Magic in the Blood

Magic in the Blood is the second book in Devon Monk's Allie Beckstrom series.

In this book, Allie still hasn't recovered her lost memories of Zayvion Jones, but her physical reaction to him makes her think that she had fallen hard for him. She also starts to see ghost-like apparitions when she is casting magic. Unfortunately, they can see her and their touch can steal magic from her and leave a rash-like wound behind. On top of that, she's being stalked by a thug out of prison who will kill her if she doesn't deliver a fellow Hound, Martin Pike, to him. Allie is also approached by the MERC side of the police to Hound a job involving some missing girls. Overwhelmed, she goes to visit her father's grave, but her magic reveals that the coffin is empty.

Allie goes to a Hound meeting to speak with Pike and ends up with one of the members promising back up while she's working. Afterwards, her Hounding job goes bad when the ghosts show up and jump her. And the blood magic she finds at the scene of the crime belongs to her friend Pike, but as it feels wrong, Allie is determined to find out what really happened. A meeting with Zay explains the ghosts as the remnants of magic users in the past. While on her way to meet with the police, Allie is magically called to visit the thug - and sees a critically wounded Pike along the way. Retracing his steps, Allie finds a few dead bodies along the way and finishes the thug herself. Pike's dying words about a doctor having her blood leads her to Hound her own scent to an abandoned warehouse.

In the warehouse is Pike's protege, Anthony, along with the missing girls. And her father's body. The doctor shows up and attempts to open a gate between the living and dead using her and her father's blood. All hell breaks loose as Allie's father's spirit attempts to possess her body to stop the doctor. In the end they win, but Allie loses memories of her father in the warehouse. Zayvion lobbied on her behalf to gain Allie entrance into his secret magic club and Allie is glad to learn magic that would allow her to gain control of her powers.

This book is interesting. I like several things about this book: how any magic used has a price - whether it's a cold or headache; the Veiled creatures; and how Allie's father tried to possess her. I like how Allie is a magical conduit, with her arms having a positive and negative end - despite how everyone else in that book is determined that it isn't possible.

And that is also what I don't like about it. Allie is a smart-talking lone wolf (not literally - not weres in this book!) how is almost obsessively anti-social. She chalks it all up to being a Hound, but she has some serious trust issues that I hope she grows out of. I get how she doesn't trust Zayvion - how could she when she's forgotten him? - but it's a little painful to watch, especially since he is aware that she doesn't trust him either. She also gets thrust into a leadership position by her fellow Hounds and immediately has an uprising as one of the younger female Hounds storms out stating she'll never follow her. The younger Hound's issues stem from jealousy - how annoying.

I think I'll read the next book (Magic in the Shadows) in this series immediately. The next book after that (Magic on the Storm) is out May 4th, so I might as well catch up on this series ASAP.

Silver Borne

In Silver Borne, book five of this series, Patricia Briggs returns to the Tri-Cities and my favourite coyote-shifter, Mercy Thompson.

Unfortunately, a date with Adam goes bad after Mercy realizes that someone in the pack was messing with her mate bonds. That same night, Samuel is taken to the hospital after a car accident and Mercy realizes that his Wolf counterpart, Sam, has taken control since Samuel tried to commit suicide. Mercy's attempt to keep Sam's condition secret gets found out after a Bounty Hunter tries to kill Sam at Mercy's garage. Fortunately, the police arrive with Adam and they notice that the warrant for Adam's arrest is forged.

Adam agrees that Sam deserves a chance to prove himself, but when Mercy and Sam go to return a book to its owner, the fae torch Mercy's home. Thinking Mercy was home, despite some of his pack knowing otherwise, Adam runs into Mercy's place looking for her and receives serious burns. After sorting out that mess, Mercy and Adam return back to his place and Mercy confronts Mary Jo. Unfortunately, Adam is challenged for the Alpha position while Mercy is occupied.

Adam takes care of that debacle and then promptly passes out from his injuries. And that's when Mercy finds out that Gabriel has been kidnapped by the fae, who tries to exchange him for the object that she carries. Knowing that Adam wouldn't approve, Mercy sets off with Jessie and Sam to meet Zee and another fae, Ariana (which means Silver). Ariana also happens to be a long-lost love of Samuel's. Seeing her gave him a reason to take back control of his wolf - it also gave him a new reason to keep on living. Using magic, Ariana locates Gabriel at a fairy mound and Zee creates a back entrance. Unfortunately, it was a trap and they are forced to bargain their freedom, which results in Mercy getting left behind. While attempting to force Mercy under thrall, Bran makes contact and helps Mercy out.

I absolutely love this series. Mercy is funny, she's outspoken and she bluffs her way through almost every situation. Honestly, I wish I could be as insightful and calm as Mercy. She confronts people as needed and with a clear head. And when that doesn't work, she shoots them. Seriously.

Here are two of my favourite quotes from this book:

After a dominance fight for the Alpha position between Adam and Paul:

I'd been keeping an eye on Henry throughout the fight. I glanced at him just as he stepped up to the mat.
"Alpha," he called. "I chal-"
He never got the whole word out - because I drew my foster father's SIG and shot him in the throat before he could.
For a split second everyone stared at him, as if they couldn't figure out where all the blood had come from.
"Stop the bleeding," I said. Though I made no move to do it myself. The rat could die for all I cared. "That was a lead bullet. He'll be fine." Though he wouldn't be talking-or challenging Adam-for a while. "When he's stable, put him in the holding cell, where he can't do any more harm."
Adam looked at me. "Trust you to bring a gun to a fistfight," he said with every evidence of admiration. Then he looked at his pack. Our pack. "What she said," he told them. (page 248)

and after Mercy gets captured by the fairy queen who is attempting to enslave her through hypnosis:

The fairy queen had continued to talk in my head, but I wasn't paying attention to what she said.
"Whom do you serve?" she asked aloud....Not as though she were interested in the answer.
"'Choose this day whom you will serve....But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.'" It seemed appropriate to quote [the Book of] Joshua at her.
"What?" she asked, startled.
"What were you expecting me to answer?" I asked, feeling a little let down. Some of the very old fae react poorly to scripture, but this one didn't seem to mind-not the scriptures anyway. (page 317-318)

I have several reasons for those being my favourite quotes. In the first quote it shows Mercy's impulsiveness and protective nature (by shooting a man to prevent him from challenging Adam when he's injured) and it also shows Adam's respect and admiration for her (by backing up her order to the Pack).

The second quote just makes me laugh - especially when she states that she stopped paying attention to what was being said to her. It also shows her being quick-witted (both with the reference to the Bible verse, but also to her knowledge of fairy-lore).

I love the relationship between Adam and Mercy: it's still very new, but they would do anything to protect each other - even from themselves. Despite Mercy always getting in to trouble, she knows that Adam will always show up to rescue her. And I especially love the fact that though there is a relationship in this book, this isn't a paranormal romance!! As a friend described it, a paranormal romance is urban fantasy whose storyline wouldn't be able to stand on its own without the relationship. And I'd like to say that as much as I like Adam and Mercy together, they were friends first in this series and if their relationship had never evolved, the story could've kept going.

I think this series could be appreciated by many people. While there is sex in the series, it's fairly mild and left mostly to your own imagination, as it should be. If you like smart female leads (as I do) you'll like this series. A good friend of mine borrowed the first book thinking she couldn't make fun of it without reading it first - and she's since asked me for the rest of the books. :)

Just read it, it's cute.

Banned Book Club

I have exciting news! I'm in a Book Club. But! Not just any Book Club - it's a Book Club that will read books that were banned and/or burned in the past.

The first book? Fahrenheit 451. Coincidentally, that is also the latest book that I've been attempting to finish. Now this will give me the excuse to finally finish reading it.

I've never been part of a Book Club before, and after having read the book list (of which I already own 3-4 books), I'm super stoked - both for the books themselves, as well as the discussions. Part of the reason why I even started writing this blog was so that I could talk about books (my favourite subject). However, as much as I like talking about books, I like discussing them even more. I'm just nervous that I'll have nothing to contribute since I don't know anything about literature.

However, I'm game. Two of my very good friends are in the club as well so this will be a fantastic way to spend time with them as well as meet more like-minded individuals.

Can't wait!!

New Moon

New Moon is the second book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. This book starts out with Bella's birthday, in which she will officially be older than Edward - and she melodramatically argues with him about it. At the party she cuts herself and Edward has to protect her from the teeth of his brother. To protect her from himself and his family, Edward breaks up with her and moves away.

Time passes and Bella survives. Barely.

She discovers that by doing things that Edward would disapprove of, she is able to hear his voice. As such, she starts to engage in reckless activities (ie, talking to strange boys outside a bar, learning to ride a motorcycle, walking in forests that are known to have bear attacks and cliff diving). It is the cliff diving that, ironically, brings the vampires back to Bella. Alice witnesses Bella jumping off a cliff and drowning. After mentioning it to her sister and before checking on Bella herself, Edward hears about it and sets off to die.

When Alice learns of his behaviour, she takes Bella to Italy to prevent it, thus meeting the Volturi family. Alice promises to turn Bella in the future to spare her life, much to Edward's dismay. They return to Forks and Bella is convinced that Edward is still a dream. After talking it out for a while, Bella goes to the Cullens for a vote on her mortality; the majority votes for her to turn. Back at Bella's house, Jacob (Bella's rock while Edward was gone; he's also a werewolf) tells Edward that if any one in his family so much as bites a human, the treaty is over and war will break out between the werewolves and vampires. Bella is horrified at the implication that her becoming a vampire will start a fight between the pride and the Cullens.

I had a discussion at work about this series: I really didn't care for the first book and I heard that this one would be worse. And at first it was, especially post-breakup. However, once Bella started to get on with her life, with the help of Jacob, I started liking her more. And I found that if the author had substituted Edward's voice with her own common sense, I would've liked it a lot more. I definitely liked Bella more when she was around Jacob; the only exceptions being when she started referring to herself as broken and how she could never love again.

I adored Jacob. Not so much when he first turned, but after they hashed that out, I liked him again. I thought it was kind of sad when he was willing for a relationship with Bella where she had no emotional input, but given time (and no Edward), she probably would've been able to love him for real.

Edward still pissed me off and once he and Bella got back together, they both reverted back to their previous behaviours. After Bella talked to him rationally about how she was certain he would leave again, I assumed that she had grown up, but she lost all of her own strength when she realized that he was there to stay. I really really don't like how they parallel their relationship with Romeo & Juliet's - everyone knows how that one ends.

Like I said, I did like this one better (probably because there was less Edward) and so I am a little excited about the next one (Eclipse) since everyone says that it is better than New Moon. Maybe I ended up jumping on the bandwagon, but I won't be sure until the end of the series.

Twilight

Twilight is the first book in a young adult series of the same name about a teenaged girl, Bella Swan, and the creatures she encounters in her small town in Washington state.

Bella insisted on moving to her father's home in Forks after her mom got re-married (the new husband is a basketball player so they would've been gone most of the time travelling). Coming from her sunny home in Phoenix, Forks is dreary and way too green. Luckily, the folks are friendly and Bella quickly makes new friends, despite her miserable attitude to the contrary. At lunch she has an across-the-room encounter with Edward Cullen and is confused by his continual glaring. Biology is even worse when she has a class with him and the only empty seat is at his bench. The whole class consisted of him glowering in her general direction and leaning as far away as possible. At the end of the day she sees him again in the office, trying to switch into a new class. Miserable, she goes home and can't stop thinking about him.

After about a week, he finally comes back to school and is friendly, much to her surprise. After he saves her from being crushed by an oncoming vehicle, they become friends and start hanging out more. An outing with her friends in a nearby town causes Bella to become lost and harassed by some locals; Edward saves her and she discloses that she knows his secret: that he's a vampire. With that out of the way, they admit to being in love with each other and are ready to meet each other's families. However, while watching the Cullen family play baseball in the rain, some strange vampires show up and notice that Bella is human. When Edward comes to her defense, the vampire James takes it upon himself to personally kill her. Running away to Phoenix doesn't help and Bella surrenders herself to save her mother. Fortunately for her, Edward shows up in time to save her life, yet again. The story ends with Edward taking Bella to prom, much to her horror and dismay.

I had put off reading Twilight since Christmas, mainly because I wasn't sure what to expect. I've heard reviews that ranged from terrific to terrible; however, when a friend of mine rented the movie the other day, and liked it, I decided that I would read the series.

Unfortunately, I found it to be mediocre.

I found that it took too long to finally get into the story. Bella is moody and depressing to have as a lead character - especially since it is read in the first person. She is constantly shooting herself down and putting Edward on a pedestal. Everything she has to say about his looks are filled with dismay, and is always followed by an "I'm not good enough" sentiment. She is clingy, and if I knew someone who was that obsessed with their partner, I'd be afraid that a breakup would drive them to be suicidal.

Edward really isn't that much better: he moods are very mercurial and it doesn't take much to set him off. As much as Bella torments herself with her own insecurity, Edward hounds himself about potentially hurting her - physically - if he gets carried away.

The worst part of the storyline are probably the two main characters. I didn't like how much both Bella and Edward beat themselves up over hurting the other (Bella couldn't stand it if one of his family members were hurt helping her and Edward couldn't stand it if she were hurt simply because she knew him). One of my main pet peeves was found in Bella: how every guy she came across was drawn to her and wanted to go out with her.

However, I did like Stephenie Meyer's take on vampires and how some vampire myths stayed as such (ie, burning to ash in the sunlight). I also liked how she made the Cullen family into "vegetarians," how some traits found in humans are magnified as vampires and I especially loved the baseball scene.

I think that if I were a romantic teenager wanting to read about the star-crossed lovers (which is a stupid term for them since both families support the relationship), I would really love this series. I don't think I could've identified with it since Bella isn't a typical teenager: her mother refers to her as 17-going-on-35 (I would disagree about her relative maturity).

Like I said, overall I found it mediocre. It could be that I went in with high expectations and therefore didn't enjoy the book as well as I could've. I will keep reading the series, just to see how it ends, but I don't think I'll raise my expectations for the next book, New Moon. Especially if Bella is going to continue brooding.

The Reckoning

A couple notes first: I totally veered off reading "Fahrenheit 451" for a couple reasons. One, I was informed that the third (and final) book in a series I was reading was in, so of course this post is actually about that. Two, it's very "1984", in that its an older, dystopia-style book that takes a while to wrap my brain around. Three, I may be able to get back into it now that I've started reading "Twilight". I'm really not digging that book so much.

Now onto my real post.

The Reckoning, as I said earlier, is the third and final book in a young adult series by Kelley Armstrong. First, a quick recap, since I didn't review these books. This series features Chloe Saunders, a teenage girl who can see ghosts. Unfortunately, she became brutally aware of this fact after she was traumatized at school by the ghost of a formal janitor. After being sent to the psych ward, it was suggested that she go to a special school where she could be treated for schizophrenia. While there she meets other teenagers being treated for various mental disorders. One of the guys suggests that she isn't schizophrenia...she's a necromancer.

After that, things get interesting. The teenagers break out, get caught, escape, and finally meet up a contact that can help them. And that's where book three comes in.

This review is a little harder to do since it is in the middle of the story and it'll be a little harder to explain without going back to everything and I can't avoid spoiling at least a little of the story for those who haven't read it yet.

Chloe, Derek, Simon & Tori are being housed in a safe house from the Edison group with a friend of Kit's (Derek & Simon's father), by the name of Andrew. However, despite knowing that they're genetically modified supernaturals, Andrew & his fellow rebels can't help but be afraid of the powers that the teens are displaying. A freak encounter between Chloe, Derek & a couple of werewolves turns out to have been a staged event by someone claiming to help them. And that someone doesn't care if they end up dead.

A betrayal at the safe house causes the teenagers to end up back at the Edison group hospital, where Chloe learns her aunt is still alive, but held captive. Chloe frees a demi-demon to save herself and Kit finally makes an appearance.

This review probably makes no sense, and probably sounds super anti-climatic. Which, in fact, it was. I liked the story overall, especially how it ended between Derek & Chloe, but it really felt unfinished. The story ended with them being on the run. A story can't end like that since there's always the chance of them getting caught - either by the bad guys or by the good guys.

This story had a lot of the same threads as her other series, The Women of the Otherworld: werewolves, witches, sorcerors & necromancers. I kept expecting to read about Paige or Elena showing up as a mentor. Especially with the book feeling unfinished, maybe they'll cross paths in a future book.

With Chloe being a necromancer, this book was pretty spooky & gory at times. She really grew stronger and more self-confident through the series and it's really apparent when she meets up with her aunt again. In fact, Chloe mourns her own loss of innocence for her aunt's sake.

Overall? I think if you like The Women of the Otherworld series, you'd like this. It's very cute & innocent when it comes to teenage love. It's about self-sufficiency and the bonds of friendship to overcome obstacles.

I also need to get better at writing endings for my reviews. :)