Review: The Mighty Storm by Samantha Towle

Title: The Mighty Storm (Storm #1)
Author: Samantha Towle
Published: August 24th 2012
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It's been twelve years since Tru Bennett last saw Jake Wethers, her former best friend and boy she once loved. Jake Wethers, sexy, tattooed and deliciously bad lead singer, and brains behind The Mighty Storm, one of the biggest bands in the world, left Tru with a broken heart when he moved from England to America with his family when they were both fourteen. Sent to interview Jake for her music column by the magazine she works for, they are both unprepared for the sparks that fly the instant they reconnect. Only, there’s a complication to their instant feelings for one another—Will, Tru’s boyfriend of two years.

Then Jake makes Tru a job offer she can't refuse—travelling the world with him and his band. But taking the job means leaving Will behind, and being on the road with the band means spending an inordinate amount of time with Jake. Is Tru strong enough to resist the delectable bad boy who once held her heart so completely, or will she willingly risk it all for one night with the world's most notorious womanizer?

Another 'broken soul gets a fixed by one’s partner' story. Rock stars are always in, if you ask me. There’re probably very few people who are not affected by these sexy beasts and I’m certainly one that likes these stories however cliché or unoriginal they may be. This one involved a cheating incidence and before I start rambling on my likes and dislikes, I’ll tell you that the one who cheated felt heartbroken and broke the relationship off, because she knew that it was the right thing to do.

“You’re not just any girl. You’re my girl.” 

Okay, so The Mighty Storm features the life of Tru and Jake, once upon a time best friends. Tru is a journalist and she is set up to interview her childhood love Jake, the lead singer of The Mighty Storm. Tru is pleased with her life, job, boyfriend of two years. Her only regret so far, though, is losing contact with her best friend Jake, who travelled across the Atlantic to live his life in the US and pursue his dreams. Now, touring in Europe, he stays in London and during this interview they meet again. During catching up Jake realizes that he can’t let Tru walk out of his life again and soon she’s kindly forced to write a biography of the band and their tour while travelling with them and old feelings are about to resurface.

I really liked Jake. At times I found him immature, though, but overall he was a great character. He has been through hell and back – losing his best friend Johnny, almost losing his life to drugs and on top of that his Dad is a horrible, poor excuse of a human being.  He has done well for himself during the last year and I found him strong. He wasn’t so strong when it came to Tru though. I enjoyed their relationship and as much as I loathed the cheating part on Will, Tru’s boyfriend, we all knew it was coming and you can’t ignore the feelings they had for each other. However, I do feel like Tru could have handled this situation as a grown up and told Will she needed time off or something.

The cheating aside, it was a good novel and I enjoyed reading it. The book may have been too long though. I kept waiting for it to wrap up already. I liked the side characters like Stuart, but Jake is the most enjoyable character for me. Tru was stubborn when it came to certain things, but she wasn’t the worst of protagonists. Believe me, I’ve seen worse. If you loathe cheating in fiction, like Jenny does (yup, girl, I think you may pass this one), hate whiny protagonists who can't seem to make up their mind, then it’s probably not for you, even if it was only a one (ok, two) time thing. I managed to look through it and since I enjoyed this book as a whole, I’m looking forward to the next one (since I gathered from somewhere that it will be mostly from Jake's POV) even if its release date is constantly changing >.<

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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Teaser Tuesday #32

This is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

To participate you:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) * Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teasers

I go to the trunk to get my luggage and Ian has it all. “Can I carry something?” I offer.
“Just carry your beauty, baby. That’s gotta be a heavy weight all its own.”
I snort. “You’re something else.”
“What? I’m just speaking the truth.”

I'm telling you, this book is something else! My review will be up soon and I'm so excited to share my thoughts with you:)

~ 67% of True Love Story by Willow Aster

Review: Evermore by Alyson Noel

Title: Evermore (The Immortals #1)
Author: Alyson Noel
Published: February 3rd 2009
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Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

The first book in Alyson Noël's extraordinary new Immortals seris. Enter an enchanting new world, where true love never dies...

After a horrible accident claims the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever Bloom can see people's auras, hear their thoughts, and know someone's entire life story by touching them. Going out of her way to avoid human contact to suppress her abilities, she has been branded a freak at her new high school — but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste.

Damen is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy. He's the only one who can silence the noise and random energy in her head - wieling a magis so intense, it's as though he can peer straight into her soul. As Ever is drawn deeper into his enticing world of secrets and mystery, she's left with more questions than answers. And she has no idea just who he really is - or what he is. The only thing she knows to be true is that she's falling deeply and helplessly in love with him.

Here’s the deal: I’ve seen raving reviews for this book, but I’ve also seen loads of hateful ones. I wanted to know what it's about and since I’ve seen it on my library a million times, I finally borrowed it and guess what?! I actually liked it. Am I weird? I hope not. The Immortals is in a way similar to Alice Sebold’s My Lovely Bones which I absolutely LOVED! (Summerland reminded me the afterlife in MLB. It was beautiful.) There were some things I disliked, but overall I was quite okay with this book.

“I guess by now I should know enough about loss to realize that you never really stop missing someone-you just learn to live around the huge gaping hole of their absence.” 

Evermore follows the life of Ever – a girl who lost her parents, sister and their dog in a car accident. She now lives with her aunt and the once popular girl is now the freak in her new school. She talks to her dead sister Riley daily, sees auras and when she touches someone or something, she can see its history, thoughts. Until Damen comes along. Damen doesn’t have an aura nor can Ever hear his thoughts. He is hot, snarky, mysterious and a part time magician, because he seems to be able to do things a rational mind cannot explain. I liked their progressing relationship and even though Ever was a bit whiny doubtful at times, I can forgive her that, because she has been through SO much and even the best of us could break under that pressure and grief. Some of the plot made me roll my eyes though and Haden as someone who was supposed to be Ever’s friend, was a complete bitch towards her. I think Ever should dump her and find someone else to hang with her and Miles. I liked how Damen and his presence, existence was explained.

My favorite character was probably Riley. I just adored her. She was scared, concerned and it just broke my heart that she was stuck between two worlds – living and dead – and couldn’t fully be with her sister nor their parents. I think the best books are the ones that make you think and this book made me realize that watching/reading about someone else’s struggles to leave their siblings behind is terribly painful and even though my sister is a teenager and most of the days she seems to hate my guts, I love her like no other and I would never want to part ways with her forever. So it’s safe to say I understood Riley’s motives and decision to stay with Ever. The conversation about why she stayed was also the only part of the book that made me teary-eyed.

I will definitely continue with this series and right now, while writing this review, I’m reading the sequel and I hope I’ll enjoy it. If you’re a doubter, try reading The Immortals yourself and see if you’ll like it. You might, but then again you may not. It’s not for everyone, but maybe after reading more contemporaries recently rather than fantasy, this book was a little refreshing even though it didn’t bring anything new to the table. I liked it, though.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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Book Haul #15

I haven't done one in almost a month so bare in mind that there are lots of books to satisfy my obsession, heh. Okay, we'll start with the physical books and then move on to ebooks. Physical ones are mostly fantasy, ebooks feature a major NA collection. If you've read any of the ones I haven't read yet, please let me know so I can move 'em up on my tbr list which is evergroing as always. Be sure to leave me your links so I can visit you back:) Have a great weekend, lovelies!

Review: Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Title: Firelight (Firelight #1)
Author: Sophie Jordan
Published: September 7th 2010
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Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki, a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form.
Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will's dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away;if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She'll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy. Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide.

I’ve seen these book around blogosvere, goodreads, bookstores and I have never felt the urge to pick them up. Until I felt the need for something new. I haven’t read a book about dragons since Eragon and I came to love those creatures back then. I found the covers in the Firelight series beautiful and felt like I needed to give these books a fair chance. I’m really happy I decided to do that, because I quite enjoyed the first book.

"A hunter in love with his pray."

Jacinda is a drakin aka dragon. Their species have been hunted by hunters, humans with the knowledge of draki’s existence and who are set out to kill them, for ages, but what the hunters don’t know is that draki can manifest into humans. This is the most guarded secret of drakis. Jacinda is the first fire breather in her tribe over a period of long time and her destiny is somewhat decided: she is to marry Prince Cassian and protect the tribe with her special abilities. She’s not so ecstatic about that herself, though. One day, Jacinda and her best friend Az find themselves being hunted and after that things turn into chaos. Jacina, her sister Tamra and their Mother run away from the tribe and, much to Jacinda’s dismay, start a new life among humans. This is where Will comes into play.

Will is a human who is destined to kill Jacinda, because he comes from a long family line of hunters. He doesn’t know Jacinda is a draki, but Jacinda knows he is a hunter. Even as she tries to resist him, she soon realizes that she cannot stay away. It’s a story about magical creatures, true love, temptations, lies, adventures, games and testing one’s limits. Jacinda struggles between wanting to stay for Will, but yearning to be among her species, her own kind, friends, her home. It’s a tough choice, but ultimately, she has to make one. What will she choose? 

I enjoyed the romance, which was probably the main focus here. I think Will is a great guy and Jacinda is a strong protagonist. The characters were easy to relate to – adjusting to new environments, being a teenager, falling in love and testing oneself. The relationships felt organic and real. I was fascinated by draki in general and I can’t wait to learn some more. After how it ended, I’m sure we will get the answers we are graving for. I’m excited to see how Jacinda and Tamra’s relationship enrolls from here and if they can finally be the sisters they need each other to be. Overall, it was decent start to the series.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Teaser Tuesday #31

This is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

To participate you:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) * Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teasers

The still body of a gray cat lay inches from where I'd been standing, its flesh torn open, its fur streaked with red. My feet were soaked in blood.

Seriously? I'm so uncomfortable by all these animal killings. And those birds? Yuck! Unfortunately I don't think it's the end of it and there will be more for sure. I hope I can bare through it, because the story is really, really good.

~ p. 70 of The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Double Review: Ruining Me and Ruining You by Nicole Reed

Title: Ruining Me (Ruining #1)
Author: Nicole Reed
Published: September 26th 2012
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Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Eighteen year old Jay Stevenson is living a horrible nightmare.

Two years ago, she had the world in the palm of her hand, but in one moment, it was ruined. Secrets, lies, and the worst imaginable betrayal haunt her new reality. Burying her problems under a cold façade seems to be the only way to cope until it all catches up with her. Soon, she loses control of the lonely world she built around her, and the past, present, and future collide.

Three guys are there when it all comes crashing down: JT, the perfect boyfriend she never wanted to give up; Rhye, the local bad boy “rock star” who made her forget the past; and Kane, the funny and sweet tattooed bartender who wants her future.

Secrets must be kept. Choices must be made. Is it possible to move forward while still chained to the wicked vices of the past?

Ruining Me. So.. I don’t have that much to say about the first installment. It was downright a horrible experience for me and at some point I even thought myself to be a masochist. I just.. My eyes literally hurt from rolling them and if it would have been a physical copy I was reading, I would have lit it on fire. (Okay, not on fire, I wouldn’t do that to any book no matter how much I hated it, but I was close, trust me.) I liked this book because of Kane. He was so sexy, understanding and quite mature,  to be honest with you. Jay was a kid. A spoiled brat with tons of issues. I think the last protagonist I hated that much was Ms. Anastasia Steele and boy did I ever hate her! Jay went constantly back and forth between TJ and Kane, made promises to both of them and was a complete and utter mess. Yeah.. I heard this book was amazeballs and emotional, but it just sucked so bad.. Until THE thing happened at the very end of this book. I literally punched the air and yelled “Wohooo!!!“ . That was a shocker for me and even if Jay's whole life came crashing down, I was so glad it happened. I’m in no way sorry for Jay or anyone involved. Does that make me a bad person? I thought that the story just got interesting.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars (an extra half point for Kane and another for that ending)

Title: Ruining You (Ruining #2)
Author: Nicole Reed
Published: January 29th 2013
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Ruining You. Why did I ever pick this up if I hated the first book so much, you ask? Well, I did so mainly because I wanted to know how the ending of the first book affected the outcome in this one. I found myself actually liking this book at some extent and came, to my surprise, feel for Jay. I LOVE KANE in this book!!! I liked that gay friend (sorry, I don't remember his name) and his jokes. I also enjoyed the plot way more than in the first book so with these major improvements I’m giving this book a 3.5 instead of 3. If you have read the first book, then I advise you to read the second one, too, but if you haven’t, don’t bother picking it up if you don’t want to infuriate yourself and hurt your eyes by rolling them too darn often. Then again, maybe you'll like it, because so many people do. Unfortunately, I just wasn't a fan.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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