Review: On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

On the Edge (The Edge, #1) by Ilona Andrews

Release Date: September 29, 2009

Publisher: Ace
Author Information: Website / Blog / Twitter / Facebook
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance

Available Formats: Paperback and eBook
My Shelf: Want to Buy
Other Series: Kate Daniels series
Buy the Book: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Books-A-Million

Rose Drayton lives on the Edge, between the world of the Broken (where people drive cars, shop at Wal-Mart, and magic is a fairy tale) and the Weird (where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny). Only Edgers like Rose can easily travel from one world to the next, but they never truly belong in either.

Rose thought if she practiced her magic, she could build a better life for herself. But things didn’t turn out how she planned, and now she works a minimum wage, off the books job in the Broken just to survive. Then Declan Camarine, a blueblood noble straight out of the deepest part of the Weird, comes into her life, determined to have her (and her power).

But when a terrible danger invades the Edge from the Weird, a flood of creatures hungry for magic, Declan and Rose must work together to destroy them—or they’ll devour the Edge and everyone in it.

Review:

How do you know when a book is going to be amazing? When the main character has to shot her zombie grandfather to prevent him from eating dogs’ brains, yells at one of her younger brothers for bringing the dead back to life and tattle tailing, and scolding the other brother, a feline shapeshifter, for constantly chasing and eating birds. All within the first 10 pages. She then proceeds to almost run over royalty and kill off an evil hell hound, all while getting a pretty good deal on a new pair of sneakers for one brother. Yep, this book is going to be a good one!

Simply put, On the Edge is pure, unadulterated satisfaction. The world Rose, her brothers, and Declan lives in is brilliantly crafted and rife with originality. I loved discovering more about their world, and Andrews does a wonderful job in presenting it, making the dynamics of The Broken, The Edge, and The Weird easy to understand. The characters were also exquisitely done. Rose is prickly and untrusting, but with her attempted-kidnapping track record, it is easy to understand why. She has the ability to use white flash, a type of magic only used by nobles in The Weird, and this ability makes her a valuable commodity in The Edge. Not one to be used or walked on because of her magic, she tends to shoot first and ask questions later. She is fiercely loyal to her brothers, and I admired her resilience and strength. Declan is perfect for Rose. He is a noble from The Weird, a trained fighter with white flash abilities of his own. He is egotistical (but Rose quickly puts him in his place), infuriating, swoon-worthy, and unabashedly protective of Rose and everyone in her life. Together, Rose and Declan make a great pair, and I loved watching their relationship develop. To top everything off, there was Jack and George. I LOVED THEM. If there was a way I could put them in my pocket and keep them forever, I would do it. Even though they are young, they are mature and knowledgeable, and despite having completely different personalities, there is a strong brotherly bond between them that tugs at the heart and left me grinning like a ninny.

Overall, this book was everything I expected from Ilona Andrews and more. On the Edge is the beginning of what I am sure will be an amazing new series, and I cannot wait to read the next installment!

The Greatest Escape!

Review: My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent

My Soul to Save (Soul Screamers, #2) by Rachel Vincent

Release Date: December 29, 2009

Publisher: Harlequin

Author Information:  Website / Blog / Twitter / Facebook

Genre: Paranormal

Available Formats: Paperback and eBook
My Shelf: Want to Buy

Other Books in Series: My Soul to Lose (#0.5), My Soul to Take (#1)
Buy the Book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Books-A-Million

When Kaylee Cavanaugh screams, someone dies.

So when teen pop star Eden croaks onstage and Kaylee doesn’t wail, she knows something is dead wrong. She can’t cry for someone who has no soul.

The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad’s ironclad curfew and putting her too-hot-to-be-real boyfriend’s loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls: a flickering lifetime of fame and fortune in exchange for eternity in the Netherworld—a consequence they can’t possibly understand.

Kaylee can’t let that happen, even if trying to save their souls means putting her own at risk...

Review:

Oh, my disappoint runs deep. After having loved the first book, maybe my expectations were too high for this one? Regardless, I am disappointed. I enjoyed this book, but that is about the extent of it. I have no resonant feelings or thoughts concerning the story, making My Soul to Save just….forgettable. It’s a decent read and a passable sequel, but nothing more.

I think the thing I am most dissatisfied with is the change in character personality and dynamic. Was Kaylee always that infuriating and headstrong? Did she always come across as a grating know-it-all, and this is just my first time noticing? I really liked her in the first book, but she seemed to have undergone a change for the worst in this one. Nash is much the same as before, but seeing as how I did not really care for him before says little. However, the person that changed the most was Tod. Seriously, Tod’s personality did a complete 180. What happened to his snarkiness and snubbery that I loved in the first book? Also, he never striked me as a character who would lie and risk Kaylee’s life, especially when he went out of his way to save her and her family last time. In this book, he just seemed uncaring and stubborn, and not at all like the Tod I was hoping to see more of. I was also hoping for some more reconciliation/emotional bonding moments between Kaylee and her father, but there was little to none of that either.

However, the one thing that irritated me the most in this book was Nash and Kaylee’s ‘love.’ While I never particularly cared for Kaylee and Nash’s relationship in My Soul toTake, this book quickly turned my mundane feelings for their romance into hardcore resentment and hate. There is no depth to their feelings for one another. They do not have any heartfelt discussions, no exchange of feelings. Kaylee wonders a few times what Nash wants from her and what he sees in her, and that question is never answered, which made me even more disenchanted with their ‘romance.’ They just seem like hormone-filled, lustful teenagers whose relationship only consists of (heavy) pawing at one another. For me, their relationship has become intolerable.

I also never understood why they tried so hard to save Addison. I could not see why they would risk everything, especially their lives, to save a pop star they hardly knew. She made her bed, so she should lay in it. I know it seems uncompassionate of me to say these things, but even at the end of the novel, Nash was yelling at Addison to quit thinking of herself and to get her head out of her rear. So why, WHY, WHY, would you risk your life to save someone like her? It made no sense to me, and I was not buying it.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, this book is a decent read, just not was I was expecting. (Please excuse all my ranting.) The story did have some good points, such as delving into the idea of selling your soul for fame and fortune. I also liked discovering more of the Netherworld and its components/inhabitants. I hope the next book in the series, My Soul to Keep, proves to be better than this one. I am going to try and lower my expectations this time around.

A Decent Escape

Review: My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

My Soul to Take (Soul Screamers, #1) by Rachel Vincent

Release Date: August 1, 2009

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Author Information: Website / Blog / Twitter / Facebook

Genre: Paranormal

Available Formats: Paperback and eBook
My Shelf: Want to Buy

Other Books in Series: My Soul to Lose (#0.5)
Buy the Book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Books-A-Million

She doesn't see dead people. She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next.

Review:

I LOVED this book. To be honest, I am actually pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it. Based on the synopsis, I was expecting something about a girl hung up on the “hottest guy in school,” with some awkward standard paranormal elements added in to make a typical YA paranormal+romance story concoction.  However, this book had none of that, for which I am very grateful. My Soul to Take is refreshingly original, beautifully written, and something you should not miss out on.

My favorite thing about this book was the paranormal/mythology components present. This is my first time reading a book about banshees, and it proved to be a very enlightening and entertaining read. I liked learning the mythology behind banshees (and I also like how there are male banshees), and it is nice to have some deviation from the typical vampire/werewolf/faerie/[insert any other common fantastical being here] stories found in abundance nowadays. The characters were well-crafted, and for what feels like the first time in a long time, none of them annoyed me. Kaylee is definitely one of the better female leads out there, and she is smart and quick on her feet. I am partially in love with Tod and his snarky demeanor, and I hope we get to see more of him in the next book. Nash was a little too one-dimensional for my tastes, but I did not mind him so much. The romance between Nash and Kaylee suffers from insta-love, and it was my least favorite part of the book. I am actually hoping for something to happen between Tod and Kaylee myself, since Tod actually has some (interesting) depth to him and I loved the interactions between the two of them. However, this book does not focus on the romance that much, so Kaylee and Nash’s relationship was bearable. Maybe I am just over the whole ‘popular playboy who falls for the unnoticed one’ dynamic, but nonetheless, I am hoping something to develop between Kaylee and Tod. *crosses fingers* Maybe I should just be happy with what I get and be appreciative of the fact that there is no love triangle. A bad romance trumps a love triangle any day.

     Not that kind of bad romance...

This book has become one of my new guilty pleasures. I am almost embarrassed to admit how much I am looking forward to reading the second book! My Soul to Take was SO GOOD, and if the next book, My Soul to Save, is even half as good as this one, then I am sure I will love it. This story is imaginative and rather unprecedented, and I cannot wait for more. Here’s to finding a new series to obsess over!

The Greatest Escape!