Stacking the Shelves #4

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which we feature all the book goodness that we received, borrowed or purchased during the previous week. All links are to Goodreads.

Not a big STS this week, alas I will be in BEA next week.  I have schedule all my posts, but be patient with me and email please!

Purchased/ Free for Kindle

TigerLily by Jillian Peery - This is book # 2 of the Pinelight series.


Witch Song by Amber Argyle - I say this book in many STS last week and I had to get is.  Has anyone read it yet?

Library

The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines - I got this audio book to listen on our long drive to N.Y. next week.


Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral - I've been dying to get my hands on this one, it looks like so much fun :)


The Power of Six by Pitaccus Lore - I really enjoyed I Am Number Four and I can't wait to read the sequel!

Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey - This cover is so pretty and the reviews are not bad either.

That's it for me... What is stacking your shelves this week?

Review: PineLight by Julllian Peery

Tittle: PineLight by Jillian Peery
Published by: Jillian Peery on July 4th, 2011
Source:Purchased for Kindle
Grade rate: C

"I loved him - that was my torment. And I was losing him all over again."
Walls crumbled all around me. An undeniable force pulled at my core. I tried to fight it, I tried to deny it the power, but I was weak. I felt pain in my side, and I knew that this dark force was winning. My veins started to burn, and I screamed, but it didn't stop.

My Review

I picked this eBook based on its cover which is stunning.  I am trying to decide how to best describe it and it was a combination of a good introduction followed by confusion.

Overall I liked Clara. She found herself in the unusual situation of not remembering her past and made the best of it.  She seemed to be practical and her survival instinct was good.  We know that there is something unusual, paranormal even, going on but we don’t know what.  Clara was a little bit too easy to influence and it seems like she made a few awful decisions too.   I was doing ok with the plot until the cave and the PineLight, right after that I became very confused about it, but I went along for the ride.  I really liked Finn, but it was difficult to connect with him because we don’t have a lot to go by and there is hardly any dialogue between Clara and him and the element of romance was altogether absent.  There are hardly any other characters that make an impression.  Victor is the evil character and Edmond seemed to be Victor’s puppet and you can tell right away that something is not quite right with these two.

The plot was confusing and not well developed for my taste.  As I said, the first part of the book was okay, but then I felt like I fell with Alice into the rabbit’s hole and everything became “curioser and curioser”.  There was not much explanation until the very end of what was going on, and by then I felt I needed a little bit more.  The mythology and the fight between good and evil (and religious undertone) was not developed enough to create a robust base on which to built upon.  We are told of the many stories told by Clara’s grandfather, but that is it. The writing was all right, it was well paced and easy to read.

I am still interested in reading the sequel and to know what happens between Clara and Finn.

About the cover – It is absolutely gorgeous!