Black Dawn

Black Dawn,  Rachel Caine 
To Be Read Pile Challenge 
3 out of 5 Stars 

I'm Baaacckkkk! :-) ..... so I haven't posted in about 2 months but that doesn't mean I have not been reading! I finished this book and the next in the Morganville Vampires series and I am almost done with Outlander, which is a huge book! But here I will review Black Dawn. 

This is the 12th book in the Morganville Vampires series which is about a small town in Texas run by ruthless vampires in which Claire Danvers and her friends try to live peacefully. Here is the premise for this book from goodreads.com: With its eclectic mix of vampire and human citizens, Morganville, Texas, has always been a risky place to call home. But with the invasion of the vampire’s deadliest enemy, Morganville isn’t just in danger—it’s dying… Ever since the draug—mysterious creatures that prey on vampires—took over Morganville, the lives of student Claire Danvers and her friends have been thrown into turmoil. Most of the town’s residents have evacuated, but Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael have chosen to stay and fight.Using the city’s water system to spread, the draug have rapidly multiplied. Things in Morganville look grim, especially since vampire Amelie—the town founder—has been infected by the master draug’s bite. Now, if Claire and her friends don’t figure out how to cure Amelie and defeat the draug, it looks like Morganville will become little more than a ghost town…
So this book series is not for everyone but I started it long ago and I must finish! I love vampire books and I am not ashamed of that. I have read many series in that genre. The Morganville Vampire series has been one of my favorite series because the vampires are evil and not good. This book, however; was slow in many places and I feel that is because it's the 12th book in the series and Caine usually puts out 2 books a year. I was curious about the draug and  how everything was going to play out with Amelie but honestly it was by no means my favorite in the series. Alas,  I will keep reading until the Claire & Co. stories are done. 

Cinder

Cinder, Marissa Meyer

Eclectic Reader Challenge: Retelling of a fairy tale

Cinder, as you can imagine is a retelling of Cinderella, but with Cyborgs! I probably never would have picked this up on my own but a friend recommended it and it fit my challenge criteria. I am really glad I read it because I loved it and am already working on the sequel. This story has been told a thousand times and in a thousand different ways but this was a refreshing new take on a classic. Here is the goodreads.com blurb:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future

Like I said I really enjoyed this book, the story flowed nicely and I never felt like there was a lull. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see how this played out and wondering how long it would take Cinder to piece together who she really is and then what she would do with that information. Meyer's story is brilliant and you should all read it! 

The Elite & The One

The Elite & The One

Alphabet Challenge 

I thought I'd do a quick review of these books since I finished up the series and I am going to use them for my Alphabet Challenge. The story is a continuation of The Selection process with America still competing for Maxon while trying to decide if she still loves Aspen. They also both get into deeper topics such as the Caste system and the trouble within it. America and Maxon form and alliance with the Northern rebels and believe it or not I started liking Celeste. Overall they were good books and quick reads. My only issue was that I thought it took way too long for America to make her final choice. Hope you all read them and enjoy! 

PS: Aren't these book covers just gorgeous!?!?!

The Selection

The Selection 
To Be Read Pile Challenge

Oh my this book,  I devoured it in less than 24 hours! I needed a book that was fun and easy like this one after the blah I felt for Interview with the Vampire. America Singer is a fun character and I found myself sucked into her world quickly. I was pulled into the love triangle and couldn't decide for a long time who I was rooting for. America is an easy to relate to character, a girl next door type, and seeing her struggle to become princess material is interesting, I could just imagine myself being the same way and making the same mistakes. The premise was a new take on what could be a tired genre, For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks. Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself--and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined. I would recommend this book to anyone who would listen and insist you pick it up ASAP!!! I am already half way through the second book in this series and it was not even on my to read list :-)

Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire 
Eclectic Reader: Published before you born
To Be Read Pile

Meh, that's about all I have to say for this book. I really didn't care for it at all. I know this opinion upsets throngs of people and I will most likely be burned at the stake as a heretic but alas here we are. I found the writing style had too much flourish for my taste. I imagine Rice was trying for the novel to read more like Dracula and I did not care for that one either. I am certain I am a product of my generation on this matter. Also, I found that I did not care for any of the characters I couldn't find a redeeming quality in any of them. Here the little blurb from goodreads.com : Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force—a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write. Nothing more to say on this really, maybe watching the movie first ruined me, maybe I'm just weird but I am glad to be moving on to another book. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Categories:
Originally written in a language not your own.
Set in a country starting with S 
To Be Read Pile 
4 out of 5 Stars

   This was the last book in my winter book challenge!! WHOOP WHOOP! I did pretty good for my first challenge, I finished 2 weeks ahead of schedule! It also fit into my other 2 challenges nicely so that rocks!  Now on to the book, it was originally written in Swedish and translated to English which is lucky for me because I don't know Swedish. I really enjoyed this book. The overall plot was really well done, although there were some dull moments including a whole page dedicated to a cheese sandwich. I had seen and enjoyed the movie, the one with Daniel Craig, so I was excited to start reading this. I knew there would be several differences as is custom with books and movies but I was surprised at just how much the movie had changed. To me the details they changed with the plot were pretty significant. Here is the blurb from goodreads.com 

   A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue.

.. It’s about the disappearance 40 years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden... and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.... It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance... and about Lisbeth Salander, a 24-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age — and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it — who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism, and an unexpected connection between themselves.

The mystery is very intriguing and even though I had seen the movie the book's ending plays out quite differently and I was pleasantly surprised. Overall a really good book, I will be reading the the rest of the series! 

Angels & Demons

Angels & Demons
Category: A genre you don't usually read
5 out of 5 Stars

 

 This was a really cool book! I read The Da Vinci Code several years ago and enjoyed it, not sure why I waited so long to read this one. I was fascinated with the lore of the Illuminati and the Church and couldn't wait to see how the story unfolded. Dan Brown's ability to weave fiction and fact together is remarkable. I was constantly looking things up to see what was actually true and what was myth.Here is the blurb from goodreads.com:
    World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization--- the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on the earth... the long-forgotten Illuminati lair. 
     I also really enjoy this movie and although there are some notable differences the grand scheme and most of the plot points are the same, and hey who doesn't love Tom Hanks. I can't wait to read the rest of Dan Brown's books!!! Hope you'll check this one out too! 

PS : Just one book left in my Winter Book Challenge!! WHOO HOOO!!!