Author: Sara

Tuesday Top Ten-Favorite Fandom Labels

10 Comments

Hey guys, treat how is it going everyone? I hope you’re all having a wonderful week so far.

I want to warn you! Its five days into NaNoWriMo, order and both myself and Christina Marie are participating, this web in our different ways. Well, because of this, there may be less posts. We are going to do our best this month to keep up as best as possible, and that you’re incredibly patient with us.

This week’s Tuesday Top Ten is the top Ten Fandom Identifiers that I love. You know, when you meet Harry Potter fan and they immediately ask what house you are in? Or a Percy Jackson fan will ask you what god you’re a child of? You know what I’m talking about!

So here are ten groups that I am proudly a part of and why! Share with me what yours are!

10. Mage from the Tortall Series

Image 10

Here’s the thing about the Tortall series: its like a YA version of Game of Thrones, except that Tortall came out first. But who is keeping track? Anyway, the point is that there are knights and soldiers and noble ladies and merchants and all of that fun stuff. And all I can think of is, do you really want to put ME of all people near a sword? I tripped and twisted my foot when walking down Main Street in Disneyland. I’d probably chop my own head off, no lie. But the one thing that always stood out to me was the mages. I loved that they were born with this magic and it was deep within them and they had to learn to wield it and control. I also love that your Gift would be a certain color. I’d like to think mine would be pink. Because that would be SERIOUSLY awesome. But yeah, I would be a mage if I lived in Tortall. I would make it so that I was born that way. Somehow.

9. Elf from Lord of the Rings

Image 9

I’m not going to lie, a huge reason why I want to be an elf is not even about the immortality or the beauty or even the sexy sexy Orlando Bloom as Legolas. Those are all great reasons as well but my main reason is…do you see where they live? Its like a beautiful Impressionist painting. I remember seeing it the first time in The Fellowship of the Ring and dying of happiness at how incredibly beautiful it is. If I lived forever, Rivendell is definitely on the list of places to spend that forever. Plus, like I said before, they are incredibly beautiful and full of a ton of wisdom, which, you know, totally describes me. And hair…its like a damn shampoo commercial up in there!

8. Pokemon Trainer from Pokemon

Image 8

Okay, is there anything else to be in that world? Seriously? Like, the people who work in the Poke Mart or who are working in the casino or Safari Zone and that…why would you do that! Why would you not be a Pokemon master? Or trainer? Or something? I just want to own all the Pokemon and have a Pokemon party, and dress them up in a little costumes and name them all after book characters…and…okay I’m slightly obsessed with Pokemon. Its fun. I first got into it when I was a kid and I’ve continued to love it. I think it was just kind of a fun concept as a kid, going out into the world, on an adventure, and catching these amazing creatures.

7. Amity from Divergent

Image 7

It was really hard for me to pick a faction in Divergent because I want to be Divergent! I think, legitimately, everyone is divergent and embodies multiple characteristics. But in the spirit of the book, I eventually thought Amity fit kind of well, and I took a test and I was mostly Amity with a splash of Erudite. The Erudite value wisdom and knowledge, which seems to go hand in hand with some of the other ones you’ll see on this list. But Amity really fits me too. Amity is the peaceful and the friendly. They created the peace serum. They grow food and love to eat awesome foods, and they were bright colors and they just kind of sound like hippies. I am a very peaceful person, really, I hate drama and fights and confrontation, and I love food. Plus do you see their symbol? Its absolutely beautiful!

6. District 4 from The Hunger Games

district 42

I realize that no matter what district you live in, it pretty much sucks because everyone is hungry and poor and could possibly compete-and die-in the Hunger Games. But even so, I choose District 4. I wanted to pick whatever district that was California since this is future-USA but when I saw a map of Panem, it was under water…you know, like most dystopian novels. So the next best thing was district 4 because its the fishing district, which equals ocean! Gotta have my ocean. And I only eat fish when it comes to meat so that works out too! Plus is Finnick Odair is my favorite character of the entire series so I’ll hang out with him in that district.

5. Huntress of Artemis from Percy Jackson

image 5

Yeah, I wouldn’t be a child of god or goddess. Mostly because since I was a kid, I was obsessed with Artemis. I got really involved with feminism and women’s rights when I was young and Artemis was like a badass Greek feminist, and she had her cool pack of hounds, and her silver bow, and denounced men. Its all just awesome. I do realize that if I actually became a Huntress, I would have to give up my boyfriend and that really sucks, and that part is kind of lame. Boys are awesome, at times. At least to look at, if nothing else. But I like the idea of having a bow, and working with Artemis. She has the best stories and she’s the goddess of hunting (which makes no sense as a vegetarian but whatever) and the moon, and I love her. I would follow her for sure.

4. Companion of the Doctor from Doctor Who

Image 4

Come on! I could be MYSELF! I could literally be myself! I want the Doctor to show up on my doorstep, and open the door and say “Allons-y” or “Fantastic!” or “Geronimo!” and I would shout back “YES!” and run right down into the TARDIS, in pajamas, most likely. I would be so excited. I wouldn’t even know where to go first, but I would let the Doctor get us lost through time and space, and do amazing things. The best part of Doctor Who is the beauty of the impossible and the encouragement of imagination and creativity, and it would be amazing to be a part of that. Being with the Doctor is like having your wildest dreams come true, and so much more. Plus I could spend lots of time exploring the TARDIS, which would be super fun, and maybe visit the ginormous library, or take a dip in the swimming pool. Sigh.

3. Shadowhunter from The Mortal Instruments

image 3

I would KILL to be a Shadowhunter. Its such a cool thing to be. I mean, sure, werewolves, and vampires and warlocks and faeries are all really cool. There are a lot of really cool things in The Mortal Instruments but being a Shadowhunter is top dog. They are badass, they get to wear black all the time and no one says they’re stupid or a mall goth or anything. They have the Runes, which are beautiful and make them fast or agile or help with their precision, and things like that. They get use all kinds of cool weapons like daggers and knives and long seraph blades and bows and whips, and they keep the world safe from demons. They live in beautiful churches, and travel around the world, and the homeland, Idris, is beautiful and perfect. Plus they have cool names like Herondale and Lightwood, Fairchild, Morgenstern, Penhallow, and such. Its so beautiful. I also think I could be myself if I was a Shadowhunter. Sara Shadowhunter.

2. Jedi Knight from Star Wars

image dos

What I really want to be is Princess Leia but that’s not really a category in Star Wars to be so….a Jedi Knight is really awesome. Plus, Leia eventually gets Jedi training, and can use a lightsaber and such so THAT is awesome. I’ve been watching Star Wars since I was a child, and I always thought Jedis were so great. They were warriors but peaceful warriors. Warriors that are in control, and wield these awesome weapons, made of LIGHT, like lightsabers. They have the power of the Force. They get to navigate the coolest vehicles, like X-Wing fighters and such. And their costumes are pretty awesome too. I would also like to think that I’d be part of the Rebel Alliance, a hidden Jedi come to save the Galaxy from the evil Galactic empire.

1. Ravenclaw from Harry Potter

1683_353580488096153_904545234_n

My ultimate identifier. I have a Doctor Who tattoo and a Star Wars tattoo but I have a Ravenclaw tattoo. This is one that I embrace all the time. I represent it all the time. I try to put blue and silver into my every day outfits. I tend to pick out blue when it comes to choosing colors. When I get married, my colors are going to be blue and silver. I feel like I represent Ravenclaw in so many ways. Smart, always reading, wanting to learn, keeping to themselves, because they’re wrapped in learning and books. Its so me. They live in the highest tower, facing the mountains and little professor Flitwick is the head of House. I have so many amazing friends, from different walks of life and with different talents and careers, that are all Ravenclaw. We are unique and awesome. Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.

*      *      *      *      *

I hope you all enjoyed this week’s Tuesday Top Ten!

Share with me your own houses and such!

Happy Tuesday!

Olivia Twisted Book Review

1 Comment

Olivia Twisted by Vivi Barnes

17343436

 

This review is based on an advanced reader’s e-copy, ask acquired through Entangled Teen. This in no way, shape or form had any effect on my honest review. Thank you Heather Riccio, at Entangled, for granting me access to this novel. 


You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

 

GoodReads Summary:

Olivia

He tilts my chin up so my eyes meet his, his thumb brushing lightly across my lips. I close my eyes. I know Z is trouble. I know that being with him is going to get me into trouble. I don’t care. 

At least at this moment, I don’t care.

Tossed from foster home to foster home, Olivia’s seen a lot in her sixteen years. She’s hardened, sure, though mostly just wants to fly under the radar until graduation. But her natural ability with computers catches the eye of Z, a mysterious guy at her new school. Soon, Z has brought Liv into his team of hacker elite—break into a few bank accounts, and voila, he drives a motorcycle. Follow his lead, and Olivia might even be able to escape from her oppressive foster parents. As Olivia and Z grow closer, though, so does the watchful eye of Bill Sykes, Z’s boss. And he’s got bigger plans for Liv…

Z

I can picture Liv’s face: wide-eyed, trusting. Her smooth lips that taste like strawberry Fanta. 

It was just a kiss. That’s all. She’s just like any other girl. 

Except that she’s not.

Thanks to Z, Olivia’s about to get twisted

My Review:

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I was sent an ARC by Entangled, that I trust because they are in charge of Jennifer L. Armentrout’s books and goodness, those books are AMAZING. So I was definitely intrigued on reading Vivi Barnes novel. Because I received an advanced e-copy of it, I definitely knew this was a book that I had to read.

There’s also been this urge to read some good contemporary novels. Sure, there’s the whole hacking angle of this novel but there’s no fantasy or dystopian or science fiction in it. Those are all my favorite things to read but I’ve really needed a break, and I was so glad to be able to dive into this book.

I think that Vivi is able to write an incredibly compelling and real story, wrapped around this sexy nature of computer hacking. She makes the idea of getting on a computer and hacking into someone’s profile or bank account seem like an extremely fun and sexy thing to do. And this is coming from someone’s identity has been hacked several times. Its a way of making a talent out of something that may not seem like it. To be able to do this requires strategy, intelligence, forward thinking and thinking outside of the box and I think she shows that. I think, with the ending she provides, it also encourages using those kind of skills for good though haha.

The love story is very sweet too. Olivia and Z have a sort of rocky romance, due to both of them having their own problems, especially when it comes to issue of trust. Both have lived in foster homes, have been left to their own devices, and its hard to trust anyone, no matter WHO they are. But the gradual build up was enough to leave any reader panting for more. When their relationship does develop, and they begin to trust and care for each other, its just super sweet and beautiful. Plus, Z just fits my typical fictional crush. I love the distant, aloof, hilarious, sarcastic bad boys and he fits that profile so beautifully that the minute he showed up on page, I knew I was going to be in love with by the end of the book.

I also want to commend Vivi for really addressing this sort of orphan/foster kid story. The idea of an orphan in a YA novel is nothing new. Most of the time, in these kind of novels, they are orphans. But she really addresses it, the effect that it can have on these children, how they can feel abandoned and mistreated and abused. I know that the story was a sort of re-telling of Oliver Twist (which, admittedly, I’ve never read) so there was a parallel there but I appreciated it nonetheless. It really calls your attention to this problem. Sure, Harry Potter is an orphan but there aren’t kids out there being killed by evil dark wizards, and that sort of thing. Parents with drug addictions, kids forced into foster homes, and shuttled from one home to another, this is so real, and its such a problem that I think people don’t think of. If there was one thing that someone got from that story, it would be that this is problem that we need to continually tackle.

This book is fun, a super fast read, and full of romance, action, humor and drama, and is a commendable debut for Vivi Barnes. I eagerly await future stories from her and I wish her a TON of luck in the future!

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

NaNoWriMo-Intro to My Novel and My Main Characters!

5 Comments

Hey guys! Its the 4th day of NaNoWriMo. How is everyone doing so far?

I’m actually doing really great! My goal was to be at 20K words by the end of the month on my novel. I’ve already been writing for about a month, more about and realized that I was at about 15K words, already. So that was exciting. I wrote day one and day two, and none yesterday, and I’m at just past 18K words. That’s fantastic. So I upped my goal to 35K by the end of the month, so I still have that 20K goal.

But anyway, now that I’ve introduced you all to my plan for NaNoWriMo post here, and you saw where I write and what I need to write in Friday’s post.

So today, you’ll learn what my novel is actually about and you’ll meet my main characters, and my important secondary characters.

My Novel Synopsis: 

Katy Valentine has a normal life in Brooklyn, NY, going to baseball games with her dad, spending nights dancing at clubs with her best friend, Madison, and trying as best as she can to avoid her next door neighbor and bane of her existence, Ash Matthews. Things are predictable, but normal and Katy is happy. That’s when the Z virus hits. Within a month, a huge chunk of the population has fallen ill, and died due to this mysterious virus. Before anyone can figure out what it is, or where it came from, the bodies of the victims disappear, all over the country. Katy ends up locked inside her own house, scared to go outside, scared to let anyone in, until suddenly the bodies reappear, and its like every zombie movie come to life. Except this time, they’re faster, they’re smarter, and they work together to get the one thing they want.  And the only thing they crave, the only thing they fight for, is human flesh.

Meeting My Main Characters

Katherine “Katy” Valentine

The 411: Katherine, also known as Katy, is the main character of my novel, the protagonist. She’s eighteen years, and a senior in high school at St. Joseph’s Prep, which is a Catholic private school. She is a non-practicing Catholic though, mostly because she and her dad would rather watch sports on Sunday mornings. She is living in Brooklyn, NY, with her father, and her dog, Bandit. Most of her time is spend hanging out with her best friend, Madison, reading as many fantasy and science fiction novels as possible and going to listen to live bands and dancing. She has a fun personality around the people knows but can sometimes be judgmental and sarcastic around those she doesn’t know, or like. She has a sort of dry sense of humor, and when she’s feeling particularly scared or nervous, she tends to have more sarcastic comments. She tackles a lot of things with sarcasm.

The Physical: Katy is five foot four, with long brown hair, and really large brown eyes, with an olive skin tone that she gets from her dad’s Italian side of the family. She is Irish on her mom’s side. She’s strongly built, and has legs that are her major strength, and she’s very swift. She’s taking gun lessons, and she has the arm strength but has terrible aim, and has to continually work on it.

Conflict: Katy is going to spend a lot of the novel, figuring out how to open herself to trust other people, especially people who have earned her distrust, especially when it comes to Ash and her mother.

Name: I picked the name Katy because its a name that I really enjoy, and its a name that I’m always sticking in my stories. I think its fun when its Katy, but classy and traditional as Katherine. It means “pure”, which is completely unintentional. I am playing with that though, and you’ll have to read the novel to find out!

Ash Matthews

The 411: Ash Matthews is the second main character of the novel. He has lived next door to Katy and her father since they were nine years old. He is very important to the story, but since we are in third person, everything that we get of him is through Katy’s perspective. He’s a jock, as quarterback on the football team and a pitcher for the baseball team at St. Joseph’s Prep. He is full of humor and pranks, and spends most of his team teasing Katy and calling her “Kates”, and playing pranks on her at school. He tends to be the life of the party, and he has a hard time taking anything seriously. He’s dating Heather Carr, who is equal to him in popularity. While Katy tends to meet things with sarcasm, he tends to meet it with humor, and its hard sometimes for him to take things seriously.

The Physical: Ash is very well built, and athletic, due to his sports experience. He is 6’4, and has strong arms, and legs, wide shoulders and a narrow waist. He has messy brown hair, and impossibly pale blue eyes, and freckles all across the front of his face. He’s built very athletically, and is great health. He always has a smile on his face, and has many different ones. He has  genuine smile, a teasing smile, a smirk, a flirtatious smile.

Conflict: Ash is going to struggle with his own emotions in the novel, being able to accept them, and being able to take things seriously and not always meet it with humor.

Name: Ash has gone through a ton of names before I finally settled on Ash. First he was Nate. Then I realized it basically Nate and Kate, and that’s just kind of weird, so I ditched it. Then it was Lucas, and I realized that every boy character in YA is named Lucas so then I ditched that too. His name is Ash, which literally means “from the ash tree”. I liked the name, is the story there. Maybe. Read the novel :)

Meeting My Main Secondary Characters 

Madison Wu

Madison is Katy’s best friend. She is Asian American and lives with her parents and her three younger sisters. She’s incredibly ambitious, as a member of the Honors Society, the student class president and the dance committee chair. She’s dating Ash’s best friend, Brody, and is constantly trying to hook Katy up with Ash, despite his constant teasing. She’s a bundle of energy, and is always convincing Katy to get out of the house and go and have a great time.

I honestly picked Madison because its pretty, and because her parents are society people, and named their kids “Madison, Lexington, Victory and Brooklyn” because they love New York so much. It was kind of fun to do that.

Frank Valentine

Frank is Katy’s father. He is full Italian and has lived in their brownstone in Brooklyn since he was a kid, and inherited it from his dad when he passed away. He and Katy’s mom married young, when they got pregnant, and lived with his parents, until they divorced and Jennifer moved back to Nebraska, where she grew up. He is a cop for the Brooklyn PD and is very dedicated to his job, and works long hours, leaving Katy to kind of fend for herself. They are really close though, and spend a lot of their days at Mets games. He is also VERY protective of Katy, requiring her to take gun lessons, and constantly sliding pamphlets about self-defense and rape awareness under her bedroom door. He’s average height, black hair, brown eyes, and has the olive tone of his Italian family. He’s built healthy, and his hands are calloused and covered in scars.

Frank means “free” or “truthful”, which plays a lot into the character that Frank will become.

Jennifer Flynn

Jennifer is Katy’s mother. She lived with Katy and her father in the brownstone in Brooklyn until she and Frank divorced when Katy was 10 years and she returned back to Nebraska, where she grew up. She remarried a man by the name of Caspar Flemming but kept her maiden name Flynn. Her and Katy have a very rocky relationship, ever since Katy made the decision to live full time in Brooklyn with her dad. She’s mostly Irish, with a hint of Scottish background, and has dark blonde hair and blue eyes and works as a second grade teacher. I can’t say much more than that because you learn more of her character as the book go along.

Jennifer means “Fair Phantom”, and yes, that was done on purpose. ;)

Razi Cylon

I can’t say anything about her except that she’s the antagonist of the novel and that her name was chosen very carefully. I wanted a name that was fairly unique and a name that you could remember. I wanted something that worked well for an older woman, and this name really stood out to me. I looked up the meaning, and it meant “my secret”, and that is going to play out very well.

*      *      *      *

I hope you all enjoyed learning a little bit about my novel, and about the main characters that you’ll meet in the novel!

I’m working on a title, and I’m going to be having a contest/giveaway for my novel. It will be posted tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest and I hope you all can participate!

Now, I gotta get to writing, since it’s day four and I haven’t written anything!

Happy Writing Everyone!

Ten by Gretchen McNeil Book Review

Leave a comment

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

11958033

 

 


You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., site the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

My Review:

I have to make one thing very, very clear: I don’t like horror or scary or thriller type of stories, for the most part. Its just not my cup of tea. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times I went to go see a scary movie with friends in high school, and being asked to leave because another moviegoer complained about me laughing so hard during the movie. I find scary movies/novels hilarious. My boyfriend and I watched the old school Evil Dead the other day, and I just couldn’t stop laughing.

So its not easy for me to jump into a horror novel. BUT I absolutely LOVE Gretchen McNeil; she is a fabulous person, and a seriously inspiring author and I loved her novel, 3:59. I bought Ten when I met her at 3:59 release in Redondo Beach, so I knew I had to dive into it.

And I was pleasantly surprised at how much I LOVED this novel. Maybe these kind of stories are meant to be told in written form, and not in a visual format, because not once did I laugh…at the story. I laughed at the intentional humor, but I was generally addicted to the story, scared of what was going to happen next or who was going to die next, and I know there is NO way I could have read this in the dark.

Gretchen made this book feel so REAL. It felt so much like a movie plot line BUT just so much more real. She had the story thought out so much that each and every step, every small detail added up to an incredibly story and an incredible reveal that I did NOT see coming in the slightest. I kind of pride myself in knowing the “whodunnit” before they reveal it but I didn’t see this at all. When it was revealed, I literally gasped out loud. I couldn’t believe it! A really good scary story will surprise you like that, and this is one of the first to do that!

I was also genuinely scared. The murders that happened in this book were all vicious and scary, and gruesome. I was shocked at all. I think because I don’t really read horror and there isn’t a lot of YA horror, I just wasn’t prepared for it. Every time a person died, I was gasping. I couldn’t believe it, and I was usually fairly grossed out too. Like, really, Gretchen, you killed him/her THAT way? Way to be as gruesome as possible. But it was perfect. Everything about it felt real and disgusting and scary. She had the right amount of thrill and anticipation throughout the entire novel that made it so hard not be scared.

It was also the perfect choice for Halloween week as well. It really put me in a creepy mood and it also made me more likely to dive into scary novels again. I think being able to experience the tension through words instead of visuals worked a lot better for me. I think, since I’m such a visual person, I can see those foreshadowed moments and the hidden clues better in a movie than in a book and so I was completely captivated by this book, from beginning to end.

I can’t wait to read more from Gretchen. Her books have completely impressed me thus far, and she truly is an amazing person. I will add also that I love that she includes diversity like its the easiest thing in the world, because it SHOULD be. Beautiful. Definitely pick up this book.

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

*      *      *      *      *     *

Sentinel by Jennifer L. Armentrout Review

2 Comments

Sentinel by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Sentinel_cover_mockup14-300x450

 

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

 

GoodReads Summary:

As the mortal world slowly slips into chaos of the godly kind, treatment 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 swoon worthy Aiden St. Delphi, information pills 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, thumb 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.

My Review:

Please be aware while this review will NOT have spoilers for Sentinel, I cannot in any way guarantee there will not be spoilers for Half-Blood, Pure, Deity, Elixir or Apollyon. Please visit my book reviews page to read those! 

I’m not sure what I expected when I was reading this book but every single thing that happened was completely not in my line of expectations. I could call Sentinel the book of plot twists. There were so many surprises at every turn that there is no way on earth I could have ever predicted how this story would go. But that was a good thing! This novel was an emotional roller coaster taking us from hot and steamy scenes between Alex and Aidan into epic battles and fight scenes to completely emotional moments that made you want to cry. Every page was a surprise, taking us further into the unexpected, and you keep reading, because you just HAVE to know what happens next.

Jennifer creates a beautiful story, to wrap up a five book series. Do you know how hard it is to write a five book series and keep an audience captivated until the very last page? Its incredibly hard, and I think there’s a lot of authors that struggle with this. This is why, sometimes, when I read series, I find myself feeling less interested and less captivated as I get further in the series. This is so opposite for the Covenant series and especially of Sentinel. I am addicted until the very last page, where tears were running down my face, in sadness, in happiness, in completely satisfaction.

She takes the story that we’ve come so familiar with in the past four novels and two novellas, and creates an ending that is both very believable and very realistic but that would make any reader of the series feel like she did right by her story and her characters. The journey that the characters take is a rough one. They must face down Ares, a vindictive, determined, extremely powerful god, and his legion of half bloods and pures and compelled mortals, as well as Alex’s Apollyon counterpart, Seth. And the direction the story takes them, all of them, is a surprise to me. I can’t say too much without ruining any of the story but the outcomes of certain characters were definitely unexpected but seemed to fit perfectly with the story, and the events that take place in this finale.

Plus, Jennifer just tells great stories. She writes an action scene, and you’re clutching the pages in excitement while simultaneously Googling how to learn hand to hand combat. She weaves humor into almost every moment in her novel, keeping us still breathing, even when our hearts are breaking. She understands friendships and family, sacrifice, and battle and war, she understands romance and she understands fear and love and bravery and selfishness and so many other emotions and she can put so many of those into the stories, and it all feels so real.

And she can write a steamy scene like no body else. She is able to write a beautiful, romantic, hot and heavy scene that leaves you blushing and wishing very much for a cold shower, but she keeps it tasteful and classy, and in a way that fits so perfectly in her young adult novels. She addresses it responsibly, of course, but she knows that two people in love, whether they’re teenagers or adults, are going to experience that sort of intimacy and she does it so beautifully. Any time that Alex and Aidan share a steamy scene, I felt myself getting more comfortable and diving in, because she is SO good at romance, and because I love Aidan and Alex, and I LOVE them as a couple.

Simply put, any fan of this series is going to be so satisfied by the end of this novel. I thought it was an incredibly fitting ending, for all of the characters, and I felt like, while there was a heartbreak, there was also hope and happiness as well. I think it wraps up the story very well, but also shows that the story can continue as well, in our own minds and hearts and I think that’s beautiful. Definitely a must read for fans, you will most definitely enjoy it!

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

*      *      *      *      *

Fictional Crush of the Week-Jared Lyburn from The Lyburn Legacy

Leave a comment

Happy Saturday everyone! Enjoy this week’s Fictional Crush of the Week!

Character Name:

Jared Lynburn

tumblr_mi1ev0E4F31qck31zo1_1280

Book or Series They Appear In:

The Lynburn Legacy

Unspoken, search Untold, cheapest the yet to be released Unmade

Author:

Sarah Rees Brennan

Played By: 

No One…Yet. (Hey, nurse a girl can hope)

Who They Are:

Jared Lynburn is the main male character in the Lynburn Legacy. When we first meet Jared, he is a voice inside of Kami’s head, her best friend in the entire world, though she’s never met him and she doesn’t even know if he’s real. He is kind, caring, fun, and he’s there for Kami at every moment of the day, and as a voice, you’re already in love with him. Then you meet Jared in real life, and he’s isn’t quite the same as he was in Kami’s head. He’s gorgeous, in a harsher way in comparison to his cousin, Ash. He is sarcastic, and biting, and has a hard time showing his emotions.

Why I Am Crushing On Them: 

One, he kind of reminded me of Jace Wayland when I started reading the books. Then I learned there was Jace and Jared slash fic, and well, I haven’t gone there yet, but I am very interested in it.

But back to Jared. Jared is super handsome, even though he’s not immediately supposed to be. He has that bad boy thing going for him, with the leather jacket (though its brown) and his permanent scowl. But he has that sense of humor, with the sarcasm and the one-liners. It won me over, right away, even though there are parts in the novel where you want to punch him in the face.

I also think he’s incredibly brave. He sometimes plays things off, like he doesn’t care about anyone or even himself, but he proves himself over and over again. He has a hard past, being raised by a horrible dad and a fairly absent mother, and then he finds out who his real dad is, and he has a lot of burden on his shoulders for someone who is so young. He tries not to care, or play it off like he doesn’t care, but he does. He’s protective of what little family he has left, and he’s protective of Kami, and he wants to make her happy, even when he’s making her mad.

The thing about Jared is that he is shy and lonely. He’s been treated terribly his whole life, especially with this “voice” inside of his head, and his fears and uncertainties comes out in his demeanor in public. Its heartbreaking and it makes you want to wrap him up in your arms and shield him from the world and be his best friend, and probably more.

Plus, he’s just a badass. He gets his powers, and he has to learn them, but his quick temper and and attitude problems make him volatile, brave and impulsive. Which makes for a seriously exciting story.

Notable Quotes: 

“The Lynburns built this town on their blood and bones.”
“That was their first mistake,” Jared said. “They should’ve built a city on rock and roll.”

Jared flicked her an incredulous glance. “Yes,” he said slowly. “Zen jogging. I wasn’t wearing that many clothes because—that’s part of the process. You’re meant to commune with the elements. Normally, I wouldn’t have worn my jeans, but I put them on because I know the English are a modest people.”

‘My body is a gift from God,’ Jared said gravely. ‘Except for my hips, which are clearly a gift from the devil.”

“I don’t think you’re weak,” Jared said. “I want to guard you because you are important to me. Because you are – God, this is going to sound so stupid, I can never think of a way to say it – you are precious. I can never think of how to describe the value you have to me, because all the words for value suggest that you belong to me, and you don’t.”

 “Nothing matters in comparison. Nobody is real but her. So it feels sometimes as if nothing else matters at all, including other people. She wouldn’t like that. Other people SHOULD matter.”

tumblr_mnbdbrm85Z1qck31zo1_1280

All Artwork Credited to Cassandra Jean!

*       *       *       *      *

I hope you enjoyed this first edition of my Fictional Crush of the Week! Come back next weekend for more!