Book Reviews: Unbreakable by Kami Garcia, Fire with Fire by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian & Eternity by Elizabeth Miles.

 When twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart storm into her life with tales of vengeful spirits and secret societies, Kennedy Waters is really not all that interested. After all, her mother, the only person who has ever really been there for her, has just died. Kennedy is all alone in her grief - and that’s exactly the way she wants it to be. But Jared and Lukas won’t take no for an answer. According to them, Kennedy’s life is in danger. According to them, a vengeful spirit killed Kennedy’s mom, and, if she’s not careful, Kennedy might be next.         

The first in a new series from Beautiful Creaturesauthor Kami Garcia, Unbreakable may be fast paced, and it may be creepy good fun at times but, though it is heavily blurbed and obviously loved by a wealth of best-selling authors, (Richelle Mead, Rachael Caine, Ally Condie et al.) Unbreakablefailed to hit the mark for me. This was due, at least in part, to the break-neck speed at which the story moves which meant that I never really got to connect with the characters or their plight as they battled with paranormal ghouls. Also, I had a problem with the love story. By which I mean the, ahem, love triangle. But first, I have to mention the insta-love: because this book has possibly the worst case of insta-love that I have ever encountered in a book EVER. Both Jared and Lukas fall head over heels for Kennedy and seriously their fascination with her comes out of nowhere. I didn’t get it. And I never bought it.

While I haven’t read Beautiful Creatures, I have heard a lot of good things, and so I was expecting more –a whole lot more – from Unbreakable. I can’t say that I ever really connect with or cared about the characters, and so my journey with Kennedy and the love struck Lockhart brothers ends here. I’ll leave them fight it out amongst themselves.

In short: Read it only if you live for insta-love.

Unbreakable by Kami Garcia. Series: Legion #1 Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK.  Released: October 2013. Ages: 12+.   Rating:  2½ out of 5.   Source: Received from publisher for review.  

********

 

 

 An eye for an eye – and someone must die.

So, we’re back with our not-so-favourite girls, Lilia, Kat and Mary as they continue their twisted ‘revengenda’ against Mary’s obsession former star-quarterback Reeve. And if their motivations for targeting Reeve in the first book were clear; here they are less so. OK, the guy gave Mary a hard time when they were kids; but now the girls have pretty much ruined his promising football career due to their revenge hi-jinks in Burn for Burn. Think they might leave it at that? No chance. Reeve is nursing a broken leg thanks to the girls, so why not go one better and just break his heart. Phase Two of the ultimate plan for revenge is underway…

But why? Why do Lilia and Kat want to help out scary Mary? That’s why I don’t get. And Mary is pretty scary. She was a little strange in Burn for Burn, but here she’s really rocking the Carrievibe and is a whole lot of weird. Just what is her story? Well, Fire with Fire takes its sweet time in getting where it wants to go (seriously, this book is over five hundred pages long), but when it finally does get to the reveal, all I can say is, WOW! I almost gave up on this book a couple times, but I’m glad I stuck with it. I really, really liked its twisted ending, and now I can’t wait to see how things turn out when Ashes to Ashes the third and final book in this trilogy releases next year.

p.s: Major props to Lindy for being one of these sweetest guys in YA. I hope he gets his happy ending with Lilia, because he is so into her. You know what they say, though: nice guys finish last; and in a romantic twist of fate, Lilia may just have her eye on one hell of a bad boy!

In short: This book is too long; but it does have one hell of a killer ending.

Fire With Fire by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian. Series: Burn for Burn #2. Other Books in Series: Burn for Burn. Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK.  Released: September 2013. Ages: 14+.   Rating:  3 out of 5.   Source: Received from publisher for review.  

********

 

Picking up in the immediate aftermath of events in Envy (Fury #2) – which said goodbye to Drea, saw Skyler scarred for life, and left JD as lovelorn as ever – the Furies are back for one last hurrah in Eternityand, if you hadn’t guessed it, they’re planning on revenge.

Oh, those Furies. They are full of their fun. Or maybe not. Despite having enjoyed the first two books in this series, this time, I wasn’t really feeling it. It’s been quite a while since I read Envy (and the recapping isn’t quite there with this one) so that may have detracted from my enjoyment a little, but, I dunno, from start to finish I felt totally disconnected from the characters here.  Case in point: Em. Her life is at stake. I mean, the Furies are literally threatening to take over her life; heart and soul. But I never really felt it. I never felt like the stakes were all that high in this book at all. Em and Crow half-heartedly search for a solution to the Fury problem (and go nowhere fast) while JD, who for the most part, is totally clueless to what is going on around him, finds the answer without ever really looking at all. The characters – you have to remember that JD and Em are in (unrequited) love - barely interact here – at least not until the final act. And Crow, the mysterious bad boy of Envy, well he now acts as the (permanently inebriated) third-wheel in a rather lackluster attempt at a late-inclusion love triangle.

This trilogy, though, was never really about love. Rather, it’s all about revenge. The Furies, so menacing in the first two books, pretty much exist as pretty props here. They don’t do very much at all, and rather than galloping towards it’s promised gripping conclusion, Eternity (very slowly, because this is a book where not a whole lot happens) limps towards the finish line.  Readers will have to wait until the final chapters of the book for a little action to kick off, and while the conclusion is pretty satisfactory, in that certain questions get answered, it’s not enough to raise this book above ‘pretty forgettable’ status.

In short: Did they call it Eternity because it takes SO LONG for anything to happen?!

Eternity by Elizabeth Miles. Series: Fury #3. Other Books in Series: Fury, Envy. Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK.  Released: October 2013. Ages: 14+.   Rating:  2½ out of 5. Overall Series Rating: 3 out of 5.    Source: Received from publisher for review.   

********

Short Story Saturday: Red Run by Kami Garcia

Short Story Saturday was created by Lauren at 365 Days of Reading.  I can't guarantee that I'll post a review every Saturday but I will post one as often as I can!

I am currently reading Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions.


Short Story: Red Run
Author: Kami Garcia
Anthology: Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions

Short stories are almost always too short for me to feel like I’ve connected with the characters but that was not the case at all with Red Run by Kami Garcia. I was immediately hooked by Edie’s story and I felt like I really understood her, even though readers don’t get a ton of information about her background. You get just enough to like her and want to see her succeed in her goal of avenging her brother.

The ghost part of the story was done really well. This story was written before Unbreakable yet it shares a lot of the same qualities. It’s creepy yet not overdone. It reminded me a lot of the early seasons of Supernatural and I loved that about it. Also, the ending was just perfect.

Overall, I give Red Run 5 stars. It’s a fabulous short story.

Other reviews for this author:
Beautiful Creatures (BC #1) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Unbreakable (The Legion #1) by Kami Garcia

Unbreakable (The Legion #1) by Kami Garcia

Title: Unbreakable (The Legion #1)
Author: Kami Garcia
Release date: October 1, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown BFYR
Pages: 305
Source: ALA
Reading level: YA

I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me.

When Kennedy Waters finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn’t know that paranormal forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into Kennedy’s room and destroy a dangerous spirit sent to kill her. The brothers reveal that her mother was part of an ancient secret society responsible for protecting the world from a vengeful demon — a society whose five members were all murdered on the same night.

Now Kennedy has to take her mother’s place in the Legion if she wants to uncover the truth and stay alive. Along with new Legion members Priest and Alara, the teens race to find the only weapon that might be able to destroy the demon — battling the deadly spirits he controls every step of the way.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Kami Garcia’s solo venture but I was pleasantly surprised by it. Unbreakable is a fabulous start to an interesting new series and I am eager for more in this new world from Kami Garcia.

Unbreakable has been compared to the tv show, Supernatural, and I couldn’t find a better comparison. To be honest though, there were a few too many similarities between the show and the book. I could not stop comparing things between the show and the book. That’s truly the only reason I gave Unbreakable 4 stars instead of 5. If you haven’t seen Supernatural, you won’t have this problem but if you do watch the show, just try and stop making comparisons.

The characters were fabulous. Kennedy starts off a little whiny and I was almost positive that I was going to hate her. I thought she was going to be one of those girls who needed a man to protect her. At first, it does seem like that’s the route she’s going to take but that ended up not being the case at all. She’s eager to learn how to hunt and kill ghosts. She knows that she’s a risk to the Legion until she knows how to defend herself and she wants to change that. She’s fierce and awesome and pretty bad-ass, just like the rest of the Legion. Jared and Lukas are twins who are both super hot. They both have different reasons for wanting to help Kennedy but they are both drawn to her and she’s drawn to both of them. It was a little instalovey but not too bad. Priest and Alara were better than Jared and Lukas, in my opinion. Priest was my favorite. He was a well rounded character that I hope to learn more about in the next book. Alara was a little bitchy at first but I grew to like her.

The story is super creepy and I loved that! I’m not a big fan of horror stories but Kami Garcia did it right. The ghosts, the demons, everything was perfect. Normally horror books don’t scare me. I actually find them cheesy a lot of the time. This time I was actually creeped out and I applaud Kami Garcia for that.

Overall, Unbreakable is a must read for horror fans. I loved it and I can’t wait for more!

What others are saying about Unbreakable:

Finding Bliss in Books' review: "A little predictable in some areas, with other flaws could've made this an underwhelming read but the constant action, suspense and horror will satisfy!"

Miss Page-Turner's City of Books' review: "Kami Garcia always has another spooky spirit up her sleeve and the legion's five teens are easily my new favourite ghost hunters!"

A Dream of Books' review: "I enjoyed Garcia's world building and I loved some of the action sequences but some aspects of the book just didn't work for me."

Series:
Unbreakable (#1)
Unbound (#2) - 2014