Book Review: The Girl From The Well by Rin Chupeco

Author:  Rin Chupeco
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Date published: 5 August 2014
Buy on: Amazon, Book Depository

You may think me biased, being murdered myself. But my state of being has nothing to do with the curiosity toward my own species, if we can be called such. We do not go gentle, as your poet encourages, into that good night. 

A dead girl walks the streets.

She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.

And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.

Because the boy has a terrifying secret - one that would just kill to get out. 

The Girl from the Well is A YA Horror novel pitched as "Dexter" meets "The Grudge", based on a well-loved Japanese ghost story

Review:

So...I've been thinking of trying a new style of reviewing. It is quite simple, really. 

Why you should read the book

So, first of all the writing. What a beautiful writing. I think the best way to describe it is as a Japanese writing. While you may think me somewhat not politically correct with that phrase I will explain.

While there are all sorts of writing styles- as many as there are people on this earth, I'd say culture and roots and language affects the writing style.

For example what few books by French authors I read had the same feeling to them in the writing style- the beat wasn't fast but it was steady, the language and descriptions were matter of fact and though it was not dramatic the drama level was kept at the same level all along, hanging in the background just beyond your reach yet tainting everything.

Japanese writing style is calm, somewhat leisure and descriptive, with an emotional undertone. It has a prolonging tune that keeps you waiting to a climax that is rather disappointing and anti- climatic in its existence. It is lyrical, and in my opinion at least very beautiful. I usually look at things somewhat differently after reading such work.

"Time had taught me to temper the malice within. But for a long long time, I was a great and terrible thing. I was a creature that found pleasure in the ripping. In the tearing. I am no longer that monster. But memories of that creature still lurk within this well. There are some things that never fully die." 

Secondly this IS a horror story. True, those that really love horror stories might not feel the goosebumps while reading this book but scardy cats such as myself surely will. 

Those who are interested in the Japanese ghosts stories and culture will find this interesting enough. 

Why you shouldn't read the book

First of all, if you are one of those that wake up in the morning dreaming of Jack the Reaper and think that was a good dream, if you like horror and your room is painted in black or of you are just a horror geek then truth be told this book might be just a little anemic for you. 

Secondly, not much is happening. There is a plot and there is a climax and we are being led to something but it happens slowly. So if you are looking for a nightmare of a rollercoaster this is not for you. 

Thirdly, I'd like to point it out right now- while the story is told by the ghost, fact is she is more of an observer (some would say stalker) than a MC. Some of you might not like it. Personally, I think that the very fact that the author chose such MC has set problems to the book since a ghost can't do much but observe and scare. Which is exactly what she does - shame is for some what she observe may not be that inetresting or scary.

"It is not in my nature, to be interested in the living. But there are many things, I have found, that defy nature."

My thoughts

All that being said truth is I loved this book. From the writing style to the story to the way it ended. I was scared shitless from all the scary moments (I'm a scardy cat. when I go to a horror movie I grip my friends' hands tightly). 

I loved what was seen here from the Japanese culture and I loved the fact that Akiko wasn't good or bad but somewhere in between. 

So yeah, while I am well aware to the fact that this book is far from perfect for me it is a 5 stars read. 

An ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Day That I Met You by Lena Manta

Author: Lena Manta
Publisher: Psihogios Publishing House
Release Date: 2001
Pages: 378
Language: Greek
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Rating: 3 stars

When did she stop being happy? She didn't remember anymore
When did she begun being unhappy? Was she?

She was 35 years old. She was married. She was a mother. She was beautiful. She was rich. Ingredients for happiness and success. He was 40 years old. Good looking. Faithful husband. Rensponsible father. He never forgot any anniversaries or birthdays. Maybe because of his well organised agenda and secretary. Organised and careful. The key to their succesful life. 

Can laughter and routine become a reason to divorce? And what will happen laughter comes back to her lips...from the window of the neighbor next door? What will happen when she will have to choose between the life she knows today, the recklessnes, the need not to know what will happen tomorrow and the life she has scheduled up next years vacations? And moreover between a crazy love, filled with challenges, in addition to an old one that has nothing to offer to her anymore?

My Thoughts:

It's been sometime since I read a book in my native language- Greek. I forgot the beauty of the words and the sentences and how different it can actually feel to read a book that you can fully understand.

This book tells the story of a 35 year old housewife in the bring of breakdown. She is a wreck emotionally and she wants out. She wants something different because she is tired with the routine and the chores and her life that lacks romance and walks under the stars. In other words, she wants what every married woman wants after 10 or more years of marriage- a change.

Her husband is simple and a man of few words. He plays an important role in the book as to how his wife will choose the company of the neighbor next door. Although, he doesnt say much in the book he changes a lot while the book progresses and he becomes more understandable.

Although, the neighbor that will have an affair with the housewife plays an important role in the book we dont know anything about him except the fact that he loves her and that he can make an amazing Greek coffee.

You will want to know their names but they dont have one. Throughout the book you won't read their names once, it doesn't matter, this is a story that needs to be told and people need to understand that routine can be destructive for any marriage or friendship.

The emotions were vivid at some points of the book and flat at other but the words that the author used were simply beautiful. The story progresses fast enough for the reader to feel anything other than confusion...thats what the wife feels in most of the book. Confusion and lack of interest in anything.

Its a story about forgiveness, the power of love, understanding and the fact that birds and butterflies wont last forever once reality and every day life kick in.

ARC Review: Eight Days A Week by Amber L. Johnson

Author: Amber L. Johnson
Publisher: The Writer's Coffee Shop
Release Date: November 6th 2014
Pages: -
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Buy on: Amazon

Rating: 3 stars

Gwen Stone has secrets she’s not ready to reveal. After a recent promotion at work, she needs a caretaker for her children. She’s frenzied and in a lurch and pretty much ready to hire the first person who comes along. So she does.

Andrew Lyons needs to get out of his sister’s apartment, and a Craigslist posting may be the answer to his prayers. But what he thought was an ad for a room rental turns into a job offer he can’t refuse. Accepting the nanny position could change his life, if only he had a clue how to be a grownup.

A working mother, a shirtless manny who looks good in a towel, two children who need more than than a babysitter, and hours of kids’ TV can only spell disaster for everyone involved.

Because a manny should always mind his own business.

And he definitely shouldn’t fall in love with his boss. 

My Thoughts:

This eARC was provided by the publisher in an exchange for an honest review.

Eight Days A Week is an amazing fast read packed with lots of humor, sarcasm, sadness and change. Lots of change.

Meet Andrew an arrogant 25 year old teenager. He is selfish, arrogant, a poser and worst of all immature...left alone to babysit two kids. Not the best combination for most but he ends up doing one hell of a job.

Meet Gwen, a ''mother'' of two (you will understand the quotation when you read the book), career woman with lots of stress for her two little kids and job, until Andrew comes in the picture.

The plot takes flight from there and everything evolve into a beautiful love story and a man that changes himself, he becomes someone better because he needs to and wants to, and he wants it a lot. The background story of Gwen and the kids its truly amazing delivered in a way that made my heart swell from sadness and love at the same time.

The characters are so well developed that I actually cared about what would happen and how things would progress for them. It is, of course, visible that all of the characters in the book reach their personal growth and get what they were looking for, so for me that is simply amazing. It is not easy for an author to do that,but when it happens and better yet,when the reader understands it I love it.

The book was delivered in a writing so beautiful and livid, that had me turn the pages on an impossible speed. The plot was well crafted and I felt that I had all the time in the world with them. A little turn off was the fact that for me Gwen and Andrew grew into each other fairly quickly, kinda like a insta lovish, thus the 3 stars.

I totally recommend this book, because it is a page turner, fun and amazingly pleasant.

Book Review: A Tale Of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris [Review by Sharon]

Author:  Rachel Harris
Series: My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century
Number: 2
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Date published:  6 August 2013
Buy on: Amazon, Amazon UK

Rating: 4 stars

"Alessandra D’Angeli is in need of an adventure. Tired of her sixteenth-century life in Italy and homesick for her time-traveling cousin, Cat, who visited her for a magical week and dazzled her with tales of the future, Alessandra is lost. Until the stars hear her plea.

One mystical spell later, Alessandra appears on Cat’s Beverly Hills doorstep five hundred years in the future. Surrounded by confusing gadgets, scary transportation, and scandalous clothing, Less is hesitant to live the life of a twenty-first century teen…until she meets the infuriating—and infuriatingly handsome—surfer Austin Michaels. Austin challenges everything she believes in…and introduces her to a world filled with possibility.

With the clock ticking, Less knows she must live every moment of her modern life while she still can. But how will she return to the drab life of her past when the future is what holds everything she’s come to love?"

Review

Between This and the first book in the series I liked this one better. Maybe because it's heavier on the romance, but even then the romance is quite light, and so very cute :)

I really liked Alessandra with her self discovery, and the way she saw modern days through her 16th century maiden eyes.

I loved the friendship between her and Cat, I loved her relationship with Austin- the supposed and self proclaimed bad boy.

But even more than that, what I love most about this series is that Cat and Alessandra and their friendship and their relationships with their boyfriends are an example to how you CAN be yourself, and how friendship and relationship SHOULD BE.

In a world where there are so many insecurities, self doubts and stupidity is celebrating more than ever. Where most MCs in books are TSTL and dependant on men, where a hot guy that stalks you is a hot guy so WHAT do I care if he stalks me when he's hot? where many of the relationships portrayed in books are abusive to some degree. I think that Cat, Alessandra, Austin and Lucas are a role model as to how to have friendship and a relationship between partners. As to how to be kind, supportive and yourself. How to deal with real life issues- from fitting in to family issues. 

I loved it. Someday, when I'm older and have kids I'd like my kids to read this series. 

Book Review: My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century by Rachel Harris [Review by Sharon]

Author:  Rachel Harris
Series: My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century
Number: 1
Number of pages: 260
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Date published: 18 September 2012
Buy on: Amazon, Amazon UK

Rating: 4 stars

"On the precipice of her sixteenth birthday, the last thing lone wolf Cat Crawford wants is an extravagant gala thrown by her bubbly stepmother and well-meaning father. So even though Cat knows the family’s trip to Florence, Italy, is a peace offering, she embraces the magical city and all it offers. But when her curiosity leads her to an unusual gypsy tent, she exits . . . right into Renaissance Firenze.

Thrust into the sixteenth century armed with only a backpack full of contraband future items, Cat joins up with her ancestors, the sweet Alessandra and protective Cipriano, and soon falls for the gorgeous aspiring artist Lorenzo. But when the much-older Niccolo starts sniffing around, Cat realizes that an unwanted birthday party is nothing compared to an unwanted suitor full of creeptastic amore. Can she find her way back to modern times before her Italian adventure turns into an Italian forever?"

Review:

I have to admit I was surprised by this one. I was so sure it will be just another easy fluffy read and instead I discovered yet another author to love. 

This story deals with issues like; speaking your mind, accepting yourself, accepting that sometimes things change. 

There is cute romance here and friendship. 

I think what I loved most was the fact that it never got dark even when it dealt with some serious subjects, It was so matter-of-factly I liked that. 

While reading the book I kept on thinking "This is the kind of book I'd like my daughters to read (when I'll have kids). It will give them a positive message and will show them that it's allright to be yourself."

It has been months since I read the book so I can't write an article any more. However, I still remember the feeling I had- and that was a fantastic one!

Book Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Publication Date: April 2nd 2009
Series: If I Stay
Pages: 201
Rating: 3 stars
Buy on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Just listen, Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.

I open my eyes wide now.
I sit up as much as I can.
And I listen.

Stay, he says.

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.

My Thoughts: 

I was avoiding this book mainly because it was being compared to Lovely Bones and then some people were saying that it will appeal to Twilight fans. I loved twilight ,dont get me wrong ,but I didnt want to read something similar, or worse, a fan fiction.

When I started If I Stay, I couldnt really get into it. Maybe its me, but the writing seemed to me simple and more like 5th grade-ish. Like a kid trying to write a composition. Seemed to me that the emotions were flat and didnt give me the excitement I was expecting – the excitement I expect from every book – to connect with the main characters. I thought of giving it up and I am glad I didnt because then the twist came and the writing transformed to something astoundingly amazing and lively.

I was captivated by the beauty of the words the author was using, how the sentences were so alive and gave me goosebumps from the horror and amazement of what I was reading. Memories blended with the present creating a serene (almost) and yet gloomy atmosphere. If Lovely Bones was all about death, If I Stay was all about the celebration of life and the choices we make and how things can change within a millisecond.

Although the writing was beautiful and the characters well crafted and lively and the plot down to earth (if you exclude the paranormal element), I still felt like something was missing. Mia seemed cold to me, like literally, she felt nothing, or she was trying to suppress the feelings that overwhelmed her. Towards the end of the book, I think Mia had an epiphany of some sort and she started feeling everything and then the book became an emotional roller coaster because from 0 feelings you go to a crazy amount of feelings and all the things that you were reading all this time come down to crush you and yes, you tear up.

And now, in order to make an excuse for the rating of If I Stay, I will say that this book confused me a lot when it comes down to how it is written. I didnt know if it was like that on purpose or its just me so I decided to compromise and give it a decent rating.

Efterpi

Black Box by Cassie Leo (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Cassie Leo
Publisher: Create Space Independent Publishing
Release Date: May 10th 2014
Pages: 394
Rating: 4 stars
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♥️ Three fateful encounters....
♥️ Two heart-breaking tragedies....
♥️ One last chance to get it right.

From New York Times best selling author Cassia Leo, comes an epic love story about rewriting destiny.

Over the course of five years, Mikki and Crush cross paths on three separate occasions. Their first encounter changes Mikki's life forever, but their second meeting leaves them both buried beneath the emotional wreckage of a violent attack. Mikki is left with more questions and grief than she can handle, while Crush is forced to forget the girl who saved his life.

Now nineteen years old, Mikki Gladstone has decided she's tired of the mind-numbing meds. She books a flight to Los Angeles to end her life far away from her loving, though often distant, family.

When Mikki and Crush cross paths for the third time in Terminal B, neither has any idea who the other person is; until they slowly piece together their history and realize that fate has more in store for them than just another love story.

Review

Black box its not your typical love story – in fact its so much different and fresh that any love story out there. Written in a masterful way the author promises heartbreak, gloom and sadness and rejoice in a whole other level.

It all starts with Mikki a girl suffering from bipolar and a past full with unhealed wounds that hunt her everywhere. She feels her past everyday, she sees them, breathes them, she changed completely because of them but she never got over them. That memory never erased no matter how many meeting she had with her phycholgist no matter how many times she tried to kill herself. They are there but under the shadow of her scary past lies a mystery, her savior.

Meet Crush a sexy, sad and rich man who tries to hide from his friend death that happened four years ago,a guy who carries a burden and the worst of guilts on his shoulders a guy who tried to find the only person that made him feel and saved him without her knowledge, a girl that he will never forget no matter what...until he finds her in the most weird place – an airport.

It all started there at the airport a journey of two people that were ''strangers'' until they realised that they know each other and they had met under the most gory and sad circumstances. Their separate tragedies entwine to reveal the utmost purpose of fate. While the days the have together they explore themselves and their limits they also become close. Mikki never had so many first in her entire life but within a few days she managed to find herself and love herself for who she is and for what she wants to be. She embraced life and saw hope in the future for the first time.

The book is written really well but what put me off was the insta love and the too many coincidnces that really made some parts of the book cliché. Other than that the writing was really good, we had a double POV which for me was a huge plus since you get the whole story with no loose ends or gaps.

Its a great read that will make your heart ache from sadness but in the end you will rejoice with utmost excitement.

Tidal by Emily Snow (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Emily Snow
Release Date: December 14th 2012
Publisher: MagnoliaB Publishing LLC
Pages: 313
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon
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Now that Willow Avery is out of rehab, she's got one chance left to prove herself before she’s officially on every producer’s shit list. At least, that's what her parents and agent are claiming. She doesn't really give a damn if she never makes another movie or not—she just wants to get on with her life, get back to her friends, and find her next escape. But Willow is broke. And whether she likes it or not, acting is the only job she knows how to do.

When she accepts the lead in a beach drama, Willow finds herself in Hawaii. And in Hawaii, she finds Cooper, the gorgeous surfer hired to train her for her new role. With the bluest eyes she’s ever seen and the sexiest Australian accent she’s ever heard, Cooper’s different from the men she’s used to. He doesn’t want to use her. And he refuses to let her fail. But when an old friend re-enters Willow’s life—a friend whose toxicity she’s been drawn to time and time before and whose presence brings about the painful memories she's tried so hard to suppress—Willow will have to choose between the girl she was and the person she’s becoming. The lifestyle that helps her forget the pain and the guy she’s falling hard for.

Review:

This little book was just amazing. I had it my nook for god know how long and I just regretted the fact that I didnt read it sooner.

Let me start by saying this: The characters were so well built, so scrutinized tot he last detail, so amazing that It made my heart swell with pain and love and confusion as the book went on.

Meet Willow, a 20 year old actress already on the verge of failure thanks to her shenanigans around the Los Angeles club scene. Being the victim of alcohol and drugs, having two rounds of rehab under her belt she is finally out and already on her last chance to make a good movie before she ends up in porn.

From page one I knew that this would be a tough book, addressing not only celebrity problems, but self confidence and self appreciation, the need to take control of your life and the need to be understood by everyone who think you are someone you are not. Willow is the perfect character, she has sadness in her, she perceives the world differently and she is not acting like high and mighty that most people do in the Hollywood industry- she is just plain and empty on the inside. She is afraid to love and she is afraid to dare, she doesnt care anymore because caring on of the biggest secrets in her life she is exhausted. She just wants to do what she is supposed to and be left alone and then she meets Cooper.

In one word Cooper is brilliant. He is a surfer and has this funny, assholish, bad boy attitude, I want to get in your pants style that makes him one of the best book boyfriends ever. He is broken himself, lost his mother from drugs and was always under the glare of his abusive father, Cooper tries to find his way in the world through surfing – until he meets Willow. Then everything explodes of both of them and its just amazing to watch.

This is not like other books where the girl falls for the guy within chapters, its slow, torturing and beautiful because the narration is just great. The author did a really good job and while we get tortured we get to see the perfect personality of Willow. Get an insight in her world and trust me I felt every single thing,i felt like I could be friends with her.

The author skipped some parts in the book, like the filming of the movie but I dont think that this was important enough, there were the basic scenes and scenes that we should read about but nothing redudant. The book takes place is Honolulu, Hawaii and the description is really good, bringing Hawaii to my feet (almost felt the sand) and being able to draw a picture of the blue sea and the trees etc.

I loved that the ending was not rushed unlike some other, ehm, books and that it close beautifully.

With the Band by L.A. Witt (book review by Efterpi)

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL.

Author: L.A. Witt
Release Date: March 22nd 2011
Publisher: Loose Id
Pages: 252
Rating: 3 stars
Buy on: Amazon
Add on: Goodreads, Shelfari

Hard rock band Schadenfreude is finally on the verge of the success that’s eluded them for the last several years. With Aaron McClure as their new lead singer, nothing’s going to stop them…except maybe a steamy, secret relationship between Aaron and bassist Bastian Koehler. Aaron knows all too well what can happen when band members get involved with each other. After all, his last band was a casualty of his last relationship, and Schadenfreude forbids band members from dating for that very reason. But Bastian is too hot to resist, and besides, it’s just sex, so what’s the harm?

Bastian has just gotten out of a long relationship with his volatile ex-fiancée when Aaron catches his eye. The sexy singer is irresistible, and in spite of the potential for strife within the band if this comes out, Bastian can’t help himself.

Their passion in the bedroom is rivaled only by their ambition as musicians, though, and pretty soon, it's going to tear them, and Schadenfreude apart, if they can't get back to playing with the band.

Review:

To be clear before we go on with this review ,I have never ever in my life so far read one single book of gay romance or M/M or whoever you guys call it..this is my first and from what I have heard from other bloggers its a really good read in comparison to other M/M novels out there..and it was...it really was.

Once the book start we get a little background on Aaron, the main character of this book. He is on the way to Seattle, returning from Los Angeles after his band broke up because of him and his boyfriend. Pure drama in my opinion.

Once Aaron meets up with his brother in order to join their band since they fired their singer, he comes face to face with Bastian...German btw. The attraction is instant but the problem is that Bastian is straight so that leaves Aaron alone in the shower masturbating over Bastian. To keep things short Bastian (bisexual) makes the first move and we find both of those rockers in a sequence of pure lust and cheek-blushing sex scenes. So hot I could feel the steam coming off my Nook's screen.
The writer seemed to be doing a great job with the descriptive part of the book but seemed to be doing exactly the opposite when it came to actual dialogues and dropping a little of background info on both of the main characters.

 The good thing with the first page though was the writing, it had me hooked on the book until the end. And after page three or four things went south...really south in a bad way. What struck me the most was the repetition of words and phrases in one single page that made me want to scream from frustation and annoyance. This is Writing 101 there Witt, seriously wasnt that the first thing you learned?

Conversations seemed to circling around the same context of ''How are we going to come forward to our families and friends?'' ,''What will they say?'' etc over and over again it made it tiring and really annoying at times. All the sex scenes started with ''We should stop..'' and ended in pure sex.
Bastian and Aaron didnt seem to be talking about anything else but the situations mentioned above and when they did they cut it short because of more SEX. Seriously?

I also hated how the band responded to the revelation of their relationship and how this thing kept dranging on and on and on. We live in the 21st century for fucks sake, I mean how hard is it to stomach the fact that two people are gay and in a relationship fucking their brains out in secrecy every night?

As for the characters dont expect a lot of depth and a lot of intuition they are just plain. I couldnt even bond with Aaron on Bastian.

The ending was really disappointing because for an unexplained reason it was rushed and cut short.

Three stars it is for the sex scenes and how hot they were.

Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino (book review by Eleni)

Author: Natsuo Kirino
Release Date: March 13th 2007 (1st published in 2003)
Publisher: Knopf
Pages: 480
Rating: 3 stars
Buy on: Amazon ,Barnes and Noble

Tokyo prostitutes Yuriko and Kazue have been brutally murdered, their deaths leaving a wake of unanswered questions about who they were, who their murderer is, and how their lives came to this end. As their stories unfurl in an ingeniously layered narrative, coolly mediated by Yuriko’s older sister, we are taken back to their time in a prestigious girls’ high school—where a strict social hierarchy decided their fates — and follow them through the years as they struggle against rigid societal conventions.

Shedding light on the most hidden precincts of Japanese society today,Grotesque is both a psychological investigation into the female psyche and a work of noir fiction that confirms Natsuo Kirino’s electrifying gifts.

Review:

This book confused me so much when it comes to the rating. It;s one of those books that belong in the in between and I really didn't know how to rate it. So I closed my eyes and gave it a 3. 

Like all Natsuo Kirino's books you get to see the story from multiple POV'S and I guess that's a good thing but not in Grotesque. At some point the narration becomes really boring while we get to know the background of Yuriko's murderer , and my opinion is that it was unnecessary for the author to do so in this book. I would like the book a lot better if it was based on two POV's instead of 3. It would me more mysterious and more fast paced and enjoyable rather than painful. Although , I wanted to commit suicide from boredom I couldn't put the book down because it was enjoyable from a whole different aspect...modern Japan.

While the main protagonist lives her life and tells the story of her sister Yuriko we get to see a Japan so much different than the cuteness and the happiness that we know. It's a Japan dark and grey where people judge from appearance and are nosy and above all they see mixed Japanese as ''bastards'' . You get to know the ''goods'' and bad's of prostitution and why people choose this kind of life. Kirino did a really good job with the writing in this one, although the translation had a lot of mistakes and at some points you couldn't make sense, blending fiction with reality in a book that was really intriguing and in the end sad. 

I didn;t enjoy this book as much I did with Out and Real World but I have to give it to her for her writing and the way she makes you see the real world people live in.

Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout (book review by Eleni)

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Release Date: August 27th 2013
Publisher: Entangled
Series: Lux
Pages: 364
Rating: 4.5 stars
Buy on: Amazon , Barnes and Noble

Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything. 

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on? 

And will they even be together?

Review:

One thing that Jennifer Armentrout is for sure is a book thief...and I don;t mean Markus Zusak's book thief. All of the series are pretty similar with Twilight and all the cliche love stories but one good thing the author of the Lux series does is to create amazing characters.

This installation of the book is much much more adventurous and nerve racking. The characters are so good developed that you even feel for the second protagonists of the book that they don't play big roles. I think that the story wouldn't be that successful without them. 

A lot of scenes are predictable and you also see a lot of situations coming which doesn't leave much anticipation to the reader unfortunately but what I liked is how well the action-Part of the book was written. You could actually feel the fear and ''see'' the whole battle scene which for me was amazing. Not a lot of authors can do that. Fear blends with terror and for a brief second affection between the main characters which takes the plot to a whole different level.

So the book had it's flaws and also the goods but I love and hate how it ended. It just leaves you there hanging until the release of the last installation of the series and that makes me want to cry. I don't know what else to say without spoiling it to you so im gonna leave it here and hope you enjoy the book!!

Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout (book review by Eleni)

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Release Date: December 11th 2012
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Series: Lux
Pages: 382
Rating: 4.5 stars
Buy on: Amazon ,Barnes and Noble

No one is like Daemon Black.

When he set out to prove his feelings for me, he wasn’t fooling around. Doubting him isn’t something I’ll do again, and now that we’ve made it through the rough patches, well... There’s a lot of spontaneous combustion going on.

But even he can’t protect his family from the danger of trying to free those they love.

After everything, I’m no longer the same Katy. I’m different... And I’m not sure what that will mean in the end. When each step we take in discovering the truth puts us in the path of the secret organization responsible for torturing and testing hybrids, the more I realize there is no end to what I’m capable of. The death of someone close still lingers, help comes from the most unlikely source, and friends will become the deadliest of enemies, but we won’t turn back. Even if the outcome will shatter our worlds forever.

Together we’re stronger... and they know it.

Review:

This book made me pull my hair so hard it actually hurt. I don;t know what the author was thinking.
There is so much action in this one than on the first two books of the series and seriously I liked that a lot..also the fact that we actually we get some action from Daemon and Katy helped on finishing Opal faster haha.

I hated that Dee and Katy had a silent fallout and the missing parent thing really started to grow on me. I mean okay we know Katy's mother is working but she can't be absent from the house for days and having her 18 year old daughter running around with a bunch of aliens - no mother would allow that.

I hated Blake more that anything in this one too. I started to like the guy at the second book but he fucked everything up during the end and in this one is no different. First he does the unforgivable to Katy and then he does the ultimate sin - im not gonna say.

Daemon is the only one that doesn't annoy me. He is so so so cute and adorable the whole time that I really wanna kiss him. And YES the book is emotional ,the reader will go through a bunch of emotional roller coasters with this one that he will need more.

I really don't know what more to say without spoiling the whole thing so I'm just gonna leave it here.

Onyx by Jennifer Armentrout (book review by Eleni)

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Release Date: August 14th 2012
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Series: Lux
Rating: 4 stars
Buy at: Amazon , Barnes and Noble

Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems.

Something worse than the Arum has come to town…

The Department of Defense are here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who’s got a secret of his own. He knows what’s happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.

But then everything changes…

I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…

Review:

As it usually happens with all good book series I immediately jumped from book 1 to book 2 in no time. I think I read this one within 6 hours or so and I am so so so excited.
It's been some time since the last time I actually read something so good that I had to devour it so quickly and to tell you the truth Onyx is one of my fav books.

Usually, when it comes to book series the second book tends to be the one where the couple separates or something happens to them...but that's not the case here...actually there was no couple to begin with. The author did more than an awesome job starving the readers for some romance and in this book we get rewarded finally!!! Katy is starting to realise that Daemon is not kidding with the whole I want you, I need you thing and starts to loosen up a little until she completely falls for him...in his embrace. They both keep secrets from Dee and Katy gets a little estranged from her because she wants to protect her until the inevitable happens. What happened in the end of the book I didn;t see it coming and I bet a lot of you wont either.

Meet Blake the new sexy guy at school that makes Katy act weird and date him....yup they went out together. As it turns out Blake has his own secrets and Daemon has a hard time trusting him with Katy.

The plot has a lot of twists and turns that I didn;t expect, things can be good and then turn ugly but that kept me reading because I was so excited about the unexpected. The writing is so intense and also you get to see the character's from a whole different perspective, it's just amazing because that doesn't happen really often.

Totally recommend it.

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (book review by Eleni)

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Release Date: May 8th 2012
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Series: Lux
Pages: 335
Rating: 5 stars!!!
Buy at: Amazon , Barnes and Noble

Starting over sucks.
When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.
And then he opened his mouth.
Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens. 
The hot alien living next door marks me.
You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. 
If I don't kill him first, that is.

Review:

Okay I will try to review this book as much as i possible can without making any spoilers and I will stop drooling over Daemon like a girl trapped on a freaking island with no sight of boys for months!!!

Obsidian is amazingggggggggg, is awesommmmmeeeeee it is just GREAT. Okay now lets move to the actual review...

First of all, I loved the fact that the story was not an insta - love kinda romance but a more like I-LOVE-YOUR-GUTS-SO-HARD-BUT-THERE'S-NO-WAY-I'M -GONNA-LET-YOU-KNOW story and that goes until the end of the book. That made me starve me for kissing, sex whatever between the two main protagonists Daemon (sexy dude) and Katy (bookworm). 

To be honest with you the whole thing kind of reminded me of Twilight (yes i know )but a lot more intense and with no corny -cheese lines so don't be disappointed because it's not as stupid, actually I didn't find the book stupid at all except at some points where it was similar to Twilight.

The book is building up suspense in the right speed ,not to fast not to slow but as it should be and that made me turn the pages faster and faster. Also the word usage is amazing and there are some swears in it and a lot of description which i love particularly in steamy scenes..if you know what I mean.

The characters could not be more amazing and developed. I fell in love with Daemon immediately and I adored Katy too. Armentrout created a paranormal romance novel but Daemon and Katy are so human that you can relate to them. They have their faults and make their mistakes and surely they have a lot of stubbornness that you want to slap both of them. The rest of the characters are cool too and I liked them a lot, even the b*** of the whole thing in the end you get to like her. 

To be honest with you, I expected a book with all the cliche situations and a protagonist that falls in a second for the sexy neighbor next door but that was beyond expectations. The author just crashes all the cliches and gives Katy a backbone. 

This is a novel with lots of sense of humor, sarcasm and cleverness that you will enjoy so so so much. I am sure you will never forget this book.