Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme created by Jill at Breaking the Spine. A spin-off of the meme called "Can't Wait Wednesday" is now hosted at Wishful Endings. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

Storm & Fury

by Jennifer L Armentrout

hitting shelves June 11th, 2019  

from Inkyard Press

Eighteen-year-old Trinity Marrow may be going blind, but she can see and communicate with ghosts and spirits. Her unique gift is part of a secret so dangerous that she’s been in hiding for years in an isolated compound fiercely guarded by Wardens—gargoyle shape-shifters who protect humankind from demons. If the demons discover the truth about Trinity, they’ll devour her, flesh and bone, to enhance their own powers.

When Wardens from another clan arrive with disturbing reports that something out there is killing both demons and Wardens, Trinity’s safe world implodes. Not the least because one of the outsiders is the most annoying and fascinating person she’s ever met. Zayne has secrets of his own that will upend her world yet again—but working together becomes imperative once demons breach the compound and Trinity’s secret comes to light. To save her family and maybe the world, she’ll have to put her trust in Zayne. But all bets are off as a supernatural war is unleashed…

My thoughts:  So---this says it's book four in the Dark Elements series (which I haven't read) but it looks likes its a new set of characters? I'm hoping this means its more of a stand-alone companion, just in the same world. This looks amazing, and I've been a long-time fan of Jennifer's books. It's a long wait for this one, but so excited!!

What book are you eagerly anticipating this week?

Becky's View: Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout
♦publisher: Spencer Hill Press
♦release date: April 4th, 2013
♦paperback, 360 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Covenant, book 4
  reviews of Half-Blood, Pure, & Deity
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Fate isn’t something to mess with… and now, neither is Alex.

Alex has always feared two things: losing herself in the Awakening and being placed on the Elixir. But love has always been stronger than Fate, and Aiden St. Delphi is willing to make war on the gods—and Alex herself—to bring her back.

The gods have killed thousands and could destroy entire cities in their quest to stop Seth from taking Alex’s power and becoming the all-powerful God Killer. But breaking Alex’s connection to Seth isn’t the only problem. There are a few pesky little loopholes in the whole “an Apollyon can’t be killed” theory, and the only person who might know how to stop the destruction has been dead for centuries.

Finding their way past the barriers that guard the Underworld, searching for one soul among countless millions, and then somehow returning will be hard enough. Alex might be able to keep Seth from becoming the God Killer… or she might become the God Killer herself.

Review:  The covenant series continues to wow readers with heart-stopping action, Olympian-size danger, and an intense love story.  While I continue to really enjoy this series, I have to admit that so far, Apollyon is my least favorite of the four.  Now bear with me, because I have my reasons for that, and from other reviews that I’ve read I am in the minority about the things that bothered me in this one.  So definitely don’t let what I’m about to say deter you from this awesome story. 

So let’s get it out of the way---the few things that I didn’t like:  (and I know I’m going to be in the minority on this one, especially you romance readers out there!) As much as I love Aidan (and I do) and I love Alex and Aiden together (because I’m definitely team Aidan), I thought there was too much making out. *ducks to avoid books flying at me* *peeks out* Is it safe? Ok. :)  Also, I thought hearing about the silvery shifts in Aidan’s eyes was a little repetitive.  I love the guy, I do---brave, loyal, romantic, honest, and serious kick-ass.  But really, he must betray some emotion in other ways than if his eyes are a steele gray or silvery pools.

Also, of all four books so far, this one felt the most like the “bridge” book, delivering us to the finale in book 5.  There were some great high-impact surprises this time around and a few really great plot spikes, but there was also a lot of training and waiting and  traveling and preparing for what is inevitably to come in the grand finale.

But all griping aside---I still really enjoyed this book.  Alex is just as kick-ass of a heroine as always.  I still love the way she has her whiney moments, but she totally owns up to them. Her sharp tongue is just as quick as ever.  We get a bit of a painful shock at the very beginning, seeing her so very opposite of the Alex we’ve come to know and love, but she overcomes it as she has so many other things before.  There are some great emotional moments having to do with both Alex and Aiden’s parents, and also with Alex’s  school “archenemy”, Lea---it’s great to see how their relationship kind of shifts and grows this time around, and makes one thing that happens hit all the more grimly.  And I love how things have developed between Alex and Marcus.

Once again, Armentrout’s writing and storytelling are really well done and she expertly knows how to draw us in to really caring about these characters, including  Seth (who we hardly get to see this time around, but enough to leave me conflicted about him and his evil ways!) and make the big moments pack a huge emotional punch.   

A great addition to this series, Apollyon is a superfast-paced, exciting read, despite the few little quirks I had with it.  Bring on book 5, Sentinal--- it should be one amazing grand finale!!

Find Jennifer L. Armentrout online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Apollyon: Amazon  • BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

Sentinel 

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

hitting shelves December 10th, 2013 from Spencer Hill Press

description: 
It's a beautiful day for a war. Alex must face a terrible choice between destruction of everything she loves and her own destruction. The final book in the COVENANT series.

My thoughts: It's been an exciting ride so far...can't wait to see how this one ends!

Becky's View: Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout
♦publisher: Spencer Hill Press
♦release date: November 6, 2012
♦paperback, 360 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Covenant, book 3
  (other reviews: Half-Blood, Pure)
♦source: from publisher for honest review
Spoiler alert: description and review may contain slight spoilers for books 1 and 2.  Read those first!

"History is on repeat, and things didn't go so well the last time. "
 
Alexandria isn't sure she's going to make it to her eighteenth birthday--to her Awakening. A long-forgotten, fanatical order is out to kill her, and if the Council ever discovers what she did in the Catskills, she's a goner... and so is Aiden.

If that's not freaky enough, whenever Alex and Seth spend time "training"--which really is just Seth's code word for some up-close and personal one-on-one time--she ends up with another mark of the Apollyon, which brings her one step closer to Awakening ahead of schedule. Awesome.

But as her birthday draws near, her entire world shatters with a startling revelation and she's caught between love and Fate. One will do anything to protect her. One has been lying to her since the beginning. Once the gods have revealed themselves, unleashing their wrath, lives will be irrevocably changed... and destroyed.

Those left standing will discover if love is truly greater than Fate...

Review: Well, what can I say.  We're three books into the Covenant series (four if you count Daimon, the novella)...and I have yet to give any of them less that 5 cupcakes.  Deity is so worthy of continuing that streak.  There is just something so incredible about this series and about Jennifer L. Armentrout's writing.  It just completely sucks you in.  I think the thing I love most, while they must be read in sequence to even know what it going on, is that each individual book carries it's own story arc. There is no second-book-slump, no third-book-boredom.   Each time you are pulled in somewhat gently, allowed to settle back into the Covenant world and setting, and then its all breath-taking action, heart-stopping shocks, plenty of emotional turmoil and swoon-enducing romance, and then it ends with the reader knowing there is more but feeling almost safe and calm...and then you're abruptly pushed over a cliff at the very last second.  Deity, just like it's predecessors, was a thrilling roller coaster of a story, and I loved every second of it.

Alex is just as funny, just as passionate, just as tough as always.  She goes through some pretty intense emotional stuff this time around---mourning Caleb, coping with being shut out from friends, dealing with Seth, hiding what happened during the daimon attack, and all the while her birthday and her becoming the Apollyon creeps ever closer.  She gets an emotional bomb dropped on her with a mysterious letter that arrives.  She seems to be the target of the head minister's cruel plans.  And then there is Aiden.  OH the romance in this is steamy.  Armentrout gets my vote for most amazing YA romance writer---watching Alex and Aiden in this constant dance of denying their attraction to one another and telling themselves they can never be together just intensifies until it all comes crashing down.  Their moments together are enough to get the heart pounding, but the descriptiveness stays just under the radar of what seems appropriate for YA readers, if that makes sense.  I have to admit, that's one of the reasons I prefer most YA romance as apposed to adult romance---sometimes I like a few things left to the imagination. ;)  This does that perfectly.

I loved all the new characters and "changing" characters in this installment.  One of my favorite developments is the sort of metamorphosis of the relationship between Alex and her uncle, Marcus.  Alex learns that things are not always what they seem.  This time around she also learns the hard lesson of when to stop trusting and hoping for the best in someone.

Deity was gripping and emotionally charged from beginning to end. This series continues to be one of my absolute favorites.  Book 4, Apollyon, is coming out April 2013---thank the stars it's not a full year's wait or I think I might have cried!

Find Jennifer L. Armentrout online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Deity:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Review: Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout

publisher: Spencer Hill Press

release date: April 3rd, 2012

paperback, 329 pages

intended audience: Young adult

series: Covenant, book 2
(review of book 1)

rating:



source: ARC from publisher for honest review

Spoiler alert: description and review may contain slight spoilers for book 1, Half-Blood. If you haven't read it yet, stop reading here! :D

description: There is need. And then there is Fate...

Being destined to become some kind of supernatural electrical outlet isn't exactly awesome--especially when Alexandria's "other half" is everywhere she goes. Seth's in her training room, outside her classes, and keeps showing up in her bedroom--so not cool. Their connection does have some benefits, like staving off her nightmares of the tragic showdown with her mother, but it has no effect on what Alex feels for the forbidden, pure-blooded Aiden. Or what he will do--and sacrifice--for her.

When daimons infiltrate the Covenants and attack students, the gods send furies--lesser gods determined to eradicate any threat to the Covenants and to the gods, and that includes the Apollyon... and Alex. And if that and hordes of aether-sucking monsters didn't blow bad enough, a mysterious threat seems willing to do anything to neutralize Seth, even if that means forcing Alex into servitude... or killing her.

When the gods are involved, some decisions can never, ever be undone.

Review: Fair warning: I love this series, and sometimes it's hard to put that love into coherent thoughts and words, so we'll see how this review turns out. :) For those YA readers out there who pass up books from smaller presses, they are really missing out amazing series such as this one. It is one of those truly incredible pieces of storytelling. Book one, Half-Blood, blew me away with it's intensity, danger, humor, and emotional pull---in Pure, we get more of all of that, magnified ten times over.

The romance is edgier and more complicated as her feelings for both Aiden and Seth start to change and become a little less cut-and-dry. Seth's character really progresses in this book. I think the only feelings I had toward him in the first book were,"Ack, what is his problem?" This time around, sure you get to see more Seth naughtiness, but we also have the pleasure of getting to know a bit more about him outside of his all-powerful Apollyon title. And Aiden, well...Aiden is just as swoon-worthy as ever---the hard training, the caring moments, the slip-ups in his resistance. But the danger of their feeling for each other is laid bare when they get to see first hand what happens when the laws that keep Pures and Half-Bloods apart are disobeyed.

The action sequences were, once again, amazingly visual and heart-pounding. New threats to Alex's life come from surprising sources. Her visit to another covenant brings out some new great characters and dangers and temptations and we even get to see a bit of a girly side to Alex's normally snarky, badass character.

Once again, this series brings on the action, the romance, the emotional surprises, the endlessly gripping story---and like most who have fallen in love with the Covenant series, I can't wait for more. Book three, Diety, absolutely cannot get here soon enough.

Visit Jennifer L. Armentrout at www.jenniferarmentrout.blogspot.com

Purchase Pure at: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository • Indiebound

Waiting on Wednesday - The One Word Edition

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for. For my WoWs, I'll be choosing a Sooner (books released in the next month or so) and a Later (books further out). Here's what I'm eagerly anticipating:

Sooner:

Here
by Denise Grover Swank

hit shelves November 7th, 2011 (self-published)

description:
Sixteen year old Julia Phillips buries herself in guilt after killing her best friend Monica in a car accident. Julia awoke in the hospital with a broken leg, a new talent for drawing and false memories of the accident, in which she dies and Monica lives. The doctors attribute this to her head injury, but no one can explain how a bracelet engraved with her name ended up at the scene of the accident. A bracelet no one has ever seen before. Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can't ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months. When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from.

My Thoughts: Now, sure, it's easy enough to say I was drawn in by this cover: At first look she is standing in the water, but if you look closer, she is floating slightly above. Creeeepy! Then, of course, I read the synopsis and now this book has my full attention! Sounds amazing. This one is actually already out, but I can't wait get a hold of this one!


Later:

Pure
by Jennifer L. Armentrout

hitting shelves April 3rd, 2012 from Spencer Hills Press

description:
There is need. And then there is Fate...

Being destined to become some kind of supernatural electrical outlet isn't exactly awesome--especially when Alexandria's "other half" is everywhere she goes. Seth's in her training room, outside her classes, and keeps showing up in her bedroom--so not cool. Their connection does have some benefits, like staving off her nightmares of the tragic showdown with her mother, but it has no effect on what Alex feels for the forbidden, pure-blooded Aiden. Or what he will do--and sacrifice--for her.

When daimons infiltrate the Covenants and attack students, the gods send furies--lesser gods determined to eradicate any threat to the Covenants and to the gods, and that includes the Apollyon... and Alex. And if that and hordes of aether-sucking monsters didn't blow bad enough, a mysterious threat seems willing to do anything to neutralize Seth, even if that means forcing Alex into servitude... or killing her.

When the gods are involved, some decisions can never, ever be undone.

My thoughts: Half-Blood completely rocked. Definitely one of my top 10 of 2011. Possibly even top 5. So the sequel is obviously at the top of of my wishlist for 2012.
Can't. freakin. wait!!

Review: Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

publisher: Spencer Hill Press

release date: October 18, 2011

paperback, 281 pages

intended audience: Young adult

series: Covenant, book 1

rating:



source: from publisher for review

description:
The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

Review:
Okay. I apologize if this review ends up being a little vague. There are just way too many amazing surprises and twists to spoil in this amazing novel. One thing I will suggest: read Daimon first. It's a little prequel novella, 62 pages, takes no time at all to read (because it, also, is completely action packed!) but it adds so much depth to the story and really gives you a feel for who Alex is and the relationship between her and her mother. So important! I honestly can't imagine the story without that little added bit.

Alex is a great protagonist. She has a very entertaining, relatable voice. Smart, sensitive, a great touch of realism to her, with a perfect mix of uncertainty and bad-ass attitude...and she's got the fight in her to match. She's been pulled out of the life she knew without knowing why, and then thrown back into that life years later after a life-crushing tragedy. She has so much to face---catching up to where she should be, dealing with ugly rumors from peers, mourning the loss of her mother, and fighting off her growing feelings for a boy that she is forbidden to have feeling for---and the way she deals with it all comes across very genuinely.

Aiden was a surprising character. When we first get a glimpse of him he is this steely, mysterious, tough-guy with a reputation for being a cold and merciless trainer and sentinel. Then the exterior begins to crack and the layers peel away to reveal a person that, although he is tough, he's caring about Alex and his younger brother, and is quite damage from a personal tragedy himself. There are definitely some good, swoon-worthy moments between he and Alex, a definite sign of a well-written forbidden love. The resistance has to slip sometimes, and when it does...sigh. :)

I was completely drawn in from beginning to end. A good sign of how "un-put-downable" this was: I got this book from the publisher, but I once left the house without it (to my horror!). I couldn't wait, I immediately jumped online and downloaded the e-book to my phone. There are a few heart-stopping surprises in this story, and one in particular that completely blew me away. It's been a long time since I've been sucker-punched by a book, but this one did it. I tried not to cry, I really did. I failed. I won't give away even an inkling of what happens, but I'm sure those who've read this one know the part I mean. So read it...you know you all want to be sucker-punched, too! :D

And now I'm dying, DYING to get my hands on book two, Pure, coming out in April 2012! I need more Alex & Aiden! And Caleb (he's a fun best friend)...and even more Seth (what was up with that guy? lol).

Definitely don't miss this one!

Visit Jennifer's website here.

Purchase Half-Blood at: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository • Indiebound

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