Unravel by Calia Read

UNRAVEL Author: Calia Read Publication Date: 02/15/2014 Audience: New Adult Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Mystery  

 

Six months ago, I was happy. I was simply Naomi Carradine.

One month ago, I was admitted into a psych ward.

Yesterday, Lachlan visited me. Kissed me. And told me that I’m starting to lose my mind.

Hours later, Max haunted my thoughts, reminding me I’m not crazy and that he needs my help.

A few minutes ago, I drifted further from reality, trying to unravel the past.

And now...everyone thinks I’m insane. But, I know he's real, and I know he needs me.

Do you believe me?

  Picture and Summary from Goodreads     REVIEW

 

Oh my gosh I am having a time contemplating reality after reading Unravel. I mean I literally felt the MC's world unravelling around her. The story is told from the POV of Naomi, who starts the story in a Psychiatric Hospital. The entire book is spent glimpsing into her past while she tries to explain to her doctor why she's in the facility. To be truthful I had no idea until the last few chapters where the story was going. Now I feel like I need to reread it because I feel that there were clues...more Oh my gosh I am having a time contemplating reality after reading Unravel. I mean I literally felt the MC's world unravelling around her. The story is told from the POV of Naomi, who starts the story in a Psychiatric Hospital. The entire book is spent glimpsing into her past while she tries to explain to her doctor why she's in the facility. To be truthful I had no idea until the last few chapters where the story was going. Now I feel like I need to reread it because I feel that there were clues dropped along the way that I missed. The book itself is well written and fast paced. The story was a new experience for me, to put myself in the head of someone struggling with a psychiatric experience was mind warping, that plus the main issue at the heart of the story made the book an intense read.   ~ Goodreads ~

Deeper by Robin York

DEEPER CAROLINE & WEST #1 Author: Robin York Publication Date: 01/28/2014 Audience: New Adult Genre: Contemporary, Romance  

When Caroline Piasecki’s ex-boyfriend posts their sex pictures on the Internet, it destroys her reputation as a nice college girl. Suddenly her once-promising future doesn’t look so bright. Caroline tries to make the pictures disappear, hoping time will bury her shame. Then a guy she barely knows rises to her defense and punches her ex to the ground.

West Leavitt is the last person Caroline needs in her life. Everyone knows he’s shady. Still, Caroline is drawn to his confidence and swagger—even after promising her dad she’ll keep her distance. On late, sleepless nights, Caroline starts wandering into the bakery where West works.

They hang out, they talk, they listen. Though Caroline and West tell each other they’re “just friends,” their feelings intensify until it becomes impossible to pretend. The more complicated her relationship with West gets, the harder Caroline has to struggle to discover what she wants for herself—and the easier it becomes to find the courage she needs to fight back against the people who would judge her.

When all seems lost, sometimes the only place to go is deeper.

  Picture and Summary from Goodreads     REVIEW  

The issue at the heart of this book, revenge porn, is a seriously big problem in todays society.  Girls! Keep your naked pictures to yourself.  There is no need to share them with anyone because we are only human and just because you think you know someone doesn't mean you do.  There are some seriously mean and spiteful people out there.

 

The way Robin York weaves the story of Caroline had my heart breaking for her from page one.  I could really sense that Caroline put her full trust into someone she thought loved her only to turn around and have that person hurt her in one of the worst ways possible.  I really wanted to punch her ex in the face...with a hammer.. douche.

 

The characters that make up the main group are all so real. The bff who is a player, the love interest who comes from a shady past, the rugby player who swings both ways.  They all had something about them that made them so relatable. Sometimes in books the problems of the characters are so unbelieving or aren't really problems at all or are magically fixed.  Not the case here. Caroline's problem will probably never go away, it's the type of thing that will haunt her forever. West has had a messed up childhood and has done some dark things to get to where he is now and will have to go through even more to get to where he wants to be.

 

All throughout the book I was rooting for Caroline and West. When the end came around, I was left with so many questions!  Damn series.  Needless to say I'm looking forward to the next installment.  I'm hoping that Caroline and West get a happily ever after but with realistic fiction it's hard to know which way the author will swing. 

 

 

 

 

~ Goodreads ~

Covenant Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

HALF BLOOD COVENANT #1 Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout Publication Date: 10/18/2011 Audience: Young Adult Genre: Paranormal, Mythology, Romance  

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.

 

 

 

  PURE COVENANT #2 Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout Publication Date: 04/03/2012 Audience: Young Adult Genre: Paranormal, Mythology, Romance  

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.

 

 

 

  DEITY COVENANT #3 Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout Publication Date: 11/06/2012 Audience: Young Adult Genre: Paranormal, Mythology, Romance  

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...

 

 

 

APOLLYON COVENANT #4 Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout Publication Date: 04/04/2013 Audience: Young Adult Genre: Paranormal, Mythology, Romance  

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.

     


 
SENTINEL COVENANT #5 Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout Publication Date: 11/02/2013 Audience: Young Adult Genre: Paranormal, Mythology, Romance  

It's a beautiful day for a war.

As the mortal world slowly slips into chaos of the godly kind, Alexandria Andros must overcome a stunning defeat that has left her shaken and in doubt of their ability to end this war once and for all.

And with all the obstacles between Alex and her happily-ever-after with the swoonworthy Aiden St. Delphi, they must now trust a deadly foe as they travel deep into the Underworld to release one of the most dangerous gods of all time.

In the stunning, action-packed climax to the bestselling Covenant series, Alex must face a terrible choice: the destruction of everything and everyone she holds dear… or the end of herself.

 

 

 

Pictures and Summaries from Goodreads

 

 

 

REVIEW

 

 

*le sigh*

 

Yet another shining example of why Jennifer L. Armentrout rocks the book world.

 

This series!  So amazing!! It took over my life for, literally, three whole days.  Three whole days of doing nothing but reading these five books, one after the other.  How people waited in between book releases I have no idea. It was just that amazing, and that suspenseful, and that swoonworthy that I could NOT stop reading until I knew how it would all end. 

 

The basics are that it's a secret "society" I guess you could call it descending from the Greek gods, I love me some Greek mythology. At the center of the story is a girl, Alex, who is this half blood superchick.  She has spent her whole life training to be all badass and protect Pures but of course things go differently when her mother runs away with Alex in tow.  When we start the series Alex and her mom have been on the run for three years and things have just taken a turn for the worse, which in turn causes Alex to return to the Covenant and resume her training.

 

The characters that make up this series are so awesome and powerful and badass. Alex has some pretty solid friends (and higher ups) who have her back. I got attached to so many people and cried over more than a few. There is also a semi love triangle. I say semi because in my eyes it could have only gone one way (Team Aiden).

 

When I turned the last page of the last book I felt like I was losing a part of myself.  I no longer knew how to function in the real world without Alex and Aiden and the whole gang.  Talk about a serious book hangover!

 

 

 

Now for a little truth, I had half blood on my NOOK for a REALLY long time before actually reading it.  Mostly because the cover is not at all attractive. Yup, I judged a book by its cover which caused me to miss out on reading this series for longer than necessary.  Don't make the same mistake I did.  Read the Covenant series now!

 

 

 

~ Goodreads ~

 

 



Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE #1 Author: Laini Taylor Publication Date: 09/27/2011 Audience: YA/NA Genre: Fantasy
   

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

  Picture and Summary from Goodreads     REVIEW    I LOVE all the covers of this series.   I can't get over how amazing the writing in this book was. The book's world literally came to life while I was reading it and was never far from my mind when I wasn't reading it. I have never come across anything like it before. The storyline, the characters, the monsters were so incredibly unique and beautiful but also at times grotesque...I was constantly wondering how the author came up with all these ideas. I look forward to continuing this journey with the characters, I can't wait to see where the story will lead them.

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