Category Archives: Reviews

Book Reviews

Elite Review

Posted on by
4

 

Title: Elite

Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Author:  Rachel Van Dyken

Published:  2013 by Grand Central Publishing

Genre:  New Adult, Romance, Fiction

Click here to buy Elite from Amazon

 

 

Tracey got accepted to a prestige and unique college, Eagle Elite University.  This is the place where famous and privileged students and their children go.  It’s a bit of a different experience for Tracey than the famous/rich kids though, because Tracey is there on a scholarship.  The fact that her grandfather has to drive through a security gate just to drop her off starts ringing bells in my head.  What kind of school is this?

Tracey gets an extremely rude welcoming by a few young men, including Nixon, the student body president.  The bullying starts immediately, and is out of control.  Not only that, but the teachers look the other way when it happens.  Tracey notices other odd things, such as underage drinking at school events.  Sick of being pushed around by Nixon, who seems to be the ringleader of the bullying, Tracey finally sticks up for herself, which is uncommon here, and things start to change…

Yay, no more book slump!  I read this book in two days while moving with three kids, that’s how good it was.  Finally, characters I could connect with and a story I could get lost in.  I also love that the story is not at all what you expect, that’s why I’m not saying too much about it.  I love surprises.  The one thing that bugged me was that Tracey cried a lot, but then I thought more about it and I would probably cry if I was in those situations myself.

Elite is definitely a book to read; and good news is it’s the first in a series!  Can’t wait to see what comes next.

My Rating:  4 ½ out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

 

*****I received this book free from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.*****

A Discovery of Witches Review

Posted on by
2

 

Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Title:  A Discovery of Witches

Author:  Deborah Harkness

Published:  2011 by Penguin Books

Genre: Paranormal romance, fiction

Click to buy A Discovery of Witches from Amazon
 

 

 

 

I’ve been in a book slump lately, and some ladies in a fan club of Diana Gabaldon’s book, Outlander, suggested A Discovery of Witches.   In fact, this book was suggested a lot.  I was pretty excited about everyone’s eagerness about it so I picked it up at Barnes and Noble and got started.

This book is about a witch named Diana, set in modern-day time.  She doesn’t want to be a witch; in fact she basically refuses to use her powers at all.  She’s a historian, a doctor in that subject in fact, and her daily routine is doing research at the library.  One particular book there soon changes her life.  Diana then meets a vampire, Matthew, and they become involved.

A forbidden relationship, magical powers, a vampire.  Sounds good right?  I don’t know guys; this book just didn’t do it for me.  At the beginning, I was enthusiastic, and actually got lost in the book, which made me more excited because I was like, finally, a good book!  But then I just got bored.  I know this is the first one in a series and I’m wondering if the series gets better?

Something trivial that bothered me was the main characters’ names.  I know Diana was used for a reason, but Matthew just seemed out of place for the vampire.  Also, there was only one suspenseful part in the book that left me wanting more, and in a book that’s over 500 pages, I want to want to know what happens more often!

It was good, just not awesome, and I’m looking for that next book that I can rave about.   So if this sounds up your alley, go ahead and I bet you’ll like it. Even for its length of 500 pages, it’s surprisingly a quick read.

Also, it ends on sort of a cliffhanger into the next book, which is already out on shelves.  I’m on the fence, because the ending was really good…..what to do, what to do…

 

My Rating:  3 out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

Fever Moon Review

Posted on by
4

 

Image from Goodreads

Title:  Fever Moon

Author:  Karen Marie Moning

Published:  July 2012 by Del Ray

Genre:  Paranormal, Graphic Novel

Click to buy Fever Moon from Amazon

 

 

 

 

I love all books by Karen Marie Moning.  If she writes it, I buy it.  I was eagerly anticipating this book so much and I was nowhere near a book store where it was sold on the release day!  No worries though, I found it at Barnes and Noble two days later.

This is only my second time reading a graphic novel (the first being The Exile by Diana Gabaldon).  While the characters were pictured differently in my mind, I still enjoyed it.  Actually though, by the time I finished reading it I couldn’t imagine the Fear Dorcha looking any different than he did in the novel.

This story was centered around Mac in the fever world, and you also got to see Dani, Barrons, Dreamy-eyed-guy, the Unseelie King, and a few others.  The illustrations were great; I love to see others’ perceptions of the characters.  My husband even walked by and said that he liked the pictures too.

So if you have read the Fever Series and need a little something to keep you satisfied until Iced comes out in October, satisfy your cravings with Fever Moon.

 

My Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 

Happy Friday,

~Pam

 

 

Once Burned Review

Posted on by
4

Image from Goodreads

Title:  Once Burned

Author:  Jeaniene Frost

Published:  June 2012 by Avon

Genre:  Paranormal Romance

Click to buy Once Burned from Amazon

 

 

 

Leila tries to hide her powers by traveling with the circus.  She had an accident when she was younger which gave her some unique psychic abilities, along with an electrical current that runs through her body and shocks those that touch her.  Leila figures that the safest place for her is the circus; her fellow performers accept her, and if any circus patron ever gets suspicious, the circus is always on the move.

Leila is practicing her circus routine when she gets ambushed and kidnapped by a few vampires.  They force her to use her psychic powers to locate the vampire named, Vlad.  Something different happens when she locates Vlad however; he can see her, and he’s not too happy about being spied on….

I love Jeaniene Frost’s Cat and Bones series, especially the first few books.  Ms. Frost also wrote a few books with the secondary characters from that series, but this one is much better.  I’ve always been interested in Vlad, especially because he is the original Dracula.  I loved the fast pace of the book, it flowed beautifully and I never got bored.  I wish there was a little more leading to Vlad and Leila getting together, but that’s my only complaint.

So if you enjoy the Cat and Bone’s series then definitely pick this up.  If you’ve never read the other series, you can still read this one first; it’s the first book in a new series.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

 

 

My Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 

Happy reading!

 

~Pam

Point of Retreat Review

Posted on by
4

 

Image from Goodreads

Title:  Point of Retreat (Slammed #2)

Author:  Colleen Hoover

Published:  2012 by Colleen Hoover

Genre:  Young Adult, Romance

 

Click to buy Point of Retreat from Amazon

 

This is the second book in the Slammed series.  Will and Layken are living life as best they can, being young caretakers for both their brothers and they are doing a pretty good job.   Although life is really busy caring for their brothers, Will and Layken are still making time to go to college.  They are happy in their relationship, and things are going pretty well.  At least until Will finds out his ex-girlfriend is in one of his classes.  Will he find himself having feelings for her again, or will he remain loyal to Layken?

If I had known that this book was written in Will’s point of view, I probably wouldn’t have read it.  I know that’s kind of narrow-minded of me, but I like to read what I enjoy, and what I enjoy is generally a females POV.  That being said, I’m glad I did read it because it was pretty good.

There is one conflict in the book with Will’s ex-girlfriend that I could definitely see coming, but then there is another one that comes out of the blue and completely caught me off guard.  I definitely didn’t like this book as much as Slammed, but it was still an enjoyable, fast read.  There is supposed to be a third book in this series, but I think I’m going to stop after this one.  I don’t regret reading this book at all; I am just losing a bit of interest.

 

My Rating:  3 ½ out of 5 stars

 

Happy reading!

 

~Pam