Kalona's Fall by P.C Cast and Kristin Cast

Genre: paranormal (vampires), young-adult, fantasy (magic), romance


Published: July 29th 2014


Pages: 160


Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin


                             Synopsis

From the Sun and from the Moon, two winged brothers are born: golden Erebus, playmate and friend, and mysterious Kalona, warrior and lover, companions of the Goddess Nyx.
   From the first, Nyx loves them both deeply, but differently. With Erebus, she can talk and laugh, and dance, and take joy in the games he plays among the humans of the Earth. With Kalona, the fire in her body burns brightly, and she can rest in the solace of his strength and protection. But for Kalona, Nyx's nights are not enough. Every second he is not with her, he is filled with doubt and longing, and every time he fails to please her, he cannot forgive himself. Ruled by anger and jealousy of his brother, and consumed by his love for the Goddess, Kalona seeks the power to prove his worth, and to claim once and for all that Nyx eternally belongs to him.
   And at the edges of the Earth, a Darkness is stirring, waiting for its chance, for the doorway in through a heart that it knows will welcome it. 

                                                                    Thoughts    

 This is a very unexpected review, but I wanted to be able to share my thoughts with you guys on this last novella installment in the House of Night series. 

I have wanted this novella since I first heard that there was even going to be a novella on Kalona. And that was probably about a year to two ago. But as I have been reading the House of Night series, I was always curious about Kalona, and his past, and to understand why he is the fallen immortal he is today. So this novella was an opportunity to discover all of that.

1. I loved how this novella gave me a better understanding of Kalona's past and his love for Nyx, and why he fell from the Otherworld.

2. I was shocked to find out, that Nyx was portrayed, very differently in this novella than she does in the actual HON series. In the novella, Nyx was very immature, girly, and naive. In the series, she is very serious and wise. It just did not make sense to me at first, but then I realized that, that happened a long time ago, and that a certain event can really change someone and become a different person then they once were.

3. More towards the beginning, it focuses on the authors world building for the HON series, so because of that, I was able to understand something that I 100% never understood throughout the whole time that I have been reading the HON series.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this novella. However, I wouldn't say it was my favourite novella, but like I said before, I still enjoyed reading it enough to give it a higher rating.


                                                               Rating

                                            3.5/5 

Currently Reading

Hello everyone, it's Nicole Henderson here, and as you can tell by the title and the image, I am currently reading Shut Out by Kody Keplinger. This is her second book that she has written, as well the second book I have read by her; with the previous one being the DUFF.
   This book is about a girl named Lissa and she has a boyfriend whose name is Randy, and he just so happens to be on the high schools football team. But there are a couple of problems with this. The first thing, is that the football and soccer teams are both in a rivalry with one another. Second thing is that Randy always ditches Lissa to go pull pranks, or just straight out fight them, whenever they have any alone time together. Since this rivalry has gone on for so long, she has had enough and wants to put a stop to it ASAP. So she decides to host a sex-strike; which means the boys get no (sexual) action from the girls until the "war" is over.  But it turns into a boys-against-girls showdown to see who will cave in first. But problems arise when Lissa start to have some sexual tension with Cash! The battle....is on.
    So far, I am quite enjoying this book. It is a fast paced read, since I started actually reading this yesterday and I'm only about halfway done. But I'm not really sure if I like this better than the DUFF, so I would most likely have to read more for a final verdict on that. For sure, I will be doing a full book review as soon as I'm done. So until then, goodbye everyone.

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Genre: young-adult, romance, contemporary, realistic-fiction

Published: June 14th 2012

Pages: 394

Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers




                                Synopsis

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, messy, affectionate. And everyday from her rooftop perch, Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them...until one summer night Jase Garrett climbs up next to her and changes everything.
  
As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling the awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, Jase's family embraces Samantha-even as she keeps him a secret from her own. Then something unthinkable happens, and the bottom drops out of Samantha's world. She's suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?


                                                                        Thoughts

My main thoughts on this book are going to be very straight-forward and to the point. But before I continue and move on with this review, I must say that I have been waiting and wanting to read this book since it first came out. But I never gotten the opportunity until I thought "Enough is enough, I have waited to long!" and I picked it right off the shelf of the library.  Now back onto my main thoughts:

1. I am going to get this out of the way now, and just say I had one main issue with this book. And that issue is, the fact that everything that happened seemed to be easily resolved with no severe arguments, or major conflict within those fights. Even though efforts were made to do the right thing, I still felt as if the 'right thing' wasn't the right thing after all.

2. I thought that the book was very realistic, and believable on so many levels. From the romance between Samantha and Jase, both families, and the friendships that went along with it.

3.The characters were great and not-so-great, but all in their own way. Samantha's mother, I strongly despised. I thought she was rude, selfish, and not strong enough to be able to stand up for what she truly believed in. She is not a woman that I would respect. Honestly, she was just downright ridiculous over everything. Clay, was a total asshole, and was very manipulative towards every single person he talked to. Samantha, was just a reasonable, character that I could easily relate too. Plus, all of the other characters were so easy to love like Jase, George, all of the other kids, Mr. and Mrs Garrett, including Tim, and Nan.   

4. The fact that this book, was a very fluffy and light read, it also had its dark moments were things were not looking too good for both families. But those dark moments were so realistic were it got to point were it literally felt real to me in my own life. I know that it may not make sense to you, but it does to me.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and I strongly recommend it. It was a very lighthearted, fluffy, romantic summer read, with its deeper moments.


                                                            Rating


                                                                 4/5

Currently Reading(2)

Hello everyone it's Nicole Henderson here, and I am back again with another blog post. So yes, besides the last book I showed you that I am/was currently reading, I am reading another one at the same time and as you can tell from the image next to your left here, I am reading My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick. Now I am a little past halfway done with this novel, and I must say it is a really cute, but realistic-type read.
  So, it's about this girl name Samantha, and she has always been fascinated in watching the Garretts from next-door, she has always wanted to be 'one of them'. However, her family is very different from the loud, messy and crazy Garretts. Like they are the complete opposite from Sam's own family. But then one day, Jase Garrett comes up onto her rooftop and everything changes from there. They fall in love( like in the usual contemporary novels), and of course, as always there are obstacles from family issues, to the actual relationship itself.
  So far, I am very much enjoying this book, and I will actually be finishing it and doing a review, once it is done. So until then, goodbye everyone.

Currently Reading

Hello everyone it is Nicole Henderson here, and I have been reading this book for some time now, but for a few reasons I have not had the time to post a blog on it. So the book I'm reading at the moment is called Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan.
  So it's about a boy named Stephen  who has been cursed with invisibility ever since the day he was born, and a girl whose name is Elizabeth ends up moving to New York City and can actually visualize him (Stephan) while nobody else can. The story progresses with them growing closer, trying to break the curse that Stephan has, and of course, it leads them both to fall in love with one another. There are some really interesting points to the book, but for me it is just really difficult to get through, and I don't want to spoil any of it for you guys. But I will say that it is a very intense read. With that being said, I will be taking a break on this book for a little while, so please do not expect a book review anytime soon.

Royally Lost by Angie Stanton

Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance

Published: May 6th 2014

Pages: 336

Publisher: Harper Collins




                      Synopsis

Dragged on a family trip to Europe's ancient cities, Becca wants nothing more than to go home. Tapped with her emotionally distant father, overeager stepmother, and a brother who only wants to hook up with European hotties, Becca is miserable. That is, until she meet Nikolai, a guy as mysterious as he is handsome. And she unknowingly finds herself with a runaway prince.
Nikolai has everything a guy could ask for-he's a crown prince, heir to the throne, and girls adore him. But the one thing he doesn't have...is freedom. After staging a revolt, he flees his kingdom and goes undercover on his own European tour.
When Nikolai and Becca meet, it's their differences that draw them together. Sparks fly as they share a whirlwind of adventures, all while dodging his royal guard. But Becca's family vacation ends in a matter of days. Will Nikolai and Becca be forced to say good-bye when his destiny catches up to him, or will they change history forever?


                                                                          Thoughts

I don't normally like to pick up books on a impulse, but there was something about this one that caught my attention. I have heard of the author but not the book itself, so I thought on this particular day at the bookstore, that I should just pick it up. (it was mainly because I need more travelled themed books on my shelf).

The first thing that I want to mention, is that this book was not what I was expecting at all. Like I personally thought that things were going to go differently, then they actually turned out to be. For example; I thought they were going to be staying in Europe for the entire book; instead of only being there for the first half of the book. I was also expecting Becca to find out that Nikolai was a prince towards the end of the book instead of towards the beginning. So, because that was the main problem for me, I couldn't get into it, and enjoy it the way that I wanted to.  

The second thing that I want to mention, was the fact that a lot of the situations that happened in the book, just seemed very unrealistic and they were quite cheesy and cliche.If you have read this novel, then you will know exactly what I am talking about. The same thing goes for the romance. I found that the romance just went by way to fast, and it all seemed very chaotic. It was a "insta-love", and I have come to the realization that I am not a huge fan of them. I personally think that a romance should take time to develop. Everything was depended on fate, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. This just happened to work but in a very unrealistic way as I've explained before. These are some other reasons as to why I couldn't enjoy this book the way I wanted too.   

Becca, was an okay character. She wasn't the greatest character ever, but she would have to do for this book. There were times, were I really liked Becca, but then there were other times were I (obviously) didn't like her and wanted to shake her back and forth and get some sense into her. She was also really clueless and naive, and legitimately had no idea of what she was really getting into, with meeting this total stranger who just happened to be a prince. Becca was pretty whiny at times, and always complaining about where she was, and why she was there, plus she continuously talked about how much she just despised history, which really pissed me off. *annoyed face here*

Nikolai, wasn't the best character either, like he was just okay for me too. The fact that Nikolai was a prince, and it may seem repetitive when I say this, but it was a refresher to read about a character who wasn't exactly normal but they weren't like a famous celebrity. My thoughts are pretty much the same for Becca, except that he didn't complain as much, wasn't clueless or naive or anything like that. But I would have to say that when he was on the tours with Becca, he acted like he knew everything, and was just acting like a know-it-all. Like yes, it's where he's from and he knows a lot about his country; which is great. But it was not necessary for him to act cocky about it and "rub it in her face". I am saying this because whenever he would recite a fact about that certain city, or building, I sensed that he was saying them in a cocky manner; which I did not appreciate. *frustrated face here*

Overall, I didn't find this book to be very enjoyable, but it was a very light-fluffy read. Some parts were cheesy, characters were not the best. The plot was very unoriginal. The romance went way to fast despite it only being a one week trip. I do not recommend this book.


                                                                                
                                                                          Rating

                                                                            2.5/5

Currently Reading

Hello everyone, it's Nicole Henderson here. And as you can tell by this title and the book cover, I am currently reading Royally Lost by Angie Stanton. The book is about two very different people named Becca and Nikolai. And I mean different when I say that Becca is a normal girl from America, while Nikolai is a prince from a fictional country called Mondovia. Yes I said PRINCE. Anyways, Becca is forced to go on a trip to the acient cities in Europe, with her family consisting of her dad, stepmom, and brother. She is miserable. So when she meets Nikolai, everything changes for the better. Nikolai is a heir to the throne, and is expected to follow family traditions in the royal castle. But he has no interest in doing any of the things he is being told to do. All he really wants is freedom. So, he runs away from the castle and tours around Europe as well. So when he meets Becca, everything also changes for the better.

   So far, I am more then halfway done and I must say that this is a book that I did not expect. I will explain more of this in my reveiw. But to say if it is good or bad, I don't 100% know at this moment, so maybe when I'm done reading it, I'll know for sure. So that is it for this post, until my next one. Goodbye everyone.