Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

I have mixed feelings about this book. When I first found out that Ridley and Link were getting their own spin-off series I was so excited and immediately pre-ordered the book. Those 2 characters were my favorites from the Beautiful Creatures series. For this reason, I think I will like this series better than the whole Beautiful Creatures series, but I think the first Beautiful Creatures book was laid out a lot better than this book. 

It was an exciting and fast read, but there were some plot points that seemed kind of out of place. Hopefully, they will be explored in the future books, but they just felt out of place. The 2 biggest examples I have of this are the Binding rings that Lena gives everyone int he beginning of the book and the flashback dreams that Ridley has. Yeah, Ridley and Link had some reactions from the rings, but they seemed just like a convenient filler. And Ridley's dreams gave us more of Ridley's history, but Ridley never officially connected them to anything that happened throughout the book.

The other big flaw in this was Lennox Gates' sudden change of heart. He starts off as being the bad guy and about halfway through he decides he's totally in love with Ridley and wants to help her and Link. I didn't really feel like their was good justification for that. Him and Ridley didn't really spend a whole bunch of time together, and even though they had a connection from the past, that doesn't justify him being head over heels for her after like a week of just seeing her across the club. 

Now, don't get me wrong. Despite these flaws, it was still a really good book. I liked all the new characters that were introduced and the overall plot of the series with Silas Ravenwood seems really exciting. Also, this book ends on a horrible cliff-hangar, so I think even if I disliked the book, I would have to pick up the next one. I am excited for the next one, though I have no idea when it will come out. The only hint that there is even going to be a book 2 of this series is the "To be continued..." at the end of this book. It sounds like it's going to be awhile until the next one comes out, but I will definitely be getting it when it comes out.

Overall, I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. 

Top Ten Books I've read so far this year.

So far this year I have read 47 books and short stories. Most of them have been amazing with only a handful being mediocre or bad. This is just a quick list of my top ten for the year so far in order of when I read them.

First and Second: Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas

Third and Fourth: The Archived and The Unbound by Victoria Schwab 

Fifth and Sixth: Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph by Robin Lefevers

Seventh, Eighth and Ninth: Cinder. Scarlet and Cress by Marissa Meyers

And Tenth: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

All ten of these books get a complete 5 out of 5 stars from me. Not only are the stories wonderful, but they are all written extremely well with amazing characters.

The Lunar Chronicles gets another book!!!

Marissa Meyer just shared this on her Facebook page and I almost squealed. I thought I was going to have to wait a whole year and a half until Winter came out in November of 2015 before getting another Lunar Chronicles book, but they just announced that a companion novel of sorts will be coming out in January of 2015. This book is going to be Queen Levana's story. I can't wait. I need this book in my hands right now.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2014/06/16/marissa-meyer-fairest-book-exclusive/10573961/

The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa

So over the past couple months I have been slowly making my way though the Iron Fey series on my phone and I decided to just do a complete series review of it. Here are the books in order and the ratings I gave them:

The Iron King - 4 stars
The Iron Daughter - 5 stars
Winter's Passage (Novella) - 4 stars
The Iron Queen - 5 stars
Summer's Crossing (Novella) - 4 stars
The Iron Knight - 4 stars

When I first started reading The Iron King I didn't know if I was actually going to like the series. Megan, the main character, was hard for me to like in the beginning since it seemed like all she cared about was the popular jock kid at high school. This is the main reason I gave the first book only 4 stars. Until about half way through the book, I didn't like Megan. 

Once the faery stuff started happening, I started to enjoy the book more. I think the idea that Julie Kagawa came up with, with all the Iron fey was very fascinating and unique. I loved all the details of the Iron Realm. 

I flew threw the second and third books. Those are where I think most of the action is. They're also the books where Megan stands out more as a strong main character and the development of Ash and Puck's characters really comes out. 

I only gave the novella's 4 stars, because I'm not a big fan of novellas. They were interesting since they were in Ash's and Puck's POV, but they were something that could've been incorporated into the books easily enough. I feel like novellas are just another way for publishing companies to make more money...

As for the last book, The Iron Knight, I had a hard time getting into it. Reading from Ash's perspective was a little difficult and I didn't like how thing went through a lot of the book. The ending was decent enough, but I felt like it could've been a lot better.

I'm not going to go into a detailed review of these books, since I don't want to spoil anything. Overall, I would say that they are worth the read if you are interested in a story about fairies (or faeries). They have a very unique twist on them and were fast paced reads. 

For the series as a whole I give it 4.5 stars

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Oh man. This book. This book is such a roller coaster. One moment, it was so adorable I couldn't stop smiling like a goon and the next, my heart hurt. 

This book is all about first love and discovering yourself. It's kind of like a Judy Bloom book but with the volume turned up. Eleanor has had a rough life. Her dad left her, her mom and her 4 little siblings when she was young. Then her mom got re-married to a horrible person. She was kicked out of her house for year and when she came back her family had moved in with the horrible step-dad and she had to adjust to that while adjusting to a knew school. Eleanor is the type of girl that everyone loves to pick on. She wears strange clothes, acts kind of strange and is a little chubbier (which, being a chubby girl myself, I completely loved. There's never enough chubby main characters in the YA universe.) When Park first meets Eleanor, he's irritated by her, because she acts/dresses like she's just asking to be picked on.

Over the course of a few weeks, they start to develop a relationship. It starts off pretty rocky but eventually blooms into the cutest damn relationship I have ever read. Park and Eleanor are both huge nerds and reference comic books, music, and movies that I love. The conversation where Eleanor complains about X-men's Cyclops and compares him to Batman had me grinning so wide since I'm pretty sure my boyfriend and I have had the exact same conversation. 

But not everything is perfect. They go through so many ups and downs. It's a really good representation of what a first relationship is truly like. Everything is awkward, but they find a way to make it work and slowly grow more and more comfortable with each other. They had little spats like most relationships do, but they were able to work them out.

And then we get to the ending. Just when I was hoping everything would work out perfectly for them, everything takes a turn for the worse. Now I won't spoil too much here, but just know that the ending kind of leaves you hanging and a little heartbroken. I will say that nobody dies. I had heard that the ending was kind of heartbreaking and was preparing myself for a Fault in our Stars type ending, but don't worry, nobody dies. I did cry a little, but the last 4 words left a smile on my face. Rainbow Rowell leaves it up to the author to decide what happens after that, which is good in some ways, but I still feel like there's so much missing.

I may not get anymore of Eleanor and Park's story, but I am excited to read more from Rainbow Rowell. As soon as I have the money to buy more books, Fangirl will be in my hands.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves contemporaries, or is just in the mood for a cute, fast read. 

5 out of 5 stars!

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

As a huge lover of comic books, I really enjoyed this book. Brandon Sanderson does an excellent job of world building and coming up with unique super powers and identities. I've dabbled in writing comics before, so I know how hard it is to come up with a super powered person that's unique - both with their powers and with their names.

This is a much darker world than most super hero stories take place. There are no heroes, as it's repeated multiple times throughout the book. The ones with the powers (called Epics) seem to all be horrible people. Or are they?

David, the main character, has spent the past ten years of his life plotting against the most powerful Epic in Newcago (what used to be Chicago). Steelheart. Steelheart is the reason for David's father's death and also the ruler of Newcago. Now, compared to some of the places in the world, Steelheart's rule over Newcago isn't such a bad thing. They have power, food and jobs. But of course, everyone lives in fear constantly and the Epics that work for Steelheart can do whatever they want. David is sick of it and demands revenge for his father's death. That's where the Reckoners come in.

The Reckoners are a group of people who fight and kill Epics. Up until the point when they meet David, they've only been going after lesser Epics, which haven't made much of a difference. David tracks them down and convinces them they have to go after Steelheart if they really want things to change.

Prof, the leader of the Reckoners, isn't convinced at first, but quickly hops on board. Part of him seems to want to seek revenge on Steelheart for something as well. Tia, Abraham and Cody, three other team members of the Reckoners, jump on board with Prof. And then there's Megan, the last member of the team who David has a huge crush on. She is completely against it, making the point that Newcago is better than some of the other places in the world because of Steelheart. She goes along with Prof, because she kind of has to, but she's not happy it.

After they decide to take down Steelheart is where all the action really starts. There are a couple of slow moments between big fight scenes that kind of took me out of the book, but for the most part, I was really engrossed in it. Learning about new Epics and some of the crazy new technology in this world was fascinating.

As for the characters, the were really well developed and, for the most part, likeable. Prof is a badass and at the end of the book became my favorite character. Abraham and Cody are kind of the comic relief. Tia is the brains of the operation. Megan is kind of bitchy and annoying but at the end of the book, some light gets shed on why and I grew to like her, too. David is impulsive and rushes into things without thinking a lot, but he always gets lucky. He wasn't a bad main character, but he's definitely not my favorite.

This book ends with a bunch of crazy reveals. I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to spoil anything, but there are a lot of twists. Everyone is not who they seem to be and all this information comes at you in the last thirty or so pages. Once you reach part 4 of this book, there's really no way you'll be able to put it down until you finish it.

There was a pretty solid conclusion to this book. If this was a stand alone novel, I think I would be pretty satisfied. BUT it's not. Book two, Firefight, is coming out in early 2015. I am so glad that there are more books in the series, not because anything was left hanging, but because I'm dying to know more about the world and learn about more Epics.

Overall, if you're a fan of comic books or super action-y type books, then you will definitely enjoy this.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Cinder, Scarlet and Cress by Marissa Meyer

I read all three of these books in the same week. Needless to say, they are amazing.

These books take places in a futuristic world where everyone has an android, some people are cyborgs, and (crazy) people live on the moon. They also all happen to be re-tellings of popular fairy tales (Cinder = Cinderella, Scarlet = Red Riding Hood and Cress = Rapunzel. The fourth, upcoming book is Winter, which is Snow White.)

Cinder, the main character of the book named for her, is a cyborg. Now, in this world, cyborgs are treated pretty badly. Most people think they're pretty disgusting and unnatural. But cyborgs are people, too. They have feelings and they aren't monsters.

Cinder doesn't really have a family. She was adopted by a man that she never knew (he died before she could really become part of the family) and was raised by her step-mom. Of course, she also has two step-sisters that her step-mom treats much better than her. Cinder is forced to work to pay for all the family's bills, while her step-mom and sisters sit on their butts. Now, one big difference between this and the original Cinderella story is that Cinder actually gets along with her younger step-sister, Peony. Cinder also has an android named Iko. The two of them are Cinder's only friends. Then she meets Prince Kai and everything goes down hill from there.

This book was so fast paced that I couldn't put it down. My biggest complaint was the way it ended, kind of on a cliff hanger and with not real conclusion to the love story that happens throughout the book. Of course, that wasn't such a big deal when I dove into Scarlet.

Scarlet lives in a small town in France, on a farm with her grandma. Or at least she did until her grandma went missing and she met Wolf, who quickly becomes her love interest, despite his many eccentricities. Together they go on a quest to find Scarlet's grandma, but quickly find themselves sucked into Cinder's world and her problems. This book doesn't end on as much of a cliff hanger as Cinder did, but there were still MANY unanswered questions.

And that brings us to Cress, the third installment of the Lunar Chronicles. Cress has been held captive in a satellite orbiting space for seven years. (In those seven years, she wasn't able to cut her hair, thus giving her a Rapunzel-ness). When she disobeys her Mistress and helps Cinder and Scarlet, they decide to come rescue her, with the help of Captain Throne, a character introduced in the beginning of Scarlet. Cress also happens to be completely in love with him after hacking the internet for information about him. Some stuff happens and they end up lost in the Sahara desert together, with no way of finding their friends.

Now, I need to mention what these three ladies are all fighting against. Remember those crazy people that live on the moon I mentioned earlier? Yeah, they're the problem. Queen Levana, leader of the Lunars, has decided that she wants to rule Earth as well as the moon. Also, she can control minds. Actually, most Lunars can control minds. They're kind of OP and Levana is truly a horrible person. Cinder, Scarlet and Cress have taken it upon themselves to bring her down, but to find out why, you'll have to read the books. Seriously, just read them.

I can't wait for Winter to come out and I am so sad that I have to wait until 2015. Winter, the character, was introduced briefly at the end of Cress and I'm super excited to see what Marissa Meyer does with her. I have no doubts in my mind that it will be amazing. Marissa Meyer is a wonderful author and I have a feeling that I will be reading anything that she comes out with in the future.

5 out of 5 stars for all three books!