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Book review: Passionaries (The Blessed #2) by Tonya Hurley

Agnes, Cecelia, and Lucy watched as Sebastian sacrificed himself for what he believed in. Will the girls trust that their destiny as saints and martyrs and perform the miracles as Sebastian instructed? Or lose faith in themselves and each other in his absence? Time is running out for them to make a decision, and the fate of the world lies in the balance.

Passionaries is the sequel to The Blessed, a book I read last year and reviewed rather… unfavorably.  However I did say I’d see it out since I saw potential in it.  I kind of regret it, to be honest.

Passionaries continues the story of Lucy, Agnes and Cecelia a few months after their experiences at the Church of the Precious Blood.  Despite that they should have been keeping in touch and getting through things together, they haven’t so much as texted each other since the investigation into the events and Sebastian’s death.  That was the first problem I had with it; the fact that I didn’t really sympathize with what had happened to them and then they just abandon each other made me really not believe when they talked about how close they are.

A problem I had with the last book was one that a lot of people seemed to have: the fact that it was hard to tell whether they really were reincarnated saints, or if Sebastian was as mentally ill as suggested and he was just influencing them to believe they were because he had the delusion himself and they happened to share the right names.  There’s plenty of proof that there’s something supernatural going on here, but I still found myself doubting who they actually were.  For instance, Cecelia actually shreds two men with some kind of whip sword.  No mercy.  It’s actually really gory.  Am I really supposed to believe she’s a saint when she’s so willing to commit gross atrocities like that?  Honestly.

The one thing that I liked about the first book was the sequences with Dr. Frey.  They were the only thing that I felt was grounded in any sort of reality.  I was hoping it would continue in this book so that there would still be something redeeming about it, if nothing else improved.  I thought that this series had nowhere to go but up.  Unfortunately I was wrong.  Dr. Frey goes from a psychiatrist who’s genuinely worried about Sebastian and the girls to a cardboard-cutout villain who has an evil entourage.  We even get some backstory for him, but it doesn’t help.  All we know is that he used to be a priest, and he defected from religion until he joined the hospital.  There’s honestly no reason why anyone’s doing anything they do in the book.  Yes, saints are supposed to be disbelieved and persecuted, but this goes way too far.

Pretty much all this book does is prove that it could, in fact, get worse.  The exact same bad points from the first book are there, and more are piled on.  I really wish Hurley had improved.  And clearly there are people who enjoyed it.  But I just don’t get why.  Not one I’d recommend.

Book review: The Second Sign by Elizabeth Arroyo

Bred to believe in the war between angels and demons, Gabby has come to the conclusion that love is responsible for war, jealousy, and all the other deadly sins she can think of. So when she’s exiled to the middle of nowhere for getting kicked out of her fifth school for fighting, she doesn't expect to meet Jake. Much less fall in love. But Jake is quickly drawn to the eerie beauty of her violet eyes while Gabby is unsettled by their undeniable connection.

When a demon guardian comes to collect her soul, she refuses to give it up. She’s not a demon. She can’t be. Her father and twin brother are angels. The demon gives Gabby twenty-four hours to decide her allegiance, and then starts killing her short list of friends, leaving a message behind: She is the Second Sign.

As Gabby and Jake begin to unravel the mystery behind the Second Sign, she learns Jake may be the key to saving her soul. But it means a sacrifice has to be made that will change their lives forever.

This book was given to me for free in return for an honest review.

Well, it seems the next few books I’m reviewing will be Christian mythos ones; I have the sequel to The Blessed after this, and the sequel to this book after that.  Is basing books around Christian mythology becoming more popular in the last few years?  I mean I’ve seen it before with the Hush, Hush series and its angels, so I guess it shouldn’t surprise me.  And it is a welcome change from all the vampires.

I had mixed feelings about The Second Sign.  On the one hand, for most of the book, it’s pretty well-written, and I didn’t find myself annoyed with the main characters, which is always a plus.  The deeper you get, the more complex the plot gets, and you realize just how intricately the author has worked on weaving this together so that nothing is pointless and everyone has a role to play.  It also doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to violence, which can be seen as a plus for people who are tired of things always getting solved in a fade-to-black or in an easier way.  For God’s sake, a girl gets her limbs pulled off her body one-by-one.  I couldn’t help but wince at that.

There are a few things that bugged me about the story, though.  Sometimes the fight scenes got so convoluted that I had no idea what was going on anymore.  There are times when things don’t add up or the plot doesn’t quite fit, such as how Jake and Jenna got all the way from California to Maine in so little time when all they had was a truck.  Traveling at all seems to be glossed over considering the book runs into the same problem with their father when he goes to see them; if he was in California, how’d he get to coastal Maine in just a few hours?  And there’s the problem that the book has the tendency to use words that are very similar to what should actually be used but aren’t that word, which throws things off.  Considering how often it happens, I’d have to say the editing job wasn’t quite up to par.

All-in-all an okay book.  It gets points for taking place in Maine, since so few books do.  Despite its flaws I’d say it’s worth a read.

Review tour: Draw Me In by Megan Squires

He’s a young, up and coming businessman with the keys to his family’s Italian wine enterprise.

I’m a fine arts student, navigating life in the Big Apple, my pencil and sketchpad in hand.

We meet. We fall in love.

But it’s not that story.

Sometimes, by a rare gift of fate, two lives cross paths. And hey, if that happens to occur when staring at Michelangelo’s naked masterpiece, even better. We can tell our future children how a seventeen-foot tall marble guy named David brought us together.

But there’s always more to a relationship than its beginning and ever after. In life, there’s a whole lot of backstory. There are ex-fiancés and hot roommates and family members whose advice continues, even beyond the grave.

When you say you love someone, it’s never just that one person you’re saying it to. And it’s never just that one moment that sets everything in motion.

There is always more that draws you in.

A free e-book copy was given to me for the Draw Me In review tour.

It’s not often I can say  I’ve read a book I could truly say I enjoyed all the way through.  So many authors seem to fall flat at one point or another in the book, either in plot points, in weaving things together, or the characters.  While Draw Me In wasn’t completely perfect, it was about as close as you can get from a book.  Every now and then there were things that threw it off, such as points I felt like it was unfinished or the editing hadn’t caught a plot point that Squires had added in later and needed to connect earlier in the book, but it came nowhere near to overshadowing the good parts of the book.

I loved Julie.  I often find myself getting irritated with characters who are centered around how clumsy they are, but even though it was such a big part of the book, there was so much more to her than that, making her a well-rounded character and person.  She’s witty sometimes and doesn’t know what to say other times.  At one point she finds Leo’s best friend in her bed, having a dream-induced Western adventure, and she goes right along with it.  She’s articulate without sounding like she belongs in a Shakespearean play, although she has her moments when she sounds like every other girl her age.  When Leo calls her special, it doesn’t make me roll my eyes.

The background characters are great too, from Julie’s roommate Ian to Leo’s ex-fiancé Sofia.  It was a breath of fresh air, as far as I was concerned, that Sofia wasn’t cast as an antagonist.  She didn’t try to steal Leo from Julie, or rub it in her face that they were together for six years.  She’s not a complete angel, but she had a place in the story that propelled it forward without making her into the mean girl that so many ex-girlfriends in books are.

The last few chapters made me cry.  I say that with no shame at all.  There was just so much to them in so few words that I found myself teary-eyed as I continued on.  This is a book I’d be more than happy to recommend to anyone.  So, happy reading!

To purchase the book, you find it at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Book review: The Sentinel by Holly Martin

When Eve is rescued from a horrific coach crash by her teachers, she is shocked to discover they possess super strength and speed. But what happens next is even more harrowing. 

In the aftermath of the crash she discovers that everyone in her life from neighbours, doctors, dentists, teachers, shop keepers and even her family and friends are actually super strength Guardians sent to protect her. They all have one thing in common, a single minded ferocity that she must be kept alive at all costs. 

However, she is surrounded by secrets and lies. Those in the know deny all knowledge of what happened that fateful night. Everyone else carries on as normal, seemingly unaware of the new strange world that she has stumbled against. 

With the help of Seth, her best friend, Eve discovers the prophecies surrounding her true identity and the super strength she too holds. With her Guardians pledged to protect her, her closest friends ready to die for her, her own hopes and dreams are put on hold whilst she battles to control the amazing powers she has been bestowed with.

But those that seek to destroy her move ever closer. Will the Guardians be enough to protect her when so many are prepared to stop at nothing to see her dead? And will she be strong enough to fulfil her destiny when the time comes? 

A free e-book copy was given to me in exchange for a review.

There was a lot to be covered in The Sentinel; at its heart, I feel like it’s a good book, or at least a good premise.  It takes place in our world but has an entirely new one that we need to be introduced to in order to understand what’s happening.  This is done by way of the main character, Eve, who’s special to this world but doesn’t know it.  Even though she was being raised by guardians, and even her dog was a shapeshifter who had vowed to protect her, she was raised to think she was a normal human being.

Well, not necessarily.  That’s a bit of the problem that makes it not actually the best book it could be.  Apparently she’s spent her entire life being taught self-defense and other such things on the weekends (she says that where other girls her age might be out with friends or on vacation or dates on weekends, she was stuck training).  That isn’t a problem itself, but she claims that she’s “always been normal” and “never had reason to think she wasn’t.” But when it comes down to it, she realizes that a lot of her life isn’t normal.  So the beginning was kind of weak, and felt more like a stock “Normal girl is actually not normal at all” thing.  That definitely should’ve been cut out.

Another thing I have to complain about is that things happen much too fast.  The book is definitely long enough, but so much is happening, and most of it is just talked about.  Integral training is told rather than shown, entire scenes reduced to a few sentences telling what they did and how much fun Eve had or how frustrated she was that she couldn’t get something of her powers down right away.  Like I said, it makes the entire thing rushed.

Finally, I feel like there are too many characters.  The ones who are obviously important to Eve are easy enough to discern between after a while, but she has so many guardians hovering around her who are all named and she talks to at some point that I got them lost in my head.  Near the end when a name is mentioned, I went “Wait, who’s that?” It was supposed to be a big revelation but yeah, I was just confused.

Still, I feel like this is a pretty good read.  I enjoyed it for what it was and would definitely recommend it for fans of the genre.  And perhaps you can go into it without being as picky as I am.  Happy reading!

Book review: The Sandman and the War of Dreams (The Guardians #4) by William Joyce

When the Man in the Moon brought together the Guardians, he warned them that they would face some terrible evils as they strove to protect the children of earth. But nothing could have prepared them for this: Pitch has disappeared and taken Katherine with him. And now the Guardians are not only down one member, but a young girl is missing.

Fortunately, MiM knows just the man to join the team. Sanderson ManSnoozy—known in most circles as the Sandman—may be sleepy, but he’s also stalwart and clever and has a precocious ability to utilize sand in myriad ways. If the other Guardians can just convince Sandy that good can triumph evil, that good dreams can banish nightmares, they’ll have themselves quite a squad. But if they can’t…they might never see Katherine again.

The Sandman and the War of Dreams is the fourth book in the Guardians series, taking place right after Pitch and Katherine were swept up by the elusive and illustrious Mother Nature.  Like the first three books in this series, Sandman is told in the style of a fairytale, with a sweeping world that it takes place in and those silly little things added on to keep it light even when they’re worried about Katherine’s safety.

This particular one focuses on Sanderson Mansnoozy, aka the Sandman, as well as Mother Nature.  I loved this book just as much as the rest; it just seems to go by so fast, to the point where you’re finished and wanting more and more.  The lore behind both new characters is well-integrated and fits in with what’s already established, which is a trick some authors seem to have trouble with in sequels or series.  I also liked that Mother Nature is neutral, despite that she somewhat seems evil.  Her backstory makes you have sympathy for her, even if she’s done some terrible things.

All in all, this is a great book, an innocent fairytale that will appeal to both children and adults.  Honestly, I’d have to say the only thing I was disappointed in with the book is that the third one said Jack Frost would be showing up in this one, and he never does.  A bit of poor planning, I guess.

Book review: On Solid Ground by Michelle Kemper Brownlow

Gracie survived an emotionally abusive relationship that wrecked her. Her ex, Noah, systematically chipped away at her self-esteem through intimidation, humiliation and infidelity which left Gracie unable to trust her own perception of his intentions. But after falling head over heels for Jake, her best friend and the man who stood by her through it all, she is ready to experience life in the way it was meant to be lived. However, Gracie may find it impossible to simultaneously heal from the trauma of abuse while navigating a relationship with Jake. Can she put her heart on hold in order to heal her soul? The sequel to the five-star debut novel, In Too Deep, chronicles Gracie's steps toward healing as she falls deeper in love, reaches out for help, stands on her own, steps out of her comfort zone, faces her biggest fears, and reconnects with a sensual, talented soul from her past all in hopes of finding herself on solid ground.

A copy was given to me as part of the On Solid Ground tour.

Well, I read the book that came before this and, if you’ve seen my review for it, you’ll see I was incredibly unimpressed, especially considering all the hype that was around it.  The same pretty much goes for this book.  The only reason it gets two stars instead of one is because there were moments in it that I actually, genuinely enjoyed, but I found myself frustrated at that because I had already decided that it wasn’t that great of a book, so to see that the author is capable of actually entertaining me made me feel like the effort had been wasted in an otherwise bland story.

When I reviewed the first book, I mentioned that the dialog was really stiff.  Well, that’s changed in this book.  Instead of sounding like bad actors reading from a script someone who doesn’t understand the conventions of casual English wrote, it sounds like everyone’s either a Shakespearean actor or they’d be more appropriately put into a daytime soap opera.  The dialog is honestly so melodramatic that there’s no way the author ever actually listened to how college students in their early twenties communicate.

Related to that, literally all they ever talk about is Gracie’s former relationship.  She and Becki have weekly lunch dates and the first time they’re shown having one, they talk about Becki breaking up with her own boyfriend, and then a big deal is made out of how she shouldn’t be complaining because of what just happened to Gracie.  And then they talk about what happened to Gracie.  Gracie could be in bed with her new boyfriend and she’ll just be laying there, flashbacking to what Noah did to her.  I realize the entire point of this book is Gracie healing after an abusive relationship, but come on.  We get it.  She’s emotionally scarred.  Does she have nothing else in her life that she needs to think about?

Well considering her parents are willing to pay her rent and any and all living expenses (which apparently includes four-hundred dollars spent at a furniture store so she can remodel her apartment) apparently she really doesn’t.  That part irked me, too.  It just made me see her as a spoiled brat.  Which is about the only characterization we actually get, considering like the first book, everyone says what a free spirit she truly is, but nope, we don’t see it.  The attempts to actually show it are just as stilted as the dialog is.  When she was standing up on stage with Calon and started rapping as a warm up for the show, I was groaning instead of laughing.  I also feel like times that should’ve been shown were really glossed over, which just means we have a lot going on but very little actually happening.

That’s another complaint I had about this book.  The ending was really rushed and I felt Brownlow could’ve gotten a whole other book out of it.  The revelation about the sex tape and what’s on it should’ve been a big deal, but we get so little on it.  Gracie finds out, breaks down for a few pages, then goes to the police.  The frat house is shut down and some guys are dragged off, and apparently that’s that (I guess there’s no such thing as due process in this world).  Again, I feel like the process could’ve been an entire book of its own.  The fact that it’s in there just made it seem to drag out unnecessarily.

There’s also the fact that it’s inconsistent.  For instance, at the start of the book it’s mentioned that Alternate Tragedy had gotten big and would be going on their first real tour when summer ended, so they were in town just chilling out and performing at Mitchell’s because they wanted to.  And then later we find out they’ve been put on a tour at the last minute as the opening act for another band and Gracie’s angsting about Calon and the rest of the guys leaving town.  Editing is a thing you should do.

And of course there’s a ton about Gracie and Jake we find out that we should’ve already known from the first book.  I realize that not everyone is expecting to do a sequel to their book, but we don’t even find out Gracie’s major until this one.  Which is kind of an important detail for a book about a college student.

To sum it up, I just… had no sympathy for this book.  Because the first book gave me no reason to sympathize with Gracie or see why she would want to stay with Noah, all the talk about how badly he hurt her and how she must heal just comes off as melodramatic for me.  And the fact that it only takes her a couple months to “get over it” makes me facepalm really hard.  I only wish that whatever possessed Brownlow during those good passages could’ve been more consistent.  Another disappointment.