, honestly, because there are ways of finishing a book without having to leave every thread of story arc inconclusive so that you'll be assured people are curious enough to take on the next book. I don't know if that's what was going on here, but it sure felt like it.

But you know what? I'm intrigued enough. I'm taking the bait. I will await the next book and see where it takes me. Maybe by then, the things I loved so much about this first book will be fleshed out in a way that ties EVERYTHING together.

Omens is a pretty awesome book. I'll give it that.



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Review: The Dream Thieves

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: n/a



I just saw a rating of 4.5 stars pop up from one of the reviewers I follow.

Aaand.... so now we are counting down the days until the release of this book! September 17 seems like so MUCH longer than just the 20 days from this moment... well, 21 days, but I'm rounding down a little for my own benefit.

Oh man, I'm all fidgeting just waiting for the book release. I need this book so BADLY! RIGHT NOW!



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Review: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



2.5 Stars

My mood usually determines how harshly I rate a book. Disappointment always plays a big factor... and also, a 2 Star rating on Goodreads is equal to an "It Was Okay", which is what I'm wavering on since it seems like such a low rating, and I didn't want to give it such a low-looking rating. My own personal "It Was Okay" rating is usually a 3 Star rating, but I have to adjust for Goodreads. Because I most certainly did not like this book, but by all rights, it's not a bad book either.

I have to give props to this book for the beautiful imagery and the excellent writing. I thought the mood was set-up wonderfully, the writing was smooth, and everything just seemed to keep falling into place. I’m not extremely familiar with Gothic literature (as this particular book is categorized), and to be totally honest, I know I’m not the best reviewer in the world. I’ve always been a bookworm, always loved to read, but my opinions are sometimes moot depending on my knowledge of the subject matter (as well as my knowledge of life experience in general). I like what I like, I enjoy what I enjoy… and sometimes, certain types of books, certain types of stories, certain types of characters, just don’t hold my interest.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a conflicting book for me. The first few chapters were excellent and I had this feel of “I know I’m going to love this book!” But as the story progressed, I found myself less and less interested in the goings-on of Between, of Violet and her brother, of the mysterious River West who strolled into town with that strange, charming aura, of the enigmatic Sunshine whom I just didn’t quite understand. And the more I read, the less I really cared about what was happening to the characters, between the characters, or even around the characters.

The blurb of the book was fairly straightforward: Violet White and her brother live a rather quiet life in a quiet town; ”nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town” (is what the actual blurb says), until River West comes into their lives one day. With him, comes a series of events that would change Violet’s life. And then there’s an ominous hinting at a deeper horror that may be River and how he’s planned out his presence with Violet.

(I thought that maybe he was the “Devil” or something supernatural like that since this is a paranormal romance after all -- which, honestly, is probably where I went wrong since paranormal romances and me have proven that we often times don’t get along… with sparsely few exceptions.)

I wasn’t all too excited about the blurb. I’m not even half sure why I suddenly got so excited by the book, wanting to read it so badly that I put it on my “I MUST GET THIS AS SOON AS I CAN GET MY HANDS ON IT” list. I was just drawn to it without even realizing why (which is kind of creepy considering the parallel of watching Violet being drawn to River in such an unreasonable obsessed, fashion).

Anyway, back to the book itself.

Let’s just start off with this: “It’s not you, it’s me.” Because “nothing much exciting rolls” through this book at all.

I’m going to chance a guess that this is one of those books that just didn’t keep my attention because I JUST wasn’t interested enough in what was going on. The reason why I’m conflicted about this book is because, on some strange level, I enjoyed it despite… well, NOT being very entertained by it. I might have done a bit of over-analyzing (I certainly made a lot of marks and notes during the reading of Between and not much of it ended up being positive notes). I might have been expecting something else (I went into it expecting horror and some, and I quote someone else, “mind fuck” inducing events). I was ready for some spine-tingling action, some strange twists and crazy surprises…

But nothing really jumped out at me as totally mind-blowing. Except maybe some of the ending when a bunch of family secrets got revealed. But by that time in the book, I was already so indifferent that it didn’t really HIT me with the impact I think it should have hit me with.

By all rights, this wasn’t a bad book. It’s got some incredible ideas and it really achieves a good success of tugging at your imaginative strings. I credit the writing for that because it set the mood pretty well. Between could be a good book -- if you can find the appeal to appreciate it or even be interested in it. I DO give it props for finally picking up the action and pulling me in by the end of the book (but I stress, by then, I was too far indifferent to appreciate the shift in pacing).

But I had trouble becoming invested in the book when I had absolutely no idea what was really going on. I found myself constantly trying to figure out the point of all the events happening. Was everything going to at least hint at tying up in the end? Is there even an actual story being told aside from the “I’m in love with the mysterious, lying, psychopathic, morally insane River West”? Was anything going to happen at all?

By 25% I was wondering when the story would start picking up. By 50% I was wondering if I had missed something important somewhere. By 75%, I finally stopped caring and just finished the book. Events would take place, but then they would just fizzle into nothing significant, like it was just a passing anecdote in Violet White’s mundane life.

And the characters… I find it hard to really enjoy a book fully if I don’t really care about the characters. For the first part of the book, they were strangers to me and I didn’t really care about them. By the end of the book, I understood them better, but I still didn’t really care about them. I couldn’t find a reason to really care what happened to them. And it bugged me since, this is fact, I actually appreciate that these weren’t your substandard YA characters.

I loved Violet’s voice and her personality teetered on “damsel in distress” meets “old fashioned spinster with an attitude”, with a pinch of “entitled, rich brat” all rolled into one. Sure, she had that annoying “stuck in the past, oft times holier than thou” personality. But she seemed like she was just a typical girl who grew up in a big house, with a family of “used to be” wealthy and had no knowledge of much going on outside of her monotonous life. It was great that she wasn’t a standard congenial, cynical, butt-kicking, heart of gold type. She was just an ordinary girl.

The rest of the characters also didn’t fit the same standard YA character role calls. It wasn’t like River was a broody, handsome badass (since he was proven to be an insane, lying inconsiderate bastard early on in the book). Sunshine wasn’t the supportive, loving best friend… I’m not sure WHAT Sunshine was, really, and we’ll leave it at that.

Luke was a conundrum on his own because I don’t think I ever really understood the point behind his dual personality. Starting off as the jackass brother and then ending off as an actually okay guy really got my brows furrowing since I never really got the reasoning behind his “outward” personality versus the person he truly is. So he confused me enough that I lost interest in him before he become the type of character I’d actually like.

And despite all of my appreciation for how well the characters were created… I still had trouble really caring about them. It just wasn’t there -- that connection. In a sense, they’re not the typical YA characters, but in another sense, they seem too unnatural and too fake to be relatable. Old fashioned, traditional, rich, wealthy Blue Bloods indeed… even IF they don’t really have their wealth anymore. Just the whole spiel by Violet about how they didn’t have money, but she was never going to actually get a job since she’s supposed to be living on old money inheritance… well, that kind of riled me a bit. The constant mentions of art and old literature and a lot pop culture (maybe) references that I just shrugged at cause I didn’t get them… Violet’s “painful” memory of wishing she’d been home-schooled, like her father, rather than having to attend public school with everyone else.

Yes, Violet, you guys are kind of snobby.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea just wasn’t for me. For me, the pacing of the story progression was too slow for my liking, the characters were ones I had trouble connecting with, there wasn’t much going on in the story that I could fathom, and finally… in all honesty, I’m not a big fan of paranormal romances anyway. It’s one of those genre combinations that have always slipped under my radar since the concept doesn’t mesh well with me.

Violet’s obsession with River (which I’m not entirely certain wasn’t a hundred percent all her own feelings alone since she fell in love with him the moment she saw him -- HELLO! instalove!) was to the point of unhealthy, and her inability to push him away even when she knew that there was something wrong with him kind of irked me. I mean, who admits to herself that the guy is a liar, dangerous, AND that she’s not sure she actually loves him that much, but still goes and falls asleep in his arms in his bed? Who finds out about all the horrid things that a guy has done and STILL kisses him and lets him touch her so intimately? And doesn’t kick him out immediately?

Anyway, I had a lot of notes and comments going on with this book, but there came a point where I finally just decided to stop analyzing and just finish reading the book without thinking about it too much. I realize that this review may sound slightly bipolar, but that’s because I’ve got a multitude of conflicting thoughts on Between that I can’t seem to pen properly.

In the end, my conclusion is still the same as what I started off with:

This book wasn’t bad. I just didn’t like it.



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Aaron Yan -- Taipei Dreamin'

He's still as awesome as ever. And cute. Did I mention cute?

That is all. Enjoy. :D

Review: Pivot Point

Pivot Point by Kasie West

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



4.5 Stars

“That was a pretty awesome book,” were my first thoughts. As the ending of the story approached, I think I found myself getting geared up to find out the conclusion with “edge of my seat” intensity. Because as we continued to follow both of Addie’s potential paths, it starts to become quite apparent that her ultimate choice will be a lot more heartbreaking than even she would have ever suspected.

On that note, I just wanted to point out how much I loved the cohesiveness of the storyline despite the fact that we’re living out two different stories in a simultaneous timeline at the same time. The alternating back and forth between both of Addie’s paths was an interesting way to narrate the story. In this way, we get to live out both decisions alongside Addie and see the entirety of her situations -- kind of like a compare and contrast type of deal. At first, I wondered if this wouldn’t get confusing or be too hard to follow, but the narration proved to flow extremely well, even inserting events that would occur in certain points of the timeline, but from different perspectives of Addie’s futures. We, as the reader, saw exactly what was going on on both sides and had knowledge that Addie did not have due to the situation of her chosen path.

I think it was pretty amazing that the narration was so successful.

The summary blurb of Pivot Point doesn’t quite do the book much justice. I mean, while the story DID start off a little too "teenage drama" for my liking, the rest of the telling become one big gripping, yet feel-good tale involving both a girl’s contemporary life with a side-dish of the paranormal/sci-fi, and an intense murder mystery hanging in the background like a bad omen. Which is interesting considering I'm not even quite sure what categories to use in describing this book: paranormal? sci-fi? fantasy? mystery? thriller? feel-good romance and contemporary?

I honestly have little to say about this book, but that’s only because I loved it THAT much. This might have a bit to do with the fact that I hadn’t been expecting much from it. The summary is a bit misleading: a girl uses her powers of Searching to see which path in her future she should take. And as any young adult book seems to stress, romance seems to be such a big factor in this decision. Will she stay in the Compound and date the most popular guy in school, or will she leave the Compound and meet her soul mate? It all seemed too vanilla/drama queen-esque for me. “Oh my, which boy should I fall in love with?”

But the actual story that ended up presenting was so much more than just that dinky little romantic aspect that young girls love to follow. There was definitely a lot of thought put into the entire story outside of simple teenage drama fests. In a sense, the entire story altogether was pretty amazing. Ultimately, Addie’s final decision would affect so much more than what she’d bargained for. And in a way, it’s kind of heartbreaking, but at the same time, I had so much enjoyment with this book.

What I also ended up loving about Pivot Point were the characters as well as the little hidden world of the Compound. Hidden worlds are one of my more favored plot devices -- add into it several fun and relatable characters and I’m loving every moment.

Addie started off a little bit annoying, but at the same time she had a really witty voice to follow despite her cynicism about herself -- the fact that, even though she spent so much time moping about her parents’ divorce, she still remained rather grounded to reality kept me on-board with her every step of the way. She was dramatic as all teens usually are, but at the same time, she acknowledged the fact that she was taking out her frustration on the situation like a rebellious teen would (all with her “Handbook of how people should act” floating around in her imaginary library). She is a total nerd with her over-analysis of situations and that’s what got me relating to her from beginning until the end. The entire cynical “I’m a plain and boring Jane” spiel when Addie is obviously a witty, intelligent, beautiful young girl really kicked the nuts a little, but I forgive her for that just because she still keeps it pretty real.

Character interaction, humor, gripping mystery... This really made for an exciting and fun read with some exclaimed “Awesome!”s tied into it as well.



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Review: The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


June 6, 2013

I really liked this one. Review to come when I get my thoughts together after my vacation. On that note, ready for the next book... RIGHT NOW.

Also, I'm sure I love Gansey.


August 11, 2013

And yes, this review took quite some time for me to get around to, but that happens cause I'm a professional procrastinator...

But here it is:

I believe that once in every random while you come across that one book which is perfect for you, personally, in every way. And in that particular book and with that particular author, you get to experience everything you’ve ever loved in any story. From the characters and their development, to the writing style and progression, with a nice healthy dose of each and every one of your favorite genres and subgenres, an intriguing storyline, and finally a nice sprinkle of witty humor throughout the entire telling (at least humor you personally appreciate)... In particular, the author just happens to create the perfect group of characters with the right amount of development, unique personalities, witty banter, and relatable interactions, and so on and so forth...

It just totally makes your day!

I’m not a professional when it comes to the written English language, story creation, or even inspirational ideals in writing. I like what I like. Many others may not agree. And as far as I can tell, (despite this being a book released in 2012 and I hadn’t necessarily been anticipating it before), The Raven Boys is thus far sitting at the top ranking out of all the books I’ve read this year. (I am currently crossing my fingers with all hopes that the second book coming out this year will be just as great or even better.)

Because while reading The Raven Boys, when I suddenly found myself smiling like a giddy fool at the humorous dialogue, or fawning over something that just gets me RIGHT THERE, or even pinpointing the exact point in the story where I exclaimed, “Well, I really love this boy now!”, I know I’ve been sucked into the world of our little makeshift friendship group slash family of spiritual ley line hunters. It’s a delight, even, when you hadn’t been expecting much from the book in the first place since the dinky little summary provided doesn’t even really do the true story line of The Raven Boys any justice.

Honestly, I thought I was just going to be stepping into some young adult paranormal romance with a mixing of magic stuff and maybe an attempted mystery. Well, the tagline was intriguing enough: “There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.” Coupled with that, you even get a rather ominous first sentence in the prologue: ”Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.”

Death prophecies almost immediately at the beginning? Dark and moody atmosphere? Hook, line and sinker!

I promise I’m not psychotic or anything, but really, what a way to get my attention. The rest of the book is written in a way that conveys an almost melancholic, dark setting, yet at the same time it’s laced with enough youthful energy that the balance is wonderful. Side characters came to life with their own lush backstories despite the fact that they’re not center-stage. I’m not sure I found even one character I wasn’t at least mildly interested in, because they each carried their own weight so well.

But there was so much more to the story despite it being rather tame anyway; and to be totally honest, it’s the mystery pitch as well as the character interaction that makes this book GO for me. I love character interaction and when there is great character interaction, I swoon like a shameless fangirl. I’m chuckling and re-reading lines, I’m highlighting and making notes of my own reactions, I’m bookmarking and slapping my thighs because the dialogue definitely DELIVERS.

ANY book that has the ability to make me laugh out loud already gets an automatic star since I’m a sucker for great humor of the dry sarcastic, yet nonsensical variety. I’m an even bigger sucker for banter that just makes you think about it and why it makes you smile in such a dopey way. There are random one-liners thrown out by our characters that make me make this O.o blinky face and have to pause for a moment. Things catch you by surprise if you read through too quickly, making you backtrack to reread some parts only to realize: “Huh, that was good. That was really good.”

Most importantly (to me), there’s a development of sorts for our characters in their own lives as individuals, and then as well as with each other, either as a new friendship between Blue and the boys, or as old friendship between the boys amongst themselves. Everything just sort of falls into place just perfectly enough for me that here I am, trying to shamelessly plug to everyone how much I really LOVED this book, without even really given enough reason aside from: These are just the elements of a story that gets me in all the right places.

My opinions don’t even start to talk about the story plotting and what the book is about at all (not that I ever bother to relay any brief, paraphrased summaries in my reviews anyway, so whatevs). And this review doesn’t do justice to people wanting to know why I loved this book so much.

I wish I could say more about The Raven Boys. I wish I could analyze the crap out of the dialogue, the action, the mystery and whatnot, but the fact of the matter is, I really, really, really, really enjoyed this book A LOT. It was just THAT simple.

And all of these paragraphs... well, they might just be moot.

There have only been few other books in the past that had all the pieces I loved in all the right places for me, personally (Harry Potter and Book of a Thousand Days are recent ones from recent years). It’s been a long time, actually, that I’ve come across a book that just hit on all the elements I love about storytelling.

Today, this book is The Raven Boys, and I hope to anything in the universe that I will continue to enjoy the rest of the series as I have loved this first book.

***

And now on a separate tangent altogether....


Why I love Gansey:

While Blue Sargent was certainly the main character in this book, and while her character and development and quirky personality was lovable and relatable, the true star character who stood out for me was none other than Richard “Dick” Campbell Gansey III -- or just Gansey.

To be totally honest, I don’t even really know what it is I love about him. To many others, he’s the entitled, spoiled rich boy with ivory tower ideals and an extraordinary mission. If this were the fantasy or medieval world, he’d be THAT prince with nothing better to do in his life than to accomplish some self-serving task he’s given himself. And of course, this task also ends up being something so huge that it affects so many other things in the lives around him.

Self-serving Prince maybe needs to find a new hobby that doesn’t involve ghosts, evil spirits and death.

But that kind of description of Gansey is just the basis of his characterization in this time frame. There was so much more depth to Gansey than even I expected to come across, because, to be honest, it hadn’t been until much further into the book that I started appreciating how much I felt I could relate with Gansey compared to the rest of the characters. I began to see a wit and an intelligence in this spoiled rich noble that made me really think about him as another person WITHOUT his defining characteristics.

And what did I end up finding? Honestly, I’m still not quite sure.

Gansey is a boy who shuns away from his father because (as is typical of a lot of more noble rich brats) he doesn’t like the way his father operates life. However, he also doesn’t seem to shy away from taking advantage of the fact that he’s a Gansey -- that his power is a very highly influential playing card in getting what he wants for the sake of the people he cares about and for the sake of his mission. Which brings us to the fact that while Gansey is a carefree boy who has his life set, he also seems to be a boy who wants to live life like everyone else. He wants to have true friendships and he wants to be able to take care of his friends. He desires that deep companionship that comes along with a set of friends bonding over a common cause. He loves his friends and would do anything for them, and yet, at the same time, said friends are either making it hard for him to accomplish this task, or said friends will shove him away, criticizing him for trying to work life into his own liking.

I know it sounds like Gansey really is nothing but a nosy busybody. It sounds like he DOES like having all of his “ducks in a row”, so to speak. It sounds like he’s just another rich boy who likes to see things occur for him in his own ideal way. He sees life happening in one direction, while others see him trying to force life to happen in that direction. He just tries too hard to make life around him into “his” perfect, ideal world.

Things like that can get rather annoying for someone like Gansey who seems to be lacking in tact or social skill.

But there is no denying that underneath all of that ignorant, bumbling naivete, Gansey has a very big heart.

Gansey has had a life-altering moment that we see in flashback. And because of this life-altering moment is why he’s so dead set on finding the ley lines and pursuing an entity who can grant him that one favor.

I might be making excuses for this boy. In a certain light, anyone can see that he’s just another rich boy. But to me, for any amount of odd reasoning, I just really fell in love with him. In certain aspects, he’s an arrogant dumbass who needs to check his mouth before he talks. He certainly needs to really think about what he’s saying to whom, but in a way, isn’t it kind of unfair to him to force him to walk on eggshells around his friends just because they get offended easily? Because they’ve already classified Gansey in the same exact light that a random stranger would classify him?

I’m usually one of the last people to take the side of the standard rich boy, because, honestly, they’re all the same as... say, Ronan. You’ve got money, you’ve got power, you’ve got your life set for the rest of your life (and maybe even the hereafter). But you’re destructive and arrogant and troublesome and you’re still unhappy with your life and under-appreciative of what you have. Granted, I like Ronan too, but that has more to do with his latent dark humor and wit than it has to do with his actual personality, ‘cause he’s a Grade A Asshole, from what I can see.

And maybe that’s just it. In a very rough comparison, Gansey has all the same defining characteristics as Ronan. Except, rather than being a thorn in everyone’s side as some emo drama king, Gansey actually tries. He tries to be everyone’s friend. He tries to see the positive side of things. He’s trying so hard to make something of his life outside of being a rich and powerful Gansey. He’s trying to take care of his friends because he cares about them. He’s just trying to make everyone happy. He’s such a noble idiot that you can’t help BUT to fall in love with him.

It’s a rather interesting dynamic. Because I personally hate everything about his defining characteristics: rich, entitled, powerful, carefree, ignorant. He’s got a very stereotypical rich boy dilemma in which he’s expected to behave and react in certain ways. And I’m also not much a fan of the noble idiot’s naive, frustrating ideals about life. But you give Gansey enough of an uncertainty about himself, enough of a big heart when it comes to others, enough of an unexpected ambition for some mission in his life, and enough of his charming wit and humor and intelligence and somehow, I’m now obsessed with him.

In a nutshell, there are reasons why I love Gansey and there are reasons why I shouldn’t. And there they are. And I lean towards loving him.





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Review: Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye

Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye by Victoria Laurie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book wasn't stand out fantastic or anything. In fact, on my own personal scale of likability (which is maybe a bit less nicer than Goodreads' star scale), a four-star review corresponds simply to "I liked this book, but not like REALLY liked it, liked it". It also slightly detours into "This was a good and enjoyable book, but it's not like I'm going to rave compliments on it and lose sleep over getting the second book read, or neither am I going to go out on a limb to recommend that everyone read this book," because, honestly: Too many books, too little time.

So..., adjusting to the Goodreads' star ratings, I would actually have to place this one at a 3.5 Stars, leaning more towards 4 stars.

I'm all about paranormal mysteries; and for some reason, I'm not really big on the paranormal genre unless SOMETHING exciting happens: mysteries, action, adventure... And for someone like me who is also a huge hopeless romantic, it's strange that "paranormal" and "romance" doesn't seem to meld well together unless it accompanies something bigger. (Case in point Daughter of Smoke and Bone; however, things are still a little murky with that one...)

Anyway, done with my tangent so that my review actually looks longer than I had planned for... Yeah, I ramble, but whatever.

Abby Cooper was a fairly enjoyable read for many reasons. It had good writing, smooth transitions and great descriptions. I liked Abby's voice and character; she's feisty and no-nonsense, which is always a plus for female main characters. The characters were fleshed out pretty well and the mystery was interesting to follow along with. I really LOVED Eggy the little dog, but who doesn't like dogs? I liked the way Abby's psychic abilities are described -- blurting out a series of "clues" to determine what's going on in her client's life and what might happen and what they should do. It's pretty interesting.

Unfortunately, there was nothing extraordinarily outstanding about this book. The one word I can think of would be "flat" when it came to a few aspects. Mainly, it was Dutch Rivers as well as a lack of a "gasp, surprise, surprise!" factor. The way that the story was written, there's a LOT of foreshadowing, so you pretty much expect things to happen, and even before they happen (like an entire chapter before) you already see the event taking place. So there's no surprise factor or surprise twist that actually gave that "chilling willies" feeling -- it was only slightly disappointing since I live for the intensity of surprise twists in murder mysteries. So while the ultimate "whodunit" was kept secret pretty well, there was no build-up of suspension to the end point. I didn't know who the murderer was, but I predicted pretty much everything else.

If this had been the intention of the author to flow in tune with "psychic reading" style of foreshadowing, then I guess I don't have much of a complaint. I'll read the rest of the series with this adjusted mindset. It's really not a very big complaint since I enjoyed the book anyway.

What the book DOES do is leave me interested in seeing what will happen in the coming books. I'm at least hoping that Dutch Rivers gets fleshed out a little more, though because his character fell pretty flat for me in this first book. And since he's a main character in the entire series, we'll need to make sure I actually like him. Right now, to me, Dutch Rivers is really just "Love Interest #1" who may or may not be significant enough for me to care.

I will mention: I absolutely adore character interaction in books. The relationship between Abby and her sister, Cat was phenomenal. I actually look forward to seeing more of these sister together, even if it IS just to watch Cat continue to high-power her motherly instincts all over Abby with Abby muttering and pouting in a corner about it.



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Review: The Kingdom

The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I maybe enjoyed this second book of the Graveyard Queen series a bit differently than I enjoyed the first book. The Kingdom had all the intriguing elements of a ghostly, paranormal mystery; but at the same time, it kind of played off more in character development than it actually did in the mystery aspect. So, in a way, to me, this book felt more like a "bridging" novella (a long one at that) which will probably end up connecting The Restorer with The Prophet. Although, since I've yet to read The Prophet, maybe that assumption is too early to make.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It wasn't the horror-fest that many would probably be expecting, and in a way, there was a rather monotonous telling that got me a little sidetracked. But upon reading further, I wanted to continue reading more.

Amelia is still intriguing as a character, while at the same time, she still doesn't stand out much. I doubt I'll recall much about her after I've finished with this series. The rest of the characters strike me as the same way -- interesting, but no one really stands out.

On a side note, one way to really kill the mystery excitement for me is to constantly have characters recite that all too familiar: "We don't like to talk about that." Yeah... so what do you talk about?

Anyway, nothing too overall exciting about this book, which was a bit of a disappointment since I'm enjoying it. We'll just have to see with the next book if there's going to be more excitement. For The Kingdom in general, I honestly already had the mystery figured out by the time I was a quarter of the way into it. Too many obvious clues were laid out that forced you to make those connections and so the the only thing you were anticipating was when Amelia would make those connections.



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