Recent Reads - Skeleton Lake

Skeleton Lake (Skeleton Lake #1), by Angela Kulig

 4 of 5 Stars

Buy It:  Amazon  /  Barnes & Noble

Genre:   Young Adult, Paranormal Romance

Pages: 290

Publication:   10/21/2011, Red Iris Books

Why I Chose It:  I received an advanced readers copy from the author. In the interest of full disclosure I will tell you that I know the author. This has in no way affected my review.

Synopsis (from Good Reads):   Unsure if she's drowning or being saved, all Marlow wants to do is run away. Ensnared in a haunting love triangle, she realizes both boys have holes in their hearts; gaping spaces she can never hope to fill.

Scars from loving the same girl, a girl who managed to stay dead.

Now she is being hunted, for what she has become and what she never asked to be. Even as a Skeleton Marlow isn’t the worst thing in the night—she isn’t even close.

My Review:  The idea of soulmates is one I cling to. I like to believe that somewhere in the world we each have someone with whom we were meant to be (in case you didn't know, I'm a little bit of a hopeless romantic). What I like best about Skeleton Lake is the fact that Raidan and Marlow are in fact soulmates. Instantly drawn together and destined to love one another. Yeah, swoon.

Of course at this point enter Conrad because, after all, you can't have a love triangle without three sides. I didn't love Conrad, but I found myself sympathizing with him a lot. Something about unrequited love and being the odd man out will pull at my heartstrings every time. I felt so bad for him. I couldn't imagine loving someone knowing that they would never love me back. I couldn't break my heart like that over and over.

I think the funny thing is that despite the two possible love interests presented for Marlow in Skeleton Lake, I fell for Alex. All of the characters were well-rounded, fully fleshed out. And Alex was strong, kind, and brave. And I loved the portrayal of his relationship with Lena, his soulmate. So I'm officially declaring myself Team Alex. Unfortunately this will probably be a team of one since Raidan and his heart-melting words will inevitably get all the love.

I truly loved this book. It's full of action and romance. And, um, skeletons. Does it get more unique than that? Throw in a mystical lake that I'm still not certain isn't alive and evil, and well, I'm hooked.

Is it perfect? No. I could point out a few stray commas here and there, or some run-on sentences. As a reader, does it matter? Not at all. Because there's something that Angela does better than some of the most well edited authors out there. She tells a good story. She understands the elements that make outstanding fiction and she executes each of them flawlessly.  She sucks you in, and once you're in, you're in. There's no escaping her writerly clutches until you reached The End.

And when it was over, I was sad. I wanted more. I know a sequel is in the works, so I'll have to wait a few months. Highly recommend to lovers of the paranormal romance genre and for anyone looking for a fresh mythos.

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To Be Read Thursday {12} - Featuring Brightest Kind of Darkness

TBR Thursday is a weekly post where I draw attention to books by sharing with you the books I've either purchased, won, borrowed, or received for review, plus 10 books currently on my TBR list.

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Books Purchased:

I've been seeing some pretty awesome reviews on this one and well, you know I'm a sucker for an awesome cover. Plus, the e-book is only $0.99. 

Brightest Kind of Darkness, P.T. Michelle

Buy It:  Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads:  Nara Collins is an average sixteen-year-old, with one exception: every night she dreams the events of the following day. Due to an incident in her past, Nara avoids using her special gift to change fate...until she dreams a future she can't ignore.

After Nara prevents a bombing at Blue Ridge High, her ability to see the future starts to fade, while people at school are suddenly being injured at an unusually high rate.

Grappling with her diminishing powers and the need to prevent another disaster, Nara meets Ethan Harris, a mysterious loner who seems to understand her better than anyone. Ethan and Nara forge an irresistible connection, but as their relationship heats up, so do her questions about his dark past.

Books Received for Review:

Skeleton Lake (Skeleton Lake #1), Angela Kulig 

Buy It:  Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads:  Unsure if she's drowning or being saved, all Marlow wants to do is run away. Ensnared in a haunting love triangle, she realizes both boys have holes in their hearts; gaping spaces she can never hope to fill.

Scars from loving the same girl, a girl who managed to stay dead.

Now she is being hunted, for what she has become and what she never asked to be. Even as a Skeleton Marlow isn’t the worst thing in the night—she isn’t even close.

Death's Hand (Descent #1), S.M. Reine

Buy It:  Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads:  Policing relations between Heaven, Hell, and Earth is messy and violent, but Elise Kavanagh and James Faulkner excelled at it-- until coming across a job so brutal that even they couldn't stand to see one more dead body.

Now they've been pretending to be normal for five years, leaving their horrific history a dark secret. Elise works in an office. James owns a business. None of their friends realize they used to be one of the world's best killing teams.

After years of hiding, something stirs. Bodies are vanishing. Demons scurry in the shadows of the night. A child has been possessed.

Some enemies aren't willing to let the secrets of the past stay dead...

To Be Read Books:

Click on book cover to see a synopsis:

 1. Day One, Bill Cameron

 2. Dismantled, Jennifer McMahon

 3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

 4. Book of Shadows, Alexandra Sokoloff

 5. Bright Young Things, Anna Godbersen

 6. The Daughter of Smoke & Bones, Laini Taylor

 7. Exiled, M.R. Merrick

 8. Sleight, Jennifer Sommersby

 9. Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings, Helene Boudreau

 10. The Lying Game, Sara Shepard

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To Be Read Thursday {11}

TBR Thursday is a weekly post where I draw attention to books by sharing with you the books I've either purchased, won, borrowed, or received for review, plus 10 books currently on my TBR list.

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Books Purchased:

I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley, however after reading it I had to own a copy. It's incredible. You can see my review here.

Without Tess, Marcella Pixley

Buy It:  Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads:  Tess and Lizzie are sisters, sisters as close as can be, who share a secret world filled with selkies, flying horses, and a girl who can transform into a wolf  in the middle of the night. But when Lizzie is ready to grow up, Tess clings to their fantasies. As Tess sinks deeper and deeper into her delusions, she decides that she can’t live in the real world any longer and leaves Lizzie and her family forever.

Now, years later, Lizzie is in high school and struggling to understand what happened to her sister. With the help of a school psychologist and Tess’s battered journal, Lizzie searches for a way to finally let Tess go.

Books Received for Review:

Dark Eden, Patrick Carman

The Poisoned House, Michael Ford

Saving June, Hannah Harrington

To Be Read Books:

Click on book cover to see a synopsis:

 1. The Mockingbirds, Daisy Whitney

 2. Fixing Delilah, Sarah Ockler

 3. Fall for Anything, Courtney Summers

 4. Trapped, Michael Northrop

 5. Sean Griswold's Head, Lindsey Leavitt

 6. Back When You Were Easier to Love, Emily Wing Smith

 7. Sharks & Boys, Kristen Tracy

 8. Pearl, Jo Knowles

 9. Small Town Sinners, Melissa C. Walker

 10. Want to Go Private?, Sarah Darer Littman

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Recent Reads - Without Tess

Without Tess, by Marcella Pixley

   4.5 of 5 Stars

Buy It:  Amazon  /  Barnes & Noble

Genre:   Young Adult, Contemporary

Pages: 224

Publication:   10/11/2011, Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Why I Chose It:  I received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and thoughtful review.

Synopsis (from Good Reads):   Tess and Lizzie are sisters, sisters as close as can be, who share a secret world filled with selkies, flying horses, and a girl who can transform into a wolf  in the middle of the night. But when Lizzie is ready to grow up, Tess clings to their fantasies.

As Tess sinks deeper and deeper into her delusions, she decides that she can’t live in the real world any longer and leaves Lizzie and her family forever. Now, years later, Lizzie is in high school and struggling to understand what happened to her sister. With the help of a school psychologist and Tess’s battered journal, Lizzie searches for a way to finally let Tess go.

My Review:  Growing up my sister Katie was my best friend. My family moved around a lot so she was oftentimes the only constant in my life. She was creative, exciting, adventurous. All the things I longed to be myself. And I truly believe that I would have followed her anywhere and done anything she'd asked. Perhaps this is why Without Tess has affected me so profoundly. It was a story that immediately resonated with me and I found myself tearing up just a few short pages in.

Tess is ill, that much is clear from the pages of her journal and Lizzie's recollection of their relationship. She lives in a fantasy world. She is delusional and is in equal parts protective of and cruel to her younger sibling. She often makes Lizzie feel like she is inferior or requires that she do something dangerous in order to prove her love for Tess.

As Lizzie grows up and away from Tess, Tess becomes desperate to keep Lizzie believing in her fantasies. She doesn't want to participate in therapy or take medication that will take away the magic. Eventually, she becomes depressed and chooses to end her life, leaving Lizzie with an intense guilt for having been unable to save her sister.

Now a teenager, Lizzie must come to terms with what happened and through her sister's journal entries understand why it happened.

The prose is lyrical, poignant, incredible. Ms. Pixley knows how to create a daring, dark, and emotionally taut experience for her readers.

Her characters are well-developed, multi-faceted, complex. There were times I despised Tess's behavior and times I wanted to cry for her. And Lizzie. I adored Lizzie. Especially younger Lizzie who blindly follows Tess. Who worships her older sister. Who reminded me so much of me.

I cannot say enough about this book. I LOVED it. Seriously Ms. Pixley, I need more books like this in my life. Please. I beg of you, write more like this and I will continue reading. This story broke my heart. It's a painful look at mental illness, love, loss, and guilt that will take me a while to recover from. I recommend it for anyone who likes an emotional contemporary or who finds themselves in need of a good cry.


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Recent Reads - The Shadowing: Hunted

The Shadowing (Hunted) Hunted #1, by Adam Slater

  4 of 5 Stars

Buy It:  Amazon  /  Barnes & Noble

Genre:   Young Adult, Paranormal/Horror

Pages: 208

Publication:   9/13/2011, Egmont USA

Why I Chose It:  I received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Good Reads):   Once every century, the barrier between the human world and the demon realm begins to break down. Creatures gather, anxiously waiting to cross the divide, to bring death and destruction from their world to ours. This time is called The Shadowing.

Callum Scott has always known that there is a supernatural world out there—he’s seen ghosts for as long as he can remember. Lately, he’s had visions of children being brutally murdered by a terrifying creature. Then the visions start coming true, and Callum realizes that he’s being hunted, too.

Driven by a dark destiny, he must stand against the demons that threaten our world.

And The Shadowing is almost here. . .

My Review:  Love. So. Much. Love. This book was amazing and creepy and exactly what I needed following a string of lackluster reads. I picked this book up from NetGalley because the synopsis sounded awesome (the cover does nothing for me. Sorry. I really think a new cover would benefit this book.), but I was apprehensive going in. However The Shadowing did not disappoint.

I don't want to give too much away because there is a lot of stuff the reader should experience on their own. But I will tell you that it's dark, shocking, and all-around full of awesome. And it's DIFFERENT. For one, it's told from the POV of a teenage boy. It was super refreshing to not only find a male mc, but one that I could connect with and root for. I generally read a lot of adult novels as well as young adult, but I've been on a straight YA kick for some time now, so this has been seriously lacking in my reading.

It was sufficiently disturbing and the pacing was excellent. Slater's writing style was good, skin-crawlingly (yeah, I made that word up. So?) good. It was sometimes repetitive, but not enough to distract me from my overall enjoyment of the book. And the plot--again, just so much love. I can't wait for the sequel, Skinned!!

I'm going to go ahead and recommend this book to anyone who likes a darker paranormal story. Those looking for a heavily romanticized read with gorgeous/sparkling supernatural creatures should look elsewhere.

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Recent Reads - The Shattering

The Shattering, by Karen Healey

3 of 5 Stars

Buy It:  Amazon  /  Barnes & Noble

Genre:   Young Adult, Supernatural Thriller

Pages: 305

Publication:   9/5/2011, Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Why I Chose It:  I received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Good Reads):   Seventeen-year-old Keri likes to plan for every possibility. She knows what to do if you break an arm, or get caught in an earthquake or fire. But she wasn't prepared for her brother's suicide, and his death has left her shattered with grief. When her childhood friend Janna tells her it was murder, not suicide, Keri wants to believe her. After all, Janna's brother died under similar circumstances years ago, and Janna insists a visiting tourist, Sione, who also lost a brother to apparent suicide that year, has helped her find some answers.

As the three dig deeper, disturbing facts begin to pile up: one boy killed every year; all older brothers; all had spent New Year's Eve in the idyllic town of Summerton. But when their search for the serial killer takes an unexpected turn, suspicion is cast on those they trust the most.

As secrets shatter around them, can they save the next victim? Or will they become victims themselves?


My Review:  This is a book that was just okay for me. It was good, I enjoyed it, but I can't sit here and tell you that it was the greatest thing ever and you should run right out and buy it. I'd be lying. And well, what good would that do anyone?

Let me start off by saying that it wasn't at all what I expected but that has nothing to do with my lack of enthusiasm. I wasn't familiar with the author's previous work and based on the synopsis I went in thinking this was going to be a straight-up mystery, which excited me to no end, but it ended up going paranormal on me. This isn't a bad thing, it just wasn't what I thought I was reading.

That said, there are a lot of things I liked about this book. For one, the paranormal concept is unique to an over-saturated genre. I'll give it credit even though I wish it had been billed that way. Second, while a few sections here and there were slow, for the most part it was fast paced and kept me guessing, thus flipping pages.

And then there's Keri. The story is told in alternating point of view of the three main characters, but I found myself drawn more to Keri than the others. Like me, she plans for every possible event/outcome and I really came to like her despite the fact that the story wasn't working for me.

Still, I failed to truly connect with the story. It lacked a certain something. That intangible that makes me want to attack strangers on the street and force a copy of a book I love into their hands. However, I would certainly recommend reading it and giving it a chance. It's something different and if you're looking for something a little dark or a little unique, this book could definitely be for you.

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To Be Read Thursday {10}

TBR Thursday is a weekly post where I draw attention to books by sharing with you the books I've either purchased, won, borrowed, or received for review, plus 10 books currently on my TBR list.

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Books Purchased:

Okay, I bought these books a few weeks ago but forgot to feature them, so I figured I'd do it now because, you see, I didn't buy any books this week. I know, crazy, right?!! It's been a busy week. I promise I'll be consumed by my addiction again real soon. P.S. - Being Human e-version is only $2.99 and Beautifully Broken is $0.99

Being Human, Patricia Lynne

Buy It:  Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads: For Tommy, there is only one thing he needs to do: survive.

Only surviving isn't that easy. The hunt for blood can be tricky when humans know to fear the night. Desire sits on the edge of his mind, urging him to become the monster humans think he is. Vampire Forces, a special branch of police, is determined to turn every vampire to ash. Tommy included.

The only human Tommy can trust is his twin brother. A bond connects them, and with Danny's help, Tommy starts to understand the human world he struggles to survive in. He'll learn what friendships means and feel the sting of betrayal, find that sometimes the worst monsters are very human, and come to understand that family means more than blood.

Tommy just wants to survive and he knows what he needs to do. But with the number of humans that mean more to him than a meal growing, he'll learn there's more to life than simple survival. He'll discover being human doesn't mean being a human.

Beautifully Broken, Sherry Soule

Buy It:  Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads: Thirteenth daughter. Heritage witch. Demon slayer.

They say every town has its secrets, but that doesn’t even begin to describe Whispering Pines. The townsfolk are a superstitious lot and the mystical disappearance of a local teen has everyone murmuring about a centuries old witch’s curse.

Sixteen-year-old Shiloh Ravenwolf is a heritage witch from the Broussard family, a family both destined and cursed. When she takes a summer job at Ravenhurst Manor, she discovers a ghost with an agenda. That’s where she meets the new town hottie, Trent Donovan, and immediately becomes spellbound by his charms. Yet she is determined to discover the connection between them before it’s too late.

Finally, Shiloh's met someone who is supercute and totally into her, but Trent may be the next victim on the supernatural hit list. And Shiloh is the only person with the power to save him. Complicated much?

It sucks to have a destiny, especially since Shiloh would rather spend her summer being a normal girl who worries about clothes and boys, not the supernatural. But she’s never been normal and the stranger things become the more her own magical senses awaken.

With cryptic messages from a pesky wraith, she will begin to understand the mysterious significance of the strange mark branded on her wrist, and decide how much she's willing to sacrifice to protect the other teenagers in town.

Unfortunately, for Shiloh, not all ghosts want help crossing over. Some want vengeance.

Books Received for Review:

Variant, Robison Wells

Cold Kiss, Amy Garvey

You Are My Only, Beth Kephart

To Be Read Books:

Click on book cover to see a synopsis:

 1. Looking for Alaska, John Green

 2. Oh. My. Gods., Tera Lynn Childs

 3. The Name of the Star, Maureen Johnson

 4. Moon Called, Patricia Briggs

 5. Think of a Numb3r, John Verdon

 6. Damage Control, Denise Hamilton

 7. The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend), Kody Keplinger

 8. Losing Faith, Denise Jaden

 9. Girl, Stolen, April Henry

 10. Freefall, Mindi Scott



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