Audio Review: What the Spell? (Life's a Witch, #1) by Brittany Geragotelis

Title: What the Spell? (Life's a Witch, #1)
Author: Brittany Geragotelis
Narrator: Joy Osmanski
Published by: Simon and Schuster Audio
Length: 9hrs and 41 mins
Source: Simon Schuster Audio
Format: Audio
Rating: 2 stars

Summary from Goodreads: Almost-sixteen-year-old Brooklyn feels invisible, but she desperately wants to be pretty, to be popular, to be adored by a cute guy. Luckily for her, she’s a witch about to come of age—so she’s only a few spells away from making it all happen.

On her milestone birthday, Brooklyn’s conservative parents finally unbind her powers, which include the ability to magically match couples with a love spell. Brooklyn uses her special skills to get a makeover, new friends, and the attention of her crush, Asher. But the popular clique Brooklyn wants to infiltrate puts her in the same precarious position as her Salem ancestors: If she’s found out, she could be vilified—and lose Asher in the process. Can she make the most of her magic, or will she be luckless and loveless? Be careful what you witch for!

What the Spell? is a novel about one girl's quest for popularity with a twist of magic on the side.

I have always had a thing for witches ever since I first learned about the Salem Witch trials.  Everything about them fascinates me and when I can incorporate two things I love, witches and reading, I get really hopeful and excited.  

However, as much as I was looking forward to reading/listening to What the Spell? it fell short for me.  The main character Brooklyn left much to be desired of your main character.  She was a social climber and all she wanted from life was to be popular, mostly at the expense of others.  As soon as she came into her magic, she instantly gave herself a magical makeover.  This makeover wasn't a new hairstyle or a bit of makeup, instead she changed physical features (like her height) about herself to the point people in her school didn't recognizer her anymore.  Then her parents were all like "well just remember the Salem Witch trials."  What?  They bind her powers for sixteen years then just let her go way out of hand with this makeover and only issue a slight warning.  This just didn't make sense to me.

Then there is The Elite.  This is the popular group that Brooklyn strives to be part of because she believes that once she is one she can change the way they act towards others while still being popular.  This group seemed a little atypical to me.  Sure there are always rich and popular kids, but this group seemed to rule it all without any consequences.  They even had a raised table in the lunch room to set them apart.  At what public school is all that normal?  It just seemed like too much of an exaggeration for me.

One of the redeeming qualities of this book was Asher and his little sister.  I really enjoyed both of these characters as I thought they were the most believable and true to who they were.  I loved the interactions of these characters with Brooklyn and wish she would have seen how amazing they both really were compared to The Elite.  

As for the story is was cute at times and it kept my attention enough to finish listening, but I never really became a fan of Brooklyn until the very end.  It didn't have anything to do with Joy Osmanski narrating though.  I've listened to a couple other audios with her and I've enjoyed them all.  She has a great voice.  

What the Spell? was ok but there was a little too much drama and not enough magic for me.  Will I read/listen to the next one...probably but not because of Brooklyn.  I want to know more about that crazy ending with Asher.  Yikes!      

Review of For the Love of a Vampire by M. Leighton

Title: For the Love of a Vampire (Blood Like Poison, #1)
Author: M. Leighton
Published by: Self Published
Pages: 278
Source: Obtained free from Amazon (on 12/27/2012)
Format: ebook
Rating: 2 stars

Summary from Goodreads: Like most seventeen year olds, Ridley Heller thought she had her future all planned out. What she wanted most in life was to get out of small town Harker. Her only goal was to keep her mouth shut and her grades high so she could win a cheerleading scholarship to Stanford. But that was before she met Bo. 

In Ridley’s wildest dreams, she could never have planned for someone like Bo, for a love so intense it left her breathless. No human girl could.

A haunting stranger that watched her from afar, Bo stole Ridley’s heart from the moment she laid eyes on him. But he has secrets. Bo’s a vampire. Both his past and his present are a danger to Ridley, but the biggest threat is not her blood; it’s her heart. He’s feeding a thirst for revenge that will cost him his life, and it may already be too late. 

The more darkness Ridley uncovers, the more she realizes that her life will never be the same—with or without Bo. Can she sacrifice her future and her heart for someone who has a death wish?

M. Leighton brings a different twist to the typical young-adult vampire love story.  

While we are all used to the typical girl meets cute mysterious boy, but soon realizes something is different about him story, For the Love of a Vampire adds a interesting twist.  Bo's father was killed a while ago and now he's out for revenge, but the act of the revenge itself is literally killing him. 

I liked that Bo wasn't a happy-go-lucky kind of guy.  He's a bit dark and a lot mysterious, but he's actually a great guy underneath it all...um well, besides the whole revenge thing.  He makes Ridley not only want to be a better person, but to actually act like one too. She's not living the easiest life and she tries to coast through by just ignoring everything around her.  Her 'friends' are actually quite horrible people.  I don't like conflict or anything, but I don't think I could have just sat there a let them talk like that or get anyway with things they did.  I felt like this was a good example of peer pressure and how wanting to be like everyone else sometimes causes you to ignore things that are blatantly wrong and hurtful.  I'm not condoning anyone's  behavior, but I'm sure this is something that happens is school everyday and I'm glad that the author showed this is unacceptable and something needs to be done.  By saying nothing to bullies you are encouraging them without using words.  I'll stop ranting now...    

This novel started out really well.  I liked the internal conflict that was going on with Ridley between who she truly was and how she outwardly acted.  I even liked originally meeting Bo and him challenging her to do what was right, however, the story kind of deteriorated from there.  There was huge case of insta-love between Ridley and Bo and I just didn't get it.  They were not connected in anyway that I knew of and yet they were in love by the second day.  That was just too much for me and it seemed to override everything else happening in the story.  The plot was interesting, but I felt like everything happened too fast and with not enough detail.  The whole thing, their romance and the conflict, seemed to speed along without the reader getting to savor what was happening.    

I think this would have been a great story if Ridley and Bo's relationship slowly built as the story continued as well as, flushing out more of the conflict.  M. Leighton was creative with her character's circumstances and the plot behind the story, which brings a lot to the table, however, it just didn't come together for me.   

Friday Night Date Night: What to Expect When You're Expecting

Friday Night Date Night is a feature on my blog that showcases movie reviews (mostly movies that were adapted from books). Hopefully some of these reviews will help you decide what to watch on your date night or a night of relaxing at home.

 

I have to admit that I actually have read some parts of What to Expect When You're Expecting.  No I do not have children, but since I live with my sister, brother-in-law and niece the book has been laying around the house and I've checked it out a couple of times.  I have not read enough of the book to tell you if it is similar to the movie so I can only tell you my thoughts on the movie.

I wasn't sure what to expect (haha...I didn't even realize the pun until I reread this sentence) when seeing this movie.  One of my besties saw it and loved it (disclaimer:  she was pregnant at the time).  I on the other-hand liked the movie, but wasn't really sure what to think of it.  I like that it seemed to be completely honest and show not only the amazing things that go along with being pregnant, but also the not so great things.  I think there is a stigma that everyone should have this glowing, wonderful pregnancy and people are afraid they will be judged if they are not completely in love with being pregnant.  They movie showed that it is not always beautiful and fun. 

 

Another unexpected thing I really enjoyed about the movie was Anna Kendrick and Chase Crawford.  They had really good chemistry and while their storyline was heartbreaking, I still enjoyed them.  Rebel Wilson was hilarious as usual and completely out there, but it worked well with her character.  Plus the Dad's Club was amazingly awesome! 

 

Overall it was an good, movie but I felt the story lines were a bit pieced out.  It almost reminded me of New Year's Eve or Valentine's Day (directed by Garry Marshall)...you know where there are a lot of known celebrities who each have a very small part in an eclectically thrown together film.  I'm not yet sure if I like this style or not.  I didn't enjoy Valentine's Day, but I did like New Year's Eve and this movie...so the jury is still out.   

 

Review of Beutiful Demons by Sarra Cannon

Title: Beautiful Demons
Author: Sarra Cannon
Published by: Dead River Books
Pages: 136
Source: Obtained free from Amazon (on 6/20/2012)
Format: ebook
Rating: 2 stars

Summary from Goodreads: Harper Madison isn't like other girls. She has extraordinary powers, but her inability to control them has gotten her kicked from so many foster homes she's lost count. Shadowford Home is her last chance, and she hopes Peachville High will be the fresh start she needs. But when evidence ties her to the gruesome murder of a Demons cheerleader, Harper discovers this small town has a big secret.

Beautiful Demons has all the elements to be a great book.  An orphaned girl with a strange ability, a new town with a secret to hide, the rebel boy trying to stay out of it all, and of course the eerily perfect cheerleaders who run the school.  With this novel being as short as it is, I think we missed out a lot on the connections and personality of the novel.

Harper was a great character at the beginning of the novel, but I have a hard time believing that she succumbed to the popularity contest and what it entailed as easy as she did.  She seemed stronger than that and out of all the characters in the story she seemed to have the most to fight for.  Everyone else in the town is a little freaky.  We don't get to learn much about everyone else, though they do seem a little off right from the start.      

There is a secret surrounding Shadowford and Peachville High.  Like Harper, we get to uncover bits and pieces as the novel proceeds without actually getting the whole story.  This frustrated me a bit because I have a hard time when I'm not given enough details to comprehend what is happening.  Even after finishing the novel, I don't understand everything that happened or the history and mystery that surrounds the town.

While I think Beautiful Demons had all the parts to become a great story, they didn't really fall into place for me.  Hopefully the next book in the series will explain more and everything will click into place.    

Review of Sunrise at Sunset by Jaz Primo

Title: Sunrise at Sunset
Author: Jaz Primo
Published by: Rutherford Literary Group
Pages: 430
Source: Obtained free from Amazon on June 18, 2012
Format: ebook
Rating: 2 stars

Summary from Goodreads: My name is Katrina Rawlings, and I am a vampire. I declare that with neither pride nor ego. I am simply nature’s most dangerous predator. On occasion, it’s a very valuable quality. It helped me protect Caleb Taylor one day when he was very young. But that single, traumatic day is behind him now; wiped from his memory, or so I hope.

Caleb has finally matured into a rather striking young man, and believe me, I like what I see. I’ll readily admit that there are issues for us to confront and overcome, though a sense of mutual commitment isn’t one of them. I’m feeling hopeful for our future together, in fact. But an adversary from my past has returned to haunt me, and she’s trying to get back at me through Caleb. That was her first...and last...mistake. I’ll protect my Caleb at all costs, and I’ll make her regret the day she was born.

 I had not heard of this book before the Why Buy the Cow? reading challenge decided to do this as a June read-a-long.  I normally enjoy paranormal romance novels so I was excited to read it, but this book did not click with me. 

It had the right elements...gorgeous but dangerous vampire chick, humble male love interest with a past connection to said vampire, blood, romance, and of course some action, but they didn't seem to come together. 

Katrina was bossy, controlling and overprotective.  If I were Caleb I don't think I could have handled how disrespectful she was in taking control of his life.  I felt she went a bit overboard with trying to protect Caleb against her enemy by secluding him from everything.  I did, however, like that Katrina wasn't portrayed as some harmless being.  She was vicious, dangerous and blood thirsty. For the other characters, Alton and Paige who were two vampire friends of Katrina's were an improvement.  You got to see more into their lives and who they were as "people."  They were interesting and lively and made you want to know more about them.    

The plot itself was lacking and needed some work.  I liked to overall story but I felt the execution was a little befuddled.  The "planing" scenes were drawn out, whereas the action was over in a few pages.   I also did fully believe Katrina's and Caleb's love for one another; it felt insta-romance, but without any real conviction. 

I enjoyed the beginning of this story but the rest didn't live up to my expectations. 

Happy Fourth of July for you all Americans.  I hope you all have a wonderful day and get to see some fireworks tonight!

Review of Eve by Anna Carey

Title: Eve
Author: Anna Carey
Narrator: Tavia Gilbert
Published by: Harper Audio
Length: 6 hours and 30 minutes
Source: Won in a contest
Format: Audio
Rating:

Summary from Goodreads: Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth’s population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. But the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school’s real purpose—and the horrifying fate that awaits her.

Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Arden, her former rival from school, and Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust... and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

Do you ever find yourself having an internal struggle with the main character? 

This is exactly what happened for me with Eve.  I would get so exasperated with her and how naive she was, and then I'd have to remind myself how she was brought up and what her beliefs were up to the point when she left school.  There were times I literally wanted to shake her and tell her to grow up and then again I'd remind myself of her upbringing.  Eve wasn't a character I particularly liked or connected to.  For me she just felt to innocent and even though her reality was terrifying I thought that after a day or so it would have opened her eyes and changed her attitude.  I don't think the whole truth of reality and her decisions ever set in.   

I also felt she was careless.  She got a lot of people killed because of her naivety and because she couldn't fully grasp the intricacies of this world outside of what she's always known.  Maybe I'm being too harsh on Eve, but I never really connected with her enough to end up liking her.  I felt like she was constantly messing up and endangering those around and never really understtod the consequences of her actions.   

As for the story, it held my attention and kept me interested.  I wish there would have been more on how people are living outside the reign of the ruler and how the plague came about in the first place.  I'm thinking this will be a bigger part of the next books in the series as bits and pieces were mentioned in this novel. 

I think other people will really enjoy this book.  The issue for me was that I didn't like the main character and if I don't like the main character I have a hard time enjoying the book.  I think for others if they can connect with Eve or maybe not judge her as harshly as I did this will be a pleasurable read for them. 

Review of Burned by P.C. and Kristin Cast

Title: Burned (House of the Night #7)
Author: P.C. and Kristin Cast
Published by: Macmillan Audio
Length: 13 hrs
Source: Library
Format: Audiobook
Rating: ★★

Summary from Goodreads: Things have turned black at the House of Night. Zoey Redbird’s soul has shattered. With everything she’s ever stood for falling apart, and a broken heart making her want to stay in the Otherworld forever, Zoey’s fading fast. It’s seeming more and more doubtful that she will be able pull herself back together in time to rejoin her friends and set the world to rights. As the only living person who can reach her, Stark must find a way to get to her.  But how?  He will have to die to do so, the Vampire High Council stipulates.  And then Zoey will give up for sure. There are only 7 days left…

Can you put back together a broken heart?  What about a shattered soul?  Zoe is mentally destroyed after she witnessed Heath's death and now her soul floats in pieces in the Otherworld.  I wasn't a huge fan of Zoey in this novel.  She was always this strong and independent women who not only did what was right, but stood up for what she believed in.  Now she is decimated and doesn't know how or even want to get her soul back together.  She seems lost, almost child-like, and needs not one, but two men to come and save her.  I'm all for the knight in shining armor, but this series was all about female strength before and now this seemed to do a 180.   

The other major situation going on during this Zoey drama is Stevie Rae and her love life.  She is one messed up country bumpkin.  She constantly makes bad choices throughout the novel that not only get herself, but others in trouble.  She is keeping secrets that will destroy the people closest to her.  She was really bossy in this novel and I think she should have stepped back and evaluated her situation before she acted.  Again more drama.

The actual audio part of this novel was really nice.  I'm a little confused why they keep switching narrators for different books in the series.  I enjoyed listening to Caitlin Davies narrate, but it just seems to me it would make the most sense to have one person narrate the entire series. 

When I first started this series I really like it.  I loved Zoey's friends, but we don't get to see a lot of them in this novel.  I miss their witty commentary and the spice they added to the story.  I also really enjoyed that this was a matriarchal society.  They were all strong women with a nice balance between females and males in positions of power, and I thought it sent a good message to young girls.  In Burned though I thought most of the females made poor decisions and I missed their strength.

For the last two books I've been getting bored with the series and I feel like it's the same old drama.  Has anyone read the entire series?  Do the next couple of novels get better?  I'm wondering if I should stick it out until the end or just give up on it.  

Review of The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Author: Carrie Ryan
Published by: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Pages: 308
Source: Traded with The Book Cellar
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★

Summary from Goodreads:  In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

At first I was a little apprehensive about reading this novel, because I'm just not a Zombie-type person.  I thought there was going to be some human-Zombie love so that is what originally deterred me from reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  I just cannot picture Zombies as sexy so hence my neglect of this novel.  I think I cursed myself with my fear of disliking this book, because I didn't actually enjoy it that much.  It wasn't a bad book by any means, and I really think this was a case of me more than anything.

When I originally started reading this book I thought of M. Night Shyamalan's movie "The Village."  There are great similarities between that movie and this book.  They both lived in these small communities with no knowledge of an outside world and a fear of the surrounding woods that were crawling with creatures.  This concept in itself is a great one and I really enjoyed the setting of the book and the plot.  Carrie Ryan did an amazing job at giving us a picture of a secluded lifestyle and the hope that there is more out there than monsters. 

The major issue I had with the novel was the main character Mary.  I couldn't stand her.  I thought she was self-centered, selfish, whiny, rude and just a not nice person.  I feel like she wouldn't listen to what anyone else had to say, instead she just believed she was right and everything she did therefore was the right thing to do.  She didn't have any respect for others and that was portrayed many times through her actions, especially with her friends.  I understand that she lives in a completely different situation than I do and her actions were probably normal for the setting of the book and how the main character should act, I just wasn't fond of her. *see more evidence it was me and not the book*

I think if the main character was different I would have loved this novel.  It has all the elements to be a great novel and I've read some spectacular reviews for it, so again it points to it being more of a me issue than a bad book issue.  If you've read this novel let me know what you thought of Mary?