Category: Book Reviews

Book Review: Obsidian

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

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I am a creature of habit so when I find an author I love I read all their books until there’s no more left and I don’t stray. I’m also pretty stuck up about the books I read. Not to say I only read classics and NY Times Bestsellers but I only read novels that I deem to be “worthy”. That being said, rarely do I ever take a chance on an author I’ve never read/heard of before. But this time since it was only $2.99 on my Kindle and I was desperate to read something new I had to take a chance and I’m very glad that I did.

I don’t know where Jennifer L. Armentrout has been hiding this whole time but I am now officially hooked on her Lux series. The series focuses on Katy Swartz, a 17 year old girl, who moves to a small town in West Virginia with her mom a few years after her dad died. Both her mom and herself are looking for a fresh start and although Katy is not at all thrilled with her mom’s choice of location she attempts to take it in stride for the sake of her mom.

That is until she meets her next door neighbor, Daemon Black, who seems to hate her from the moment she meets him, and Katy has no idea why. All she knows is he’s a douche bag that she hates but is also kind of attracted to. Talk about awkward. Daemon’s sister, Dee, is his opposite however, as she quickly befriends Katy, despite her brother’s warning. The more Katy spends time with the Blacks the more she realizes that there’s something strange about the Blacks that she can’t quite put her finger on. It’s not until Daemon saves her life that she learns the truth: they’re aliens.

By saving Katy’s life Daemon leaves an alien trace on her that puts her in danger of being found by other aliens that won’t hesitate to kill her. This forces the two to spend more time together than either of them bargained for as Daemon feels obligated to protect her and get rid of the trace that also puts himself and sister in danger. This of course leads to multiple fights, a lot of sexual tension, and the learning that they may have more in common than they originally thought.

I’ll admit the beginning started pretty slow with Katy constantly talking about how much she missed writing on her blog and me thinking, “Nobody cares; get to the good stuff!” However, the novel then quickly picks up once she meets Daemon and starts hanging out with the Blacks on a more regular basis.

What makes this novel great is although it relies on the classic “girl meets guy who turns out to not be a human” trope it differs because although we all know they’re probably going to end up falling for each other it doesn’t start off that way. Katy knows she wants Daemon sexually but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a dick to her and what’s great about Katy is she doesn’t stand for it, not even when she finds out the truth about him and what he could do. Armentrout produces a character that’s not afraid to say what she’s thinking and is willing to stand up for herself no matter how attractive and mysterious a guy is. That’s awesome.

Additionally, Armentrout is a saint and adds two chapters in Daemon’s point of view at the end of the book so we can know exactly what he was thinking in those moments. While you’re reading you’ll understand why this is such a God send. Daemon is such a hard character to read and always leaves us wondering, “Does he like her or not?” It’s frustrating but so fun to read as well.

I plan to read the whole series over my spring break so I’ll have many reviews to let you know whether the series get’s better or worse from here but I’ve read the first two chapters of the next book and I’m very excited to see what happens next.

Stars: 4 out 5. Though I think the novel is great over all, the beginning was too slow for me.

Borrow or Buy: Buy. It’s so cheap, why not? Plus it’s really good and you’ll definitely want to reread it at some point.

Book Review: Stupid, Perfect, World

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

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It’s been a while since I’ve read anything from Scott Westerfeld and man have I missed him. I forgot how much I love his books. What’s great about this book is it’s not really a book, it’s a novella.

Being only 55 pages long it literally only took me about two hours to read so for those of you that hate long books, this will be a great fit for you. Set in a utopic world where people no longer have to sleep, deal with illness, and can teleport anywhere they want to go, students are required to take a class that’s only purpose is to show them how bad the world was before it became the utopic society they have.

The main characters, Kieran and Maria, both have to give up something for two weeks. Kieran, chooses to forgo sleep, not fully understanding what sleep is, and Maria, chooses to give up her hormone regulations, thinking it’ll be an interesting experiment.

I thought the concept of this book was very interesting and a little different because many of the books that have come out recently have focused on dystopias, whereas this novel portrays a world that is perfect. At first it sounded pretty good to me but then once the two protagonists start trying out their experiments it makes you realize how much you’d be missing if we lost those things.

Yeah, our hormones can be really annoying sometimes, especially when you meet that hot guy who turns out to be jerk but you can’t help but be attracted to him. But there’s also the goods things, like when you get butterflies for that awesome guy you just met at Starbucks who asked you for your number.

And seriously, who doesn’t love sleep? When your head hits the pillow after the longest day of your life? Fantastic.

I thought Westerfeld did an excellent job with this novella. It was short and sweet, making a point but not dragging it out. He also didn’t rush the plot. It was perfectly timed and just felt like a shorter book.

Even though he doesn’t go in depth on this world he’s created and what led to it being the way it is that’s okay because you get so drawn into the characters and what they’re doing that you forget to even think about that. Instead you find yourself falling for these characters and laughing at their confusion of things we deal with every day. One of my favorite parts was when Kieran couldn’t figure out how we fall asleep in the first place and couldn’t get how we could waste so much time sleeping.

The only thing I didn’t like about this novella is that I wanted it to keep going. Then again that might ruin it because the ending was pretty good. Definitely a must read.

Stars: 5 out of 5

Borrow or Buy: Definitely buy. It’s really cheap (only $1.99 on the Kindle) and it’s a really short read so you can read it and re-read it fairly quickly.

Book Review: Frozen

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

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To avoid confusion this is not a book that the Disney movie, Frozen, was based on. This Frozen is the first book in the new Heart of Dread series by authors Melissa de la Cruz (author of the Blue Bloods and Witches of East End series) and Michael Johnston.

Based in a post apocalyptic world, where Earth is now a frozen wasteland, the novel focuses on Nat, a marked girl who has powers she can’t control. The marked are people, or magical creatures really, that humans fear. Similar to the way in which some people still believe they can “catch” cancer or HIV/AIDS in this dystopia people fear the marked not only for their powers but also because they’re scared they can get the “illness” as well. Therefore the marked are persecuted, either being imprisoned or killed on site.

This is just one of the many things wrong with this futuristic society included but certainly not limited to corrupt government, slavers (involved in a lot of black market trading of people), a large disparity between the rich and poor, amongst many other things.

Hence, why Nat wants to escape to what many call the Blue, a far away place that is rumored to be a paradise where the sun still shines and animals still exist. This leads Nat on an adventure along with a boy named, Wes, and his crew to find the Blue.

I thought this book was great. Though this book has a similar to theme to many books coming out recently it’s also a stand out for many reasons. First, this novel is told in third person narration, thereby giving us insight to both Wes and Nat’s perspective which I found to be interesting. Second, this book adds an air of mystery and fairy tale quality to this otherwise very dystopian novel which I definitely haven’t seen in any of the other dystopian novels I’ve read recently (and I’ve read a lot).

Also, I’m usually weary of books that are written by two authors because sometimes you can tell who’s writing what and the change in the style of the novel can get really annoying, early on. However, this novel ran very smoothly, and I felt like I was only reading one author’s writing, not two.

I’m excited to see where Cruz and Johnston will go with this series. Frozen was filled with action, mystery, and a little bit of romance. Though I’m not completely obsessed with this book/series just yet I think this first book built a good foundation for this series to get even better.

Stars: 4 out of 5

Borrow or Buy: Borrow. I thought this book was good but not one that I’d read over and over again. Better to get it from the library and spend the money on that book you’ve had on your wish list for months instead.

Book Review: Hereafter

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

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I love Kate Brian (aka Kieran Scott). Literally, I’ve read almost every book she’s written and I just believe she’s generally a great person. I hope to meet her in person one day but until then I’m totally happy stalking her on Facebook and Twitter.

That being said it should be no surprise that I loved Hereafter, the latest book in her newest trilogy, Shadowlands.

The premise of this trilogy (*spoilers ahead if you haven’t read Shadowlands yet*) is Rory along with her father and sister, Darcy, were killed by a serial killer who was stalking Rory. The family was supposed to be on their way to a safe haven to hide from their killer, Stephen Nells, but died before they made it. However, they don’t know this and believe that they are actually in a town called Juniper Landing. The truth, however, is that Juniper Landing is a sort of purgatory where souls go until they are either sent to the Shadowlands (hell?) or the Light (heaven?).

Rory, however, is a special case; she is a Lifer. Its her job along with the other Lifers to help these souls get to their next destination. The Lifers themselves, however, never leave unless they did something really terrible. In this second installment of the trilogy things at Juniper Landing are getting weird; there’s changes in nature that shouldn’t be happening and a lot of suspicious activity occurring including more souls going to the Shadowlands than should be.

Plot summary out of the way I thought this book was fantastic. Brian presented an interesting concept with this new trilogy and in an interesting way. Though the majority of the novel is written from Rory’s point of view there are small chapters every few chapters or so that are written from the “villian’s” point of view. In the first novel it was clearly Nell’s point of view but in this novel Brian adds more mystery by not telling us who that is until the end. Or so she leads us to believe.

I’m not sure I trust Brian enough to believe that we’ve fully solved the case in this last novel. She’s left us with a viable suspect and Rory and her friends seem to believe they’ve caught the culprit but I’m not sure I believe it. Or maybe I’m in denial. Who knows?

Sadly, we won’t know for sure until July 22, when the next and last book in the trilogy is released. That’s a book I’ll definitely be pre-ordering to be directly delivered to my Kindle as soon as it’s out.

I would highly recommend reading this book and obviously the first book in this trilogy. Amongst all the death and souls drama this novel also includes love triangles, family drama, mystery, and of course a lot twists that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Brian has continuously succeeded in writing dark and mysterious novels since the success of her Private and spin-off series Privilege books and it’s evident that she has not lost her touch.

Stars: 5 out of 5

Borrow or Buy: Definitely buy. This is a book you’re going want to read again and again looking for more clues. Unless you’re going to borrow it from a friend who you know will let you read it more than once, this is one you’ll definitely want on your own bookshelf.