Review: Existence by Abbi Glines (Existence Trilogy #1)

Title: Existence by Abbi Glines

Published: December 12th 2011 by Wild Child Publishing

Source: Purchased for Kindle

Grade rate: B+

What happens when you're stalked by Death? You fall in love with him, of course.Pagan Moore doesn't cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.

Seventeen year old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn't let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead.

Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.

He is Death and he's about to break all the rules.

My Review

Not too long ago I read Breath by Ms. Blines and absolutely loved it (see my review here), therefore I quickly became a fan and purchased her latest book.  Existence is a paranormal read and it was fascinating.

I am a little ambivalent about Pagan (strange name, right?), on one hand she had to deal with seeing souls all her life and learned to cope and overcome this (I probably would be crazy in no time!).  On the other hand she is a “normal” teenager full of insecurities and in the middle of a love triangle.  The other two points of said triangle are Dank and Leif (even stranger names, right?).  Although at first Pagan thinks that Dank is a soul, he ends up being something different altogether, I really liked Dank, his self-sacrifice and protectiveness of Pagan were very touching.  Leif was too perfect for me, he is in the football team, and he’s handsome, smart, as I said, too perfect.   Pagan had a very caring, if somewhat absent, mother that took care of her.

The plot is original.  I have two observations to make about the novel: (1) It was too mysterious; by this I mean that we were left with hardly any information to go by to understand what was going on; and (2) I did not like the part where Pagan needs treatment.  I understand why it happened, but I didn’t like it much.  Also, what on earth was up with the ending!  This is a cliffhanger of the cruelest nature; the wait to know what come next is, as I said, cruel!  Predestined, the next book in the series, will be published next April.

About the cover: It is a lovely cover.  Those eyes are something else, the embrace, the “fog” at the bottom, it all works perfectly.

WINNER GIVEAWAY!

The winner of Reading with ABC's 200 Follower Giveaway - A book of choice from The Book Depository ($15.00 limit) is:

Entry 140 - Karen Senoo

I have emailed Karen and she has 48 hours to contact me.  Congratulations!  Thank you for all of you that entered the Giveaway (over 400 entries!) and for your support.  I love you all!

Feature and Follow Friday

Feature and Follow Friday is an awesome blog-hop hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read

This week's features are Kate @ ExLibris and Kristin @ Kristin can Read and the questions is:

 

 

The New Year is here -- and everyone wants to know your New Years Blogging Resolution! What are you going to try to revise, revamp and redo for 2012 on your blog?

 I have several goals for 2012, unfortunately some of them might have to be put on hold until I finish my graduate certificate sometime is August. This is what I have in mind:

1. Have my blog professionally designed. 

2. Maximize the social networks, like Twitter and Facebook.

3. Comment more posts of all the wonderful blogs that I follow - I do try to reply on all the comments sent to me.

4. Get more organized on my posts and reviews - I usually plan one week ahead, but sometimes life is unpredictable!
5. Read, read, read - although no one has to remind me to read, it is a need with me, just like food and water.

 

How about you?  What is your New Years Blogging Resolution?

Review: Isle of Night by Veronica Wolff (The Watchers #1)

Title: Isle of Night by Veronica Wolff

Published: September 6th 2011 by NAL Trade

Source: Purchased

Grade Rate: C+

When Annelise meets dark and seductive Ronan, he promises her a new life-if she has the courage to chance the unknown. Now, she's whisked away to a mysterious island and pitted against other female recruits to become a Watcher-girls who are partnered with vampires and assist them in their missions. To survive and become a Watcher, Annelise has to beat out every other girl, but she's determined to do so, because to fail doesn't mean dishonor-it means death.

My Review

Isle of Night had been patiently waiting for me in my “Billy” bookshelf for a while and I decided to read it after finishing school for Christmas vacation.  Overall I enjoyed the book.

Annelise Drew is a very strong character and Isle of Night is narrated in the first person, which makes it all the more about her and only her.  I felt that other characters, the setting, even relationships took a back seat to Drew.  For all her claims and belief that she is a genius, she made some awful mistakes.  How many times have you heard from your parents: “don’t talk to strangers, don’t get in a stranger’s care” and so on, and so forth.  I know there is a paranormal explanation for the “why”, but I’m telling you that I would NEVER get into a stranger’s car, not matter what!  Maybe be drugging the girls would be more believable to me.

Other characters that I enjoyed are Ronan (of course!), but he is still a complete mystery and I hope I get to see more of him in the next book.  I really liked Drew’s friends Emma and Yasuo and I am glad that she finally had some true friends to rely on.  The vampire Alcántara is so creepy that I hope he loses interest in Drew quickly.

The plot was original up to a point.  It seemed a weird cross between The Huger Games, Vampire Academy and the Southern Vampire series (these vampires are definitely not good).  The writing was easy to read and straightforward and the book was not too long either.  There are a lot of questions left unanswered yet. For instance, what on earth does a Watcher do? What happens to the girls that loose (I can imagine!)? Are allowed to date or do anything else that is not creepy, cruel, and hard?

If you are looking for a quick paranormal read and you love vampires, the Isle of Night is for you.  I will still read the sequel Vampire’s Kiss next March.

About the Cover:  Gorgeous people in the cover, right?  It is mysterious and very appropriate for the book.

Waiting on Wednesday: Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry

 Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Title: Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry
Published by: eBook
Release date: January 2012


A year after graduating from high school, nineteen-year-old Emma Ward feels lost. She has spent most of her life trying to please her frigid, miserable mother - studying hard, getting good grades, avoiding the whole teenage rebellion thing - and now she feels she has no identity beyond that. Because she spent so many years working hard and planning every moment of her life, she doesn't have any friends, has never had a boyfriend, and basically doesn't know who she is or what she really wants from life. Working two part-time jobs to save money for college hasn't helped her make decisions about her future, so she decides it's time for a change. She leaves home to live with her free-spirited, slightly eccentric Aunt Daisy in a small town that makes Emma feel like she's stepped back in time.

When Emma meets Nicholas Shaw, everything changes - he's unlike anyone she's ever met before, the kind of man she didn't even know existed in the 21st century. Carefree and spirited like Daisy, Nicholas teaches Emma to appreciate life, the beauty around her, and to just let go and live. Between Daisy and Nicholas, Emma feels like she belongs somewhere for the first time in her life, and realizes that you don't always need a plan - sometimes life steers you where you're meant to be.

Life is wonderful, an endless string of blue sky days, until Nicholas is diagnosed with cancer, and life changes once again for Emma in ways she never thought possible. Now it's time for her to help Nicholas the way he's helped her. Emma will have to use her new-found strength, and discover along the way if love really is enough to get you through.

Why I want to read it:  It looks like this eBook is a great coming-of-age story with some romance and tragedy as well. 

Only two days left to enter my 200 Follower Giveaway here

Top Ten Favorite Books I Read in 2011

I’d read some really wonderful books this year and it is hard to narrow it down to only Ten, but I’ll do my best.  These are books that I’ve read this year, not necessarily published this year though.  (And I still have tons more waiting in my bookshelves and my Kindle!)

1. Divergent by Veronica Roth

2. Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry

3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

4. A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young

5. The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

6. Die for Me by Amy Plum

7. Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

8. Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

9. The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

10. Ann and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Other close contenders are: Breathe by Abbi Glines, Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, If I Die by Rachel Vincent, and Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting.

What is in your Top Ten this week?

Please check out my 200 Follower Giveaway here

Review: Abandon by Meg Cabot (Abandon Trilogy #1)

Title: Abandon by Meg Cabot (Abandon #1)

Published: April 26th 2011 by Point

Source: Library (audiobook)

Grade rate: C+

Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can't help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she's never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.

But now she's moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid.

Only she can't. Because even here, he finds her. That's how desperately he wants her back. She knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven, yet she can't stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.

But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.

My Review

Abandon is the first book by Meg Cabot that I’ve read.  I know you must be wondering under what rock I’ve been hiding all this time and honestly I don’t know why I didn’t try one before (I love the Princes Diaries movies J)  I don’t know what I was expecting, but Abandon was just okay for me.

It wasn’t very easy for me to identify with Pierce; she was a little too whiny for my taste.  I do understand why she acted this way, but to be honest (as my 11 year old “B” pointed to me while listening to the book in the car) if I died and were given a second chance I would be thankful and try to make a difference for others.  Pierce has a convoluted sense of right and wrong and can’t seem to trust her parents or anyone else for that matter.  I loved John, even though he was rarely in the book at all, which was very disappointing.  Other characters, such as Pierce’s mom, her grandmother, Alex, and her uncle Chris, take a second place to Pierce and all her angst.

The plot was very thin for me.  I know this is the first book in a trilogy, but it felt like nothing really happened. The writing was beautiful and lyrical, but I have an issue with the cryptic ending of the chapters (phrases like “little did I know that it would happen next”) and with all the flashbacks.  I was getting dizzy trying to put together the story in my head while listening to the audiobook.

I am not completely disappointed in the book; I do love mythology, especially Greek mythology.  I have high hopes that the next book, (Underworld, to on May of next year) will have more “meat” and something significant will happen, especially since it ended so abruptly with so many unresolved issues.  

About the cover: The cover is beautiful; I like the flowers and swirls around the cover and the impression of “abandon” of Pierce.

Please check out my 200 Follower Giveaway here

In My Mailbox #27

IMM is a weekly meme inspired by Alea at the Pop Culture Junkie and hosted by the wonderful Kristi at The Story Siren.  All links are to Goodreads

 

 

 

 

For Review (from NetGalley)

 

The Peculiars Maureen Doyle McQuerry - This book sounds really good!

 

 

 

 

Library

 

 

Hourglass by Myra McEntire - I've been dying to read Houglass, just because of the cover!

 

 

 

 

Purchased for Kindle

 

 

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally - I've heard wonderful things about this contemporary novel.

 

Existence by Abbi Glines - I recently finished reading Breathe by Ms. Glines and absolutely loved it.  I can't wait to read her most recent book!

 

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale - One of my favorite books ever is Book of a Thousand Days by the same author, so of course I couldn't resist this Kindle deal!

 

Delirium by Lauren Oliver - Need I say more?

 

Entwined by Heather Dixon - This is one of the most beautiful covers EVER!

 

Hereafter by Tara Hudson - Another interesting book that I saw in a lot of blogs this year.

 

What is in your mailbox this week?

 

Please check out my 200 Follower Giveaway here

 

 

 

 

 

¡Feliz Navidad!

To all of you my dear readers, I wish the best of times during the holiday and during the year that begins.  I started blogging a few months ago and I am warmed by the reception of a GREAT group of people that love to read and share their thoughts.

All the happiness and health to you and yours! 

¡Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!