Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl {review}

Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
♦publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
♦release date: May 20th, 2014
♦hardcover, 368 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series:Dangerous Creatures, book 1
♦source: from publisher via SF Book review

Ridley Duchannes will be the first to tell you that she's a bad girl. She's Dark. She's a Siren. You can never trust her, or even yourself when she's around. Lucky for her, Wesley "Link" Lincoln can never seem to remember that; quarter Incubus or not, his heart is Mortal when it comes to Ridley. When Link heads to New York City to start a music career, Ridley goes along for the ride-and she has her own reasons. As if leaving small-town Gatlin for the big city, trying to form a band, and surviving life with a partially reformed Siren isn't hard enough already, Link soon learns he has a price on his head that no Caster or Mortal can ever pay.

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthors of Beautiful Creatures, are back and casting another magical spell. Their signature mixture of mystery, suspense, and romance, along with a dash of fun and danger, will pull fans in and leave them begging for more.

Review: While I admittedly didn’t finish the Beautiful Creatures series (I read the first two, but somehow lost interested half-way through the third), I couldn’t resist the temptation to pick up this spin-off featuring two of my favorite characters.  Link and Ridley have run off to New York to follow Link’s dream of success in a band.  What Link doesn't know is that Ridley already has a gig lined up for him---one involving a dark caster that will hold both their lives in his hands.

With these two huge personalities constantly bantering and flaring up with their own biting humor, the entertainment is pretty non-stop.  But aside from the battle of snark between them, we also get a long overdue look into a different side of their personalities. Link is not just the goofy cocky best friend of Ethan, and Ridley has more going on in her head that being the sultry dangerous siren.  We get a glimpse into their on-again-off-again relationship and their deepest well-hidden insecurities.   There’s also a few peeks at Ridley’s memories that lead to one really heart-wrenching twist to the story.

They encounter some great new characters in their move to New York.  The new band is made up of a heavily pierced Necromancer, an illusionist with eyes for Link, and a Darkborn with a seriously icy shell. Also introduced is Lennox Gates, a seemingly sinister character who definitely took me by surprise. I personally hope to see him in the next books of this series. 

Though it’s a pretty straight-forward plot of revenge with just a few slows in pacing after their arrival in NYC, the danger steadily builds as it careens toward an explosive climactic scene and a shocking cliffhanger ending.  As I suspected it would be, Link and Ridley’s first solo adventure proved to be one wild ride!

Find Margaret Stohl online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Find Kami Garcia online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Dangerous Creatures:  BN.Com   •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Becky's View: Unbreakable by Kami Garcia + Giveaway

Unbreakable by Kami Garcia
♦publisher: Little Brown BYR
♦release date: October 1st, 2013
♦hardcover, 320 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Legion, book 1
♦source: from trade

I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me.

When Kennedy Waters finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn’t know that paranormal forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into Kennedy’s room and destroy a dangerous spirit sent to kill her. The brothers reveal that her mother was part of an ancient secret society responsible for protecting the world from a vengeful demon — a society whose five members were all murdered on the same night.

Now Kennedy has to take her mother’s place in the Legion if she wants to uncover the truth and stay alive. Along with new Legion members Priest and Alara, the teens race to find the only weapon that might be able to destroy the demon — battling the deadly spirits he controls every step of the way.

Review: From start to finish, Unbreakable is a shot of adrenaline.  I tore through this one, literally in one dinner break at work and a few hours the next day. While is may not be ground-breakingly original or incredibly deep, I found it so entertaining and just a fun, exciting read.

Kennedy is ripped away from her good and fairly stable life when her mother dies suddenly.  She is about to be uprooted and put into boarding school, when twin brothers Jared and Lukas burst, quite literally, into her life in the middle of the night, heroically saving her from the same fate as her mother and cluing her in that she is a descendant of the Legion, a secret demon-fighting society.  Her mother was the only member of the society who didn't train their child to follow in her footsteps, which leaves Kennedy completely in the dark.  She finds herself a suspected runaway, having to put her trust in four strangers---the other children of the Legion, all of whom also lost their family on the same night as Kennedy. Now they are bound together, using each of their special skills to track down a mysterious demon-killing weapon and fight off the angry spirits that guard each piece.

The action was the star of this story---lots of exciting fights and some really spine-tingling horror moments.  The ghostly encounters were all incredibly creepy and the settings were the perfect backdrop: an old abandoned house, the bottom of a murky well, an orphanage with a sinister history, and a grisly old prison.   

I felt for Kennedy, she and her mother were close so she is battling many emotions; grief, a feeling of being completely alone, and an extreme doubt that the Legion has the right person as she feels so out of place.   I was a little torn on her relationship with the twins---I generally don't mind a love triangle, but hate when they involve two brothers.  However, the twins' relationship proved to be more complicated than that and their conflict about more than who gets the girl, thank goodness.  I did love Priest---I pictured him as a cool little guy with tons of attitude and a steampunk-ish look to him with his goggles and gadgets.  I actually can't remember if that was how he was described, but that was how he took shape in my head.  I also loved the kind of underlying maternal relationship between him and the outwardly bad-ass Alara.  

The ending was...well, the ending made me kind of mad. Made me feel like their whole quest was for nothing. BUT once I reminded myself that this was a series and there will be more to this story, I was okay with it.  It definitely made me wish I had the next book right now. 

Just a fun, fast read and definitely a perfect choice for a Halloween creep-fest!

Find Kami Garcia online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

 Purchase Unbreakable:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

 

Thanks to Little Brown, I have a copy of Unbreakable to give away! 
•US only, no PO Boxes (publisher's rules)
•Must be 13 or older 
•Ends 10/8/13

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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.

Unbreakable
by Kami Garcia

hitting shelves October 1st, 2013 from Little Brown

description: I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me.

When Kennedy Waters finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn’t know that paranormal forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into Kennedy’s room and destroy a dangerous spirit sent to kill her. The brothers reveal that her mother was part of an ancient secret society responsible for protecting the world from a vengeful demon — a society whose five members were all murdered on the same night.

Now Kennedy has to take her mother’s place in the Legion if she wants to uncover the truth and stay alive. Along with new Legion members Priest and Alara, the teens race to find the only weapon that might be able to destroy the demon — battling the deadly spirits he controls every step of the way.

Suspense, romance, and the paranormal meet in this chilling urban fantasy, the first book in a new series from Kami Garcia, bestselling coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures novels.

My thoughts:  I WANT THIS.  That cover just haunts me. Plus the fact that it's about ghosts..YAY! And the fact that it's by Kami Garcia---one half of one of my favorite writing duos!  This one can't come soon enough!

YAY!! The Beautiful Creatures movie has a TRAILER! :D

As a huge fan of Beautiful Creatures, I am completely excited that they are putting this on the silver screen.  A few of my favorite things about the books are the lush atmosphere, the deep-south setting, and the civil war flashbacks, and it definitely looks like they've got that all in there and have done it beautifully.  

What do you think? Will you be running to the movie theater as fast as I will be when this comes out? :D

Beautiful Creatures is due out in theaters February 13th, 2013!

Giveaway!! Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

It's finally here!! This is one of those books that I've literally been counting the days to, and it has finally hit the shelves! Today I am very excited to offer TWO of my lovely readers a chance to win the newest book in one of my favorite series:Beautiful Chaos description:

Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending. Ethan and Lena’s mesmerizing romance continues in the highly anticipated new Beautiful Creatures novel, coming October 18th.

* * * * *

Check out more about the series here:
http://beautifulcreaturesnovels.com/

* * * * *

Click here to enter!
Two winners will each receive one finished copy of Beautiful Chaos.
Winners chosen randomly with Random.org
Open to US residents only.
Contest closes November 7, 2011.

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.

Beautiful Chaos
by Margaret Stohl & Kami Garcia

hitting shelves October 18th from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

description:
Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What - or who - will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?

For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it isn't by Lena - and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself - forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask.

Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.

My thoughts: This is one of my favorites series ever. Loved Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness...I know I'm going to love this one, too.

2 Mini Reviews & 2 Fabulous Giveaways! Beautiful Darkness & Crescendo!

I decided to do mini-reviews of both these sequels, because there is just too much of a chance that I might give something away if I ramble on too long about them! And that would be a shame! I also skipped the publisher descriptions on these, but the title links to Goodreads where you can read the full info! Also, at the end of this post, you'll find a fabulous duo giveaway for a finished copy of each of these! Open internationally, and you can enter once for each one!! So here we go!!


Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

publisher: Little, Brown & Company

release date: October 12, 2010

hardcover, 512 pages

intended audience: Young adult

sequel to Beautiful Creatures (links to my review)

rating:


My review: Could I love this series any more than I do? I don't think so. The writing here is so beautiful. I said this about the first book as well, but these books makes you feel like you are in the south. You can feel the stickiness of the humidity on your skin, smell the lemon trees, and the timing is somehow both exciting and slow and lush like a hot day in Gatlin. The story continues just weeks after where BC left off, and Lena is in such a state of despair over what happened on her 16th birthday, that she's drawing away from everyone, including Ethan. She has started hanging around with the infamous Ridley and the mysterious Jon Breed, and Ethan must find a way to reach her before it's too late. So we are thrown even further into the Caster world this time: Ethan, Link, and Marian the Librarian's new keeper-in-training, Liv must brave the dark tunnels beneath Gatlin. Many surprises along the way, some involving Ethan's mother, the aunts, Macon, and even Ethan himself. I will say that almost no one is what they seem, not even the aunt's cat, Lucille Ball!! Definitely do not pass this one up, its every bit as wonderful as the first---in fact, I think I liked the second even more!

Get your copy at Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Book Depository


Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

release date: October 19, 2010

hardcover, 427 pages

intended audience: Young adult

Sequel to Hush, Hush (no review, this was before my blogging days, but I loved it!)

rating:

My Review: You know you're emotionally invested in a fictional couple when reading their story makes you as angry as I was while reading most of Crescendo!! :D There was a lot going on in this installment, it was incredibly fast paced and I loved every second of it, BUT my emotional reaction to almost everything Patch and Nora did was 'NOOO,....STOP!!! WHY??" Much like in the first book, the intrigue begins in the very first pages, where we get a glimpse of some mysterious past events and a little clue that maybe Nora's father might not have just run off from his family. Patch and Nora's blissful love quickly unravels when, in the heat of the moment, Nora tells him she loves him and he doesn't say it back, then goes further off the deep end when Patch starts showing up around town with Nora's arch-enemy Marcie Millar. The whole story twisted and turned, fueled by Nora's determination to piss off Patch and find out what really happened to her father. She is without a doubt, a much stronger character this time around (she even shuns her own guardian angel to stand on her own two feet, not the best idea with her danger-magnet track record, but it made her point that she was not having the Marcie situation.), but her jealously and anger land her in one hot spot after the next. It was irresistable to keep reading to solve all the mysteries: will they work it out?? What the heck does Patch see in Marcie?? And who the heck is this creepy Scott character, really?? Yet another fabulous case of "Nothing is as it seems!!"

Get your copy at Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Book Depository

GIVEAWAY!!!

So, there are my thoughts on both these fabulous books! Now it's your turn to get your hands on a copy!! I am sending out one copy of Beautiful Darkness and one copy of Crescendo to some lucky winners!! You can enter once for each book! The copies will be sent new from Book Depository, so this contest is International! Extra entries for my lovely followers and for promoting! Thanks everyone, and good luck!!

Enter HERE to win BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS!

Enter HERE to win CRESCENDO!

Both contests run until midnight, November 10, 2010

Beautiful Creatures Review & Beautiful Darkness News!!

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Released: December 1, 2009

Hardcover, 576 pages

rating:



Description from bn.com
There were no surprises in GatlinCounty.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Review: Ok, I realise I've been giving out the 5-cupcake rating like candy lately, but I'd have to say...LUCKY ME for picking up such fabulous books! :) This one is very deserving of my highest rating! I loved this books. It's a hefty book---at a whopping 576 pages, any book that long has the danger of dragging in parts. Not this one. Almost every chapter captivates, while others quietly and satisfyingly fill in little bits of story. Now, I have never been to the south except for a very short stay in Florida, but this book put you right into the whole southern experience. The sounds of the night, the culture, the looks and smells; I felt completely submerged. I could hear each characters heavy and charming drawl.
The story itself was amazing, it felt epic and magical, like Gone with the Wind written as a paranormal teen romance. The historical parts added just the right touch and were smoothly transitioned into. I loved the characters, the family dynamics (although it took me a bit to distinguish whether Amma was a grandmother or a nanny!), especially Lena's Uncle Macon and Ethan's aunts. I loved that your were constantly second-guessing which side certain characters were on. The romance between Lena and Ethan was sweet. It made me wonder what it would be like to have your feelings constantly displayed like "writing on the wall" (read the book---you'll understand this reference!) I admired that although Lena knew she was powerful and strong, she always had integrity when her name was being dragged through the mud and got her small revenges in funny yet harmless ways.

I don't want to give away too much. It was wonderful---if you haven't yet, read it!

And while I'm sure you've seen this over and over again around the blogosphere, I want to have it gracing my blog with loveliness as well!! The cover and synopsis to the next installment in this series were recently revealed and its gorgeous! I can't wait for this to release on October 26th, 2010!
Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.