Review: The Iron King

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



9/11/2013
4.5 Stars

This book was just as much fun as I thought it would be, entertaining, thrilling, and magical. Of course, with praises come quibbles that I can't seem to shake. I have some thoughts, though only few that really stand out -- which probably means I'll have more than a short and sweet two paragraphs of opinions I usually claim to have.

Review to come when thoughts are mustered, and hopefully I can keep thoughts from the next book out of this review since I've already started Iron Daughter.



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The Iron Fey Series

Let the marathon begin!

Four books, four weeks.  I haven't been to the library in FOREVER!  Think I can do it?  Pfft...  As if that question even needs to be asked.  On top of that, I've got another three new book releases I'm looking forward to this month.  Looks like ani's not going to be getting much sleep in the next few weeks. 

Review: Better Read Than Dead

Better Read Than Dead by Victoria Laurie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Much like the first book, this one was fairly enjoyable, and a little more action-packed and intense than the first one. Also, the mystery was a little bit more twisty-turny (I know that's not a word) than the one from the first book.

I may not like every logic and detail that Abby seems to live by, but for the sheer sake of entertainment, I'm just going to overlook those few frustrating moments I had with her. Especially since the pacing was so fast that I didn't have time to really think about what I didn't like. That's a good thing, because when I nit-pick, it gets personal. And I don't make it my life's work to ALWAYS nit-pick a book to death -- It's not like I go into a book thinking "What can I find wrong with this?" I've only done that once and it wasn't pretty at all and made ME miserable and upset.

But anyway, back to Better Read Than Dead:

Fun and entertaining. I still really love Abby's tone and voice, and I especially love her no-nonsense attitude. And the mystery was intriguing. I still have a bone to pick with Dutch Rivers though and am still far from accepting him as good main love interest material. There are certain things I don't agree with concerning his behavior towards with Abby, but I'm not certain I can actually pinpoint what it is.

Cat got slightly annoying in this one; something I hadn't expected. And other characters are still pretty consistent. I like the silent, companionship between Abby and Milo as friends; awesome interaction there.

Otherwise, this was a fast-paced and fun read, so kudos on that!



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Review: The Collector

The Collector by Victoria Scott

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Well it's true what another reviewer had said: If you don't like Dante Walker, you probably won't like this book, The Collector. So it's probably a good thing that I liked Dante decently enough to enjoy this book.

This book was fairly entertaining, although there were some other factors playing against it that didn't work well for me. The ending seemed to drag a little bit, and I'm not sure how well I like Charlie. She's a nice girl, she just doesn't really stand out enough from a standard Mary Sue, which makes it hard to relate. Otherwise, I enjoyed following Dante's narration and seeing the story unfold through his eyes. The rest of the characters seem overshadowed by Dante's strong personality (which makes sense considering the type of person Dante is), but even still, they held their own personalities on a different level. Character interaction was on par with what I love seeing.





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Review: False Memory

False Memory by Dan Krokos

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I don’t really have much to say about False Memory. It was a fun, action-packed, fast-paced read that got you from Point A to Point B without hesitation. There didn’t seem to be any dull moments, because things just kept happening. And I’m fine with that.

This book just wasn't for me.

One of the problems was that by the time I’d gotten to the midpoint of the book, I had already forgotten what was going on at quarter-point. At 80%, I wouldn’t be able to recall what was going on at 50%. And then, by the end of the book, I’m not sure I knew what I was expecting anymore. False Memory was a fun read, but it’s not entirely memorable or relatable. I recall the main storyline of the book (pretty much what’s written in the summary blurb). But if you asked me to pick out a detail that stands out about False Memory that had me excited or squealing-due-to-awesome, I’m not sure I can pull anything off the top of my head at all.

I’m not at all disappointed though -- maybe it has to do with the fact that I went into it not really expecting anything exciting (not like those highly anticipated books that have me jumping for joy when I finally get my hands on them). So I hadn’t actually set up a standard for what I had expected from False Memory. Not that the book wasn’t exciting since it was a big, ongoing plot of action. But it just didn’t really do anything for me, personally.

And now that I’ve gone off on another tangent, I’ve totally forgotten the few thoughts I had had initially when I started writing this review. So we’ll try this again.

In a nutshell, False Memory, now that I think about it, is a nice break from the typical post-apocalyptic YA dystopian storylines that have been trending lately. A bunch of kids with mysterious superpowers are caught up in a conspiracy involving government, power, money… the works. Honestly, I’d been a little conflicted on whether or not to like this book when the first few actions occurring during Miranda’s initial “I’ve lost my memories” segments made me think of The Bourne Identity... (not knowing who you are, but still able to know those natural instincts instilled into your subconscious from years of training) and then I started questioning Miranda’s memory loss because it seemed so random and convenient, the things she remembered and the things she didn’t remember. And then when the ball got rolling, It’s not like her memory loss meant anything to me anyway.

And then after the initial memory loss segue passed and we jumped right into the main conflict of the book, things just kind of… went… and I followed. The conspiratorial idea of these children being altered and created as weapons to be sold off was pretty interesting. I mean, there are so many other ways to make money and so many other “super soldier” ideas that could have taken off better (such as in The Bourne Identity), but I’m cool with the superpower to strike fear into people and cause chaos. It’s not perfection, but for this story, it will do.

And that was pretty much it for me. More conflicts started surfacing, more reveals started happening, and then I just stopped thinking about the storyline and just kept reading so that I could get to the end to find out what was going on. The pacing of events flew by so quickly that you really didn’t have time to really think about any of it. But I’m not certain I knew what I was expecting. However, I am certain I had a vague idea of what was going to happen. In all honesty though, I couldn’t really keep up with all the new “surprise” reveals.

It didn’t help that a lot of those supposed emotional and surprising twists that were revealed didn’t feel at all that emotional or surprising. I’m not sure if this is the fault of the way those scenes were written, or just that the build up didn’t get me where I needed to be for those reveals. But while the characters are in there, drowning on their devastations of such-and-such occurring, I really just couldn’t understand or feel what the big deal was. The tone was so flat that, even though I knew what I was supposed to be feeling, I was really just in a cloud of indifference.

And now this brings me to the characters. I honestly have no complaints about the four kids, called Roses: Miranda, Peter, Noah and Olive. But I have no praises for them either. I appreciate that they’re pretty damn kickass when it comes to this whole “saving the world” stuff. I like that they can handle all these stressful situations pretty well. And that they each seem to have their own personalities. And that they all like and care for one another. On paper, it’s all pretty awesome. But in action, narration, in this story alone, all four of them seem pretty flat and boring. I didn’t really care about them or what happened to them. Maybe a little bit about what was going on with Miranda, cause her voice wasn’t too bad -- it’s easier to relate to a flat character when she’s the one narrating.

But otherwise, the rest… meh. I might like Peter a bit more than I liked Noah or Olive. But that’s because there’s that OTP spark between Peter and Miranda… while she still had SOMETHING going on with Noah… and things just get complicated on the romance angle. And I stress, I really, really do NOT like love triangles -- they are the bane of my existence. (Maybe it’s just envy talking since those triangles seem so arrogant when I think about my own polygon-less love life; I don’t even have a single -gle, no less an -angle… Go ahead guys. Mope about your inability to choose between two people you love while some of us don’t even have the luxury of choices...)
But, y’know, triangles are fine when they’re written tastefully -- I don’t hate all of them, really… I swear…

I caught the sample preview of the next book and it seems pretty agreeable. I did enjoy Miranda’s narration, even if I didn’t really care for the book as a whole. So I will probably end up getting the next book, although I won’t be certain when that’ll happen.



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Review: Storm

Storm by Brigid Kemmerer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I see why this book/series is so popular. It didn't take long for me to finish. And it hadn't taken long before I'd gotten so far into it that there was no point in stopping and leaving the rest for later. So I powered through the entire thing in less than a twenty-four hour span; maybe even less than ten hours like I did my last book.

I had some nostalgic feelings of those teenage years in high school with all the talk of sports, cheerleaders, parties, bullies... the like. Except, either I came from a really tame high school, or my perception of those fragile teenage years was a little different. I had remarked to myself (in written note format), that this gaggle of teens formed one of the most immature high school classes I'd ever read about in a YA book... then I realized that my genre usually teetered on the paranormal and post-apocalyptic, so usually there were very few actual high school settings to choose from. Still... the "ooh-ing" and the "ah-ing" and the snickering and the gossip and the rumors...

Okay, maybe I might be a little far removed from my high school years, but a lot of that stuff seemed a bit extreme... even for kids.

But enough of that, because, somehow, it still brought the nostalgia in me out to recognize what it used to be like to be young. Seriously, this might be one of the first YA books I've read that "brought me back to the good ol' days". Strange, no?

Anyway, back to the book itself (y'know, cause I tend to ramble and segway so much...).

Storm was incredibly exciting and highly entertaining.

It had a lot of moments that made me wonder or frown or cringe.  A lot of the relationship dynamics were a little extreme, and a lot of character details that had me... well, I didn't like all of the character relations, honestly.  Did I like every moment of it? No. Was it a perfect book? Not quite.  Were there things that made no sense?  Oh yea.  Would I change any of it to suit my needs? Absolutely not. Storm seems to have a unique personality of its own (if that makes any sense), and despite the fact that there were moments that made me cringe, I don't think I would change any of it for any reason at all. It's got a creative story line, interesting characters, and a smooth pacing (with some bumps), and decent dialogue.

It reminds me (just a little bit) of those highly addictive anime or manga adventures I used to immerse myself in. Stock characters and stock story lines in a highly exciting story progression... These are always fun.

It's a modern world with a hidden secret (which is a genre that I love), and it involves multiple youngsters in action (another plot device I adore), and none of the characters were completely standardized and unique (even if their stereotypes were fairly standardized and boring). Unfortunately, due to the type of characters and story line presented, the entire book ended up being completely predictable. All of those supposed-to-be surprise twists? I figured them all out before Becca even had a chance to start asking questions. Surprise secret identities... yeah, I figured those out almost immediately as well.

But that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the book. In fact, I really DO respect the creativity of those surprise twists and surprise secret identities. They worked. I liked them.

And judging from the fact that I just couldn't seem to make myself put the book down, I'd also chance to say that I enjoyed it A LOT. It's not a book I would sit around being speechless about because all I can think of is how "awesome" it is. But it also isn't a book I have much to contemplate about since it stood in an "easy read" category as well. The reading experience WAS, however, quite addicting -- I don't even think I consciously had a moment to begin my "just one more chapter" mantra because I just kept right on reading without other thoughts.

Storm was lots of fun. I'm not going to bend over backwards to get my hands on the next book. I mean, those Merrick brothers are kind of assholes even if they seem to have hearts of gold underneath all of that prickly surface. And they ARE pretty nice to see together. But I could do without too much asshole and male posturing for a couple books.

Although I DO plan on reading the rest of the series. That's for certain.



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Review: Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



4.5 Stars

It seemed like it took forever for me to finish this book, but the truth is, once I started getting into it, I pretty much powered through the entire thing in less than ten hours. I had a feeling it wouldn't take me long to finish, especially after reaching the midpoint of the book without even realizing it.

Ultraviolet was pretty amazing. I was hesitant about the rating, but in the end, I felt like the rating doesn't really matter much more than the fact that I genuinely enjoyed every part of this book, even the climactic twist that had me doubting whether or not the transitions made any sense. I just couldn't put it down and I needed, desperately, to see this book to the ending even if I had to lose sleep because of it.

And so here I am, ten hours later, despite the fact that I had tried to start reading the book days ago. Things kept coming up and I kept putting off this reading up until sometime in the wee hours of third shift last night when I made myself continue where I left off in chapter one... and then I just kept on going.

The story was fascinating, the characters were well-developed, the pacing was great, and the ideas were simply excellent. I learned a lot of things as well and I do have plans to look up synesthesia and educate myself a little bit. It sounds extremely interesting. Just as well, I loved the writing -- I loved how the descriptions were present through Alison's narration, with the visuals of how sounds taste and look, and how colors feel... The analogies, the descriptors, the colors and sights and smells... I only regret that you can't really experience those sensations physically, but the writing style was so wonderful that I could try to imagine everything that Alison was feeling, hearing, tasting, and so on.

Yeah. Ultraviolet was pretty amazing.

Again, I didn't quite expect the twist in the ending, but honestly, there's such an open-endedness to the entire telling that it seems appropriate. Otherwise, I loved the way the rest of the book was told and how everything unfolded slowly for us to see and make our own determinations in this whole "There more to Tori Beaugrand's mystery than we'd bargained for" journey.

It was tons enjoyable. I WILL go on to the next book, but even if I don't, at the very least, I'm satisfied with the wrap-up and conclusion of this first one.



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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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