Monster by Julia Sykes

Series: Impossible
Author: Julia Sykes
Page Count: 122
Published: March 29th, 2013
Publisher: Amazon
  3 Stars ★★★

Claudia is kidnapped by Bradley when leaving work one day, needed for her medical skills. When he takes her to his home, she meets Sean, his best friend, who is suffering from a bullet wound. After treating him, she finds herself handcuffed to the bed, unable to escape, and incredibly afraid.

Sean is different from Bradley, he's charming and much more laid back. Often defending Claudia from Bradley's anger and frustration, she begins to feel attracted to him. As her feelings grow she learns more and more about the two boys...and is torn apart by her emotions. Will she escape, or will she choose to stay with Sean?

I'm a big fan of kidnapping books, I find them very exciting and suspenseful. This book had its fair share of suspense and excitement, however I found it somewhat cliché at times.

The emotional turmoil Claudia was going through seemed a bit unrealistic, and badly paced. For example, if you have been kidnapped, you're generally not going to find yourself constantly admiring one of your kidnappers' bodies and appearance, within the first few days of captivity. Sure you can find them attractive, but I felt like the whole Stockholm Syndrome thing happened a bit too quickly.

The author also included 'misunderstood bad boy' elements. Sean is revealed to have had his own share of hardships within his life, and Claudia feels a connection to him through them. While this wasn't stressed too dramatically, I feel like it could've been executed better and could've had a larger, more significant impact had it been addressed in a more original manner.

I did appreciate that the author didn't jump into the erotic scenes right away; they occured closer to the end of the book. I'm glad because by doing this, she was able to develop the relationships between the characters and make their decisions all the more realistic.

Trigger warnings include kidnapping, gang/mafia activity, attempted rape, and mentions of an unpleasant experience in the foster care system.

Overall, an enjoyable story. Suspenseful with erotic elements, it wasn't perfect, but it was far from bad.

I recommend this to those who enjoy kidnapping-themed stories, and who are looking for a shorter book with suspenseful and erotic elements.


Find Monster on Goodreads

The Lifeguard by Deborah Blumenthal

Series: N/A

Author: Deborah Blumenthal
Page Count: 277
Published: March 1st, 2012

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company

  4 Stars ★★★★

Sirena's parents are divorcing and as a result she must spend the summer at her aunt's house in another state. Confused and upset over the divorce and her future, she spends lots of time at the beach sketching and drawing.

Soon she meets Pilot, a gorgeous lifeguard, and is drawn to him, curious and smitten. She sees him all the time; at the beach, and even at the hospital where she is volunteering. When he seemingly brings a man back from the dead, she is all the more fascinated.

Will she uncover the mysteries behind Pilot and his power? Does Antonio, a wise, elderly artist have anything to do with it? And does Pilot have feelings for Sirena like she does for him?

This book was slow at first. Near the beginning, I had to push myself to read the first few chapters. It got better and better as I read, and the ending was fantastic.

I liked the mix of contemporary with a bit of fantasy or paranormal. While the book had a very contemporary, real-world vibe overall, Pilot's powers and small paranormal occurrences throughout gave it a unique twist. 

Sirena was a fairly likeable character. I felt empathy towards her and her situation, however sometimes I wanted to smack her! She made some extremely questionable choices, some of which were not at all necessary and made me face-palm. While this was very annoying, I was grateful that she wasn't whiny or incredibly over dramatic as some YA female protagonists I've come across have been.

Pilot was a super nice guy, he was a hero, and he looked perfect..... This irritated me a bit. He was very cliché in this sense, the flawless, noble love interest. With his mysterious demeanor, the way he avoided Sirena.....he was very 'typical-YA-love-interest'. However, he was a genuinely nice person, he wasn't a jerk, and he honestly cared about others, which I found redeemed his character. 

Overall, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It wasn't perfect but it was emotional and sweet. 

I recommend this book to YA readers, especially those who like books set on beaches, summer romance reads, and emotional stories. 

Find The Lifeguard on Goodreads

The Book Fangirling Blog Award

So I have been nominated for The Book Fangirling Blog Award at The Reading Armchair! (An awesome blog...you should check it out!)

The rules:

- Create a post to accept your award. 

- Add the blog award button into your post and put it on the side of your blog as a widget. 

- Answer the questions I have above.

- Nominate between 5-10 book bloggers who you think also deserve this award. 

- Come up with your own 5 questions for your nominees.

- Link me to your post so I can see your answers.

aeriko001's questions:

1) How did you come up with the name of your blog? 

I came up with this name very easily, back when I was only blogging on tumblr (this blog was originally going to just be a tumblr blog, then I discovered google+). The name just popped into my head as I was looking at other book blogs. Literally, I didn't even have to think about it. I wondered about this name for a while, if this was really the best name for my blog.....then I decided that it reflected the theme of my blog well enough and that it could be taken as a bit snarky or dramatic too (a twist on the often dramatically muttered phrase,  "for the love of god"). Then, it was final! 

2) Do you really like a book that everybody else hates?

There have been a few instances where I have enjoyed a book which either had extreme hate alongside extreme fans, or that my friends simply didn't enjoy like I did. 

Fifty Shades of Grey would be an example of instance number one.  I quite enjoyed it (and the film as well) and there are many who absolutely hate it. I was even harassed and bullied on tumblr for a while because I like it! 

Twilight is another, less intense version of my experiences with Fifty Shades of Grey. I love Twilight, both the book and the movie, but I constantly see the series being bashed, especially online. ( I even wrote an article for school about it).

The last book I can think of is on a smaller scale. Nevermore (by Kelly Creagh) is one of my favourite books and I recommended it to a friend. While I absolutely fangirl over it (I've read it 5 times...) she absolutely hated it. 

3) For which author you're a complete fangirl?

Derek Landy, author of the Skulduggery Pleasant series for sure, also Kelly Creagh, the author of the Nevermore trilogy. I fangirl over lots of authors but these two are by far the ones I go the craziest over. 

4) Which book you can't wait to be published?

Oblivion by Kelly Creagh, the last book in the Nevermore trilogy. Also, Derek Landy's new book Demon Road looks AMAZING! 

5) Which book would you reread any time?

Nevermore by Kelly Creagh and the Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy are books which I have, and would, continue to reread.  

My Nominees:

AJ @ ClairBooks

Sugar and Snark @  Sugar & Snark

Fiona @ A Girl Between The Pages 

Becky @ Book Bite Reviews 

Brett @ Demons Read Too 

My questions to my nominees....

1)  How many printed books do you own?

2) Which book do you have a love-hate relationship with?

3) What is the strangest/most unique book you have ever read, and why?

4) What is your favourite book genre?

5) What is the longest book you have ever read, and how many pages was it?

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

 

Series: Prisoners of Peace

Author: Erin Bow
Page Count: 384
Published: September 22nd, 2015

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

  Did Not Finish

I received a free copy of this book though Netgalley.

Did not finish, read until 45%.

This book is set in a future where Talis, a product of artifical intelligence, basically rules the world. He decides that the best way to keep world peace is to take the children of world leaders as hostages, surrendered to him by the leaders themselves. If one nation declares war on another....the hostage from that nation will be killed.

I got an email from Netgalley saying that the first 750 members that clicked on the link to read this book would get to read it right away, no waiting for a request to be approved. I was intrigued by the synopsis so I thought hey, why not?

This book had so much potential, it really did. It appeared to contain such interesting ideas and lots of great qualities....Dystopia? Check! Futuristic politics?  Check! Corruption? Check! LGBTQ themes? Check!

I was so hyped to read this. The first chapter or so pulled me into Greta, the main character's, world. It seemed so unique; artifical intelligence, hostages, a corrupted UN, and even a new kind of bible, written by Talis himself, called the 'Utterances'.

Soon after, though, I found myself reading about flat characters who often appeared to almost blend into each other. Elian arrived, stirring up trouble, and I was hoping that his arrival would be the kick to get the story really going, to set the characters apart from each other and make things a little more interesting. While things did get a bit more interesting, the characters didn't really change, and I found myself bored with Greta. I didn't connect with her at all and I didn't really care much about her either. I only really cared about Elian....he appeared to be the only one without a cookie cutter, bland personality.

Things moved incredibly slowly. There wasn't much action, it seemed like the timeline jumped around, and  really the majority of the semi-exciting parts were related to the goats the hostages kept and the punishments administered by the AI/robot authority and captors. It was sort of sad that I actually found myself hoping that the hostages would get punished.... because there was so little going on that I wanted some sort of action to occur!

I don't really recommend this book to anyone, but if you're a big fan of dystopia and you're a patient reader, this one might suit you.


Find The Scorpion Rules on Goodreads

Get Started in Writing Young Adult Fiction by Juliet Mushens

Series: N/A

Author: Juliet Mushens

Page Count: 224
Published: June 18th, 2015
Publisher: Teach Yourself

5 Stars ★★★★★

I received this book in a Goodreads first reads giveaway.

In this book, Juliet Mushens, a professional literary agent, gives authors advice on writing young adult fiction. Covering everything from a novel's characters to the publishing process, this 'teach yourself' guide utilizes examples from popular novels, personal anecdotes and helpful exercises throughout.

This book came at the perfect time for me; I want to write a YA novel, I've had this idea in my head for a while but I never got to putting specific details down on paper. This workshop-within-a-book pushed me to get my ideas organized, and helped me to improve my writing skills in the process.

Exercises were suggested in each chapter, often during or after the author explained something or gave tips. These exercises, ranging from creating small lists to editing pre-written paragraphs to researching literary agents, gave me new perspectives and forced me to really delve into the world that my novel was set in and to think realistically about my goals.

One of my favourite exercises included drawing a map of the world my novel was to be set in. I hadn't really thought of doing this before as a way to organize my setting and keep things consistent, but after completing it I realized just how valuable this strategy could be when it comes to describing setting, travelling and distance.

While this is specifically oriented towards writing in the young adult genre, I feel many tips within the pages can be applied to other genres as well. I appreciated this because if I decide to write books targeted at a different age range, I'll still be able to improve my stories and navigate the world of publishing much easier.

I absolutely recommend this book to those who want advice when it comes to writing!  If you want to write a YA book and you would like some guidance, this book is for you.


Find Get Started in Writing Young Adult Fiction on Goodreads