Review for Fateful by Cherri Schmidt

Description from goodreads.com

A huge fan of Jane Austen, Danielle hopes to find her own Mr. Darcy when she leaves Colorado to attend art school in London. Of course she knows it's silly to wish for that, naive even. But she's met enough males who lacked respect for women, a growing trend it seemed. And at nineteen...well.... However, on only her second night there she gets lost and is threatened by a stalker who proves to be immune to her martial arts training. Before she is completely overpowered, she is then saved by Ethan Deveroux.

While Danielle does find the romance she seeks in Ethan, he's no Mr. Darcy. Her hero is held by a spell which fractures their chance at a happy ending. During the day Ethan is closer to mortal than immortal and can date her like any other man. Yet, as the sun sets, the powerful magic of an ancient curse returns and the evil of that spell is revealed. When that magic begins, Danielle's fairytale romance ends because Ethan Deveroux is a vampire.

3.5 out of 5

Where to begin...?  Well, let's start with the MC Danielle.  I didn't really care for her.  She was insecure to a point that I think she needed therapy.  For a girl who has a black belt in martial arts she needed a good dose of attitude to go with it.  She often came off as a helpless, pouty child.  The only time we get to see her with any fight at all is towards the end of the book.  Once the climax was over, so was her bravery.  She was like Bella in Twilight, but the watered down version.  Now on to Ethan.  I found him rather boring.  He wasn't really consistent either.  First he wants to protect Danielle from his evil dark magic then he wants to take her to a ball, at night, when his & several others' dark magic is in full force!  He's so concerned with being proper, but he likes to get her drunk on his magical breath.  Um, weird.  The character I liked the most was Max.  He flirted with Danielle and that is so much more entertaining than being instantly worshiped.  

The climax of the book was really good.  This is where Schmidt showed us some great writing.  My heart was actually pounding.  It's because of that, I will read the next book in this series.  I would  really love to see a whole book just about Max!  Oh, one last tid bit that annoyed me was the whole lidded eye thing.  All I could picture were all these people talking to Danielle looking kind of stoned because they had to look at her through barely open eye lids due to the effect their eyes had on humans. 
So, if you fall into the category of Twilight haters (I don't judge), I don't recommend this book.  But I do recommend it as a series to keep watch on.  I think it will improve.

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Review for Parallel by Claudia Lefeve

Description from goodreads.com

Destiny has a way of catching up.

Saddled with powers she doesn't understand, Etta Fleming's world is turned upside-down the day she meets Cooper Everett, the man who transports her to an alternate reality. A reality she was meant to be a part of.

One minute, she's an orphan living at Dominion House for Girls, an institution for delinquent foster kids, then finds herself attending the exclusive Dominion Hall Academy.

Plucked from the only world she's ever known, Etta now has to deal with an aunt she never knew, a boyfriend she doesn't know, and a best friend who can't know.

PARALLEL is the first book in the Travelers Series.

(*Formerly entitled Heir. Scheduled release date August 2011)

4 out of 5

My thoughts…

I'd like to start off by saying that I've never been particularly fond of books about time travel.  The Time Traveler's Wife left a bad taste in my mouth.  This book however, has made a huge difference in my opinion.  I don't know if it's the originality of the plot or the pragmatic world LeFeve has created that had me so intrigued.  I did struggle a bit with the lack of relationships between the characters.  I felt like some of them should have deeper connections.  Etta seemed to handle the changes in her situation well.  She should have had warning bells screaming in her head when it came to Alex.  I know there has got to be more to Alex than we see in this book so I am looking forward to seeing what happens with him in the next one.  There were a few places in the book that needed better editing, but nothing that was too confusing.  I suspected, but still loved the twist at the end.  I think this series is just going to get better as it goes.

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Review for Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

Description from Goodreads

The last thing teenager Kelsey Hayes thought she'd be doing over the summer was meeting Ren, a mysterious white tiger and cursed Indian prince When she learns she alone can break the Tiger's curse, Kelsey's life is turned upside-down. The unlikely duo journeys halfway around the world to piece together an Indian prophecy, find a way to free the man trapped by a centuries-old spell, and discover the path to their true destiny.

My short, simple review

3.5 out of 5

I struggled with this book a bit. I loved the idea of the story, but I just couldn't get into it. The characters were two dimensional. They didn't really become concrete to me until the last two chapters of the book. I spent most of the book, especially at the end, frustrated with Kelsey. At one point I wanted to reach in the book and shake her! Her self esteem issues started to get on my nerves. Oh, I wanted so badly to swoon over Ren and his gorgeous eyes. I could never get an image of him in my mind. I loved reading about the Indian culture and folk lore. The scenery was well scripted and easy to imagine. So, I am going to stick with this series and to see it to the end. I hope to find more to sink my teeth in to in the next book.

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Review for Reckoning (Strange Angels novel)

Description from www.goodreads.com

Nobody expected Dru Anderson to survive this long. Not Graves. Not Christophe. Not even Dru. She's battled killer zombies, jealous djamphirs, and bloodthirsty suckers straight out of her worst nightmares. But now that Dru has bloomed into a full-fledged svetocha - rare, beautiful, and toxic to all vampires - the worst is yet to come.

Because getting out alive is going to cost more than she's ever imagined. And in the end, is survival really worth the sacrifice?

DRU ANDERSON'S NOT AFRAID OF THE DARK.
BUT SHE SHOULD BE.

My Review

This was a great end to one of my favorite series. I wonder if, and hope there will be a spin off. The only unfinished bit was not finding out what Dru is short for. The thing I love most about Dru is that she pushes through all her fear and apprehension to survive and save those she loves. She's always surprised at her own strength. Dru rises above near impossible odds with grace she doesn't even know she possesses. The raw, complicated emotions that Lil St. Crow illustrates in her writing is what hooked me to this series. **SPOILERS BELOW**



I gave this book 5 stars on my review. However, I'm going to have to jump on the "unsatisfied conclusion" band wagon. When I finished the book it was like Dru was abandoned all over again, but this time by St. Crow herself. So many things left unfinished. To write such raw realistic characters and then leave everything so open is heart breaking. The characters deserved more. While it might not be important to others, it was frustrating to me to not find out Dru's full name. It was such a big deal in Strange Angels. So, like other faithful St. Crow readers, I want to know...will there be a spin off? Will we see Graves return? Will Dru have to finally make a decision between Graves & Christophe? Then at the very end of the book she opened up a whole new possiblity with Gran's family background. There has to be more! St. Crow might be done with Dru, but clearly her readers are not! Come on Lili, don't leave us or Dru like this.