Ink of Blood

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

This is another book I’d ideally give 3.5 stars to. I’ve got more into the superhero genre recently, so when I saw this book available on Goodreads giveaways, I entered to win a copy… and was quite happy when I did in fact win one.

I have to say, I felt like I was entering in the middle of a plot. The characters were interesting, to a certain extent… and it was a pretty neat idea to use the Spirit Room to show what their pasts were like… or some of them, at least. For Neptune, Uri and Mars, it made them quite a bit more interesting.

I also found Venus quite an interesting character. I was especially intrigued by her relationship with Jupiter. What was somewhat confusing was the naming system. I wasn’t entirely sure if they were just named for the planets, or if their abilities were linked to the planets. To me, it seemed very much more like their powers were similar to the Roman gods, who were also named after the planets.

I felt like I was missing a lot… not just about the history of the characters, but in the book as well. I couldn’t understand the assumption that a particular character was a bad guy when there seemed to be no actual evidence for it other than, ‘He became more outgoing’.

The idea of the Assembly was an interesting one, but I didn’t know enough about those characters to figure out why they’d all joined together. Or what their purpose was.

I would have liked to see more of Neptune in this book. I found her probably the most likable character… plus, I felt the author did a really good job of showing how she could use her power over water.

The idea of the Spirit Room was a really intriguing one, but I was a bit disappointed that nothing was done with any totem animals, considering that was repeatedly mentioned.

I also really liked Eris and his relationship with Pluto. I’d be interested in reading the book about Eris, since I’d like to see more of him… and hopefully see his character and relationships evolve.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Ideally, I’d give this book 3.5 stars. The premise of this book was quite an intriguing one, but I found myself disconnecting from the characters for about half of the book.

The first part of the book was really interesting and managed to pull me in. Although I did see a particular twist coming, that scene did hold my attention enough to keep me reading and interested. I found Saskia to be a fairly interesting character.

I was expecting the sensation of deja vu to be utilised more than it actually was. I was confused quite a bit by how everyone fit together, but by the end of the book, it did all make a bit more sense.

I did feel that the technology wasn’t used as much as it could have been. I saw glimpses of the kinds of advances the world had made, but I was confused about the whole thing in Saskia’s apartment and how that technology all worked.

Anything to do with time travel can be really tricky and I do think it was handled pretty well and made quite a lot of sense. I wasn’t entirely sure about the ending of the book… but it’s true that a lot of the loose ends were tied up nicely.

Saskia grew on me a bit more as the book went on. The whole memory thing was an interesting concept, but there were some things I didn’t really understand towards the end. I had a lot of questions by that point.

It would be interesting to read a sequel to this book that answered some of my questions. There were some minor issues that were unresolved by the end of the book and it would be good to see those explained.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have some mixed feelings about this book. The blurb made it sound really interesting… and I also really liked the front cover.

The biggest problem I had with this book was that I really struggled to relate to Trinity. It’s hard to describe someone when the book’s written from their perspective… and the constant descriptions of what Trinity looked like made her come across as really vain. That wasn’t really helped by the fact that she’s apparently the most beautiful girl in their school… (I’ve seen that so many times).

Morpheus grew on me as a character, but as I was reading this book, I felt like I’d read it all before. Earlier today, I was reading a list of Mary Sue traits with a friend (just for fun) and had to stop several times to say, ‘That matches the book I’m reading!’

I liked Blain a lot better when he and Trinity weren’t making out/fighting over making out. As soon as he became interested in Trinity, I found it a lot harder to read. That wasn’t really helped by the fact that I’ve become absolutely sick of love triangles… because they’re in every single young adult book I read.

The link-ins with the Greek mythology were quite interesting and I liked the two cats in the book, Yin and Yang. I would have liked to see more of them… but I do like cats.

I would have liked to see a bit more of Melia, too. I felt her character wasn’t explored nearly as much as it could have been in the book.

I noticed very few mistakes in the writing of this book, but on the whole, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I was hoping to. It followed the formula of most young adult paranormals I read… and those have become so cliched, they just aren’t fun to read anymore. And love triangles (and incredibly beautiful heroines) are just not interesting.

Unless the second book in this series is vastly different to this one, I won’t be reading it. I’m disappointed, because the premise sounded so good… but it fell into the normal traps that ruined my enjoyment.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

The author of one of the previous giveaways I’d entered kindly sent me the first in his fantasy trilogy as well. I was quite surprised by how quickly and easily I was drawn into this world and the characters and their situations.

I found myself quite liking Harcourt as a character. I felt quite sympathetic towards him throughout a lot of the book and I really liked his relationship with Jalanna. There were a lot of sweet moments about that.

I was a bit unsure about some of the other characters Harcourt interacted with, I have to say. A lot of them weren’t really ‘good’ characters, but I found some of them still quite interesting and I would have liked to see more of their pasts and motivations.

It was intriguing to see the way the corruption had spread through the city. This isn’t the first book I’ve read which has a thieves’ guild, but I was quite interested by the fact that there was the cult that played such a big part in this. I was a bit disappointed not to see more about what the cult was trying to do, but I expect that might be covered more in the next two books in the trilogy.

There were quite a few dark moments in this book… more than I was really expecting. I was pulled more deeply into the story after Harcourt met Warden and I started seeing more of his skills as a thief.

This is definitely a world I would be interested in seeing more of at some point in the future. I’d like to read the next two books in this series eventually.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I found this collection of short stories to be a really entertaining read. It was interesting to see that all of the short stories were written from the first person perspective, but I didn’t actually get confused with the different POV characters.

There was quite a nice variety of different stories. I liked the fact that all of them were different in some way and there were a few unexpected twists.

I did notice a couple of the stories were vampire-based. Although I do think vampires are really over-used in fiction, they didn’t irritate me so much in these short stories… I think because they weren’t the dark, brooding figures of vampire paranormal romances.

I found the werewolf film to be quite an intriguing story and it was interesting to see that it was linked to one of the later short stories. The one about the bestselling story was quite good as well.

The stories were a bit too short to really get behind the characters, but I still found them really entertaining to read. There were a few original ideas and twists to the stories and I felt they did a good job of holding my attention and keeping me engaged. The author kindly sent me the first book in his fantasy trilogy and I do intend to read that in the next day or so.

(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers – also some references to self-harm).

This was a plotline I could really get behind. Being an avid reader myself, I’m currently in love with a whole range of fictional characters… and I can definitely understand how frustrated Chloe felt with the ending of her favourite book series.

I felt myself being drawn into this world and the characters involved. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the characters in the world that Chloe ‘fell’ into didn’t immediately start trusting her. I felt that was very realistic and although I hadn’t ‘met’ the other characters in the same way as Chloe had, I found myself believing in their relationships and their sense of family.

There was a nice variety of different types of characters, too. It was good that vampires weren’t the only being in the world.

I do think that Chloe ran the risk of taking over the story a bit too much, but I didn’t mind her as a character. The biggest problem I really had was the fact that Chloe was a cutter. I know that’s a real issue, but the line really resonated badly with me… and I didn’t think that part of her character was explored in the way it really should have been.

I did particularly like Naja as a character. I would have liked to see some of the story written from her POV… actually, a lot of the other characters, too. I felt that some of the women weren’t as well-developed as they could have been, particularly in a scene at the end, where they’re just referred to collectively.

Although there was some insta!love on Lucian’s side, I actually felt that worked for his personality and with his past. It was also interesting how this book didn’t follow the usual criteria for most romances, where the two main characters jump into bed together at the very first opportunity.

I think this is a world I would very much like to see more of in the future. The ending was a bit confusing and I would have liked to know a bit more detail about what was going on with Chloe then. But I did enjoy reading about the world and its characters and I would certainly be interested in checking out other books by this author in the future.