The Coven by Cate Tiernan

 Series: Sweep
Author: Cate Tiernan
Page Count: 185
Published: March 22nd, 2007
Publisher: Speak
  3 Stars ★★★

Morgan is a blood witch with strong magickal powers and a personal tie to witchcraft. After Samhain, she and Cal become a couple and, as a result, she finds herself targeted by her former friend, Bree. Aside from all the drama between current and former coven members, Morgan has to deal with a startling revelation, a revelation that may change her life forever: she's adopted. But who were her biological parents? And are the ex-coven members planning something against her and Cal?

I can confidently say that this book was a disappointment. I enjoyed the first book so much, but all of the things that I liked from the first book weren't enough to redeem the second. Unfortunately, I won't be continuing the series. 

Any previous connection I felt to the characters was gone. Instead of seeing Morgan as curious, brave and likeable, I found her rather irritating. Her narration seemed almost whiny at times, and I was always counting the pages left until I could finish the book. Cal seemed empty, like a shadow as opposed to an actual character. I lost any sense of who Cal was as a person. Also, all this drama with Bree being angry that Cal went out with Morgan....Couldn't Cal have stood up for Morgan? He really didn't do much to help the situation, while as the whole reason for the issue between the two girls in the first place, he probably could've done a lot. 

My hatred for Morgan's parents grew. I didn't like that they kept her past from her, that they continued being stuck-up and close minded to Morgan's beliefs and that they almost seemed to play the victim at times. The author seems to try to redeem them near the end of the book, where they explain all to Morgan and try to convey why they kept secrets from her, but I couldn't feel any positivity towards them. I just hate them, plain and simple. As with Morgan, they irritated me, just in a different way.

I also feel like this book was super slow compared to the first one. I feel like this was less of a novel and more of an introduction to a larger book. It seemed incomplete. Of course, as part of a series, cliffhangers, questions, and other things are to be expected. But the way that The Coven was written seemed less like an installment in a series and more like a group of chapters plucked out of a larger book. 

I did enjoy a few things about this book. Firstly, there is the more "realistic" portrayal of magic. Unlike the fantasy magic of other books, this one contains more of a contemporary witchcraft, as the characters are Wiccan witches as opposed to creatures living alongside vampires and werewolves and any other number of paranormal beings found in young adult witch stories. However, this installment of the Sweep series did take on a bit more of a fantasy element than the first book.

I did like the discussion of religious intolerance, that is, people who judge religious minorities or don't allow others around them to practice their religious beliefs freely. As somebody who has personal experience with this issue, I greatly appreciated that this subject was approached. 

While I liked the idea of the book overall, I really do think that it could have been better. I don't feel the need to continue the series, so, as mentioned, I probably won't be. 

Those who like non-fantasy portrayals of witchcraft in fiction may enjoy this novel. Readers looking for books which explore issues such as religious intolerance, friendship and romance, and adoption might want to give this one a try.

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50/50 Friday - Character Most/Least Likely to Go Cliff-Diving

This meme is hosted at The Butterfly Reader and Blue Eye Books

This week's topic is character most / least likely to go cliff diving

Most Likely

 

I know, I know, I keep choosing characters from the Skulduggery Pleasant series. But honestly this series is just everything, and there are tons of different characters so of course one of them would be likely to go cliff diving. I think that the skeleton detective himself would be most likely because he's technically already dead, so there isn't much to lose if things go wrong, he can put himself back together fairly easily and he's quite brave. Other characters who may go cliff diving include any of the various vampires from the series (strength, basically immortality, etc), and maybe even Valkyrie Cain, if everything is deemed safe for her! 

Least Likely

 

 (Sorry its a bit blurry!)

 
I think that Otto from The Kneebone Boy is least likely because he seems really reserved and rather cautious, in my opinion. Quiet and young, I feel like the potential risks would probably outweigh any sort of gains from cliff diving? I just could never ever see him going cliff diving.

Would you ever go cliff diving???

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

 

 Series: Jasper Dent
Author: Barry Lyga
Page Count: 359
Published: April 3rd, 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
  5 Stars ★★★★★ 

Jasper Dent's father is behind bars; he's a serial killer who has murdered over a hundred people. He raised Jasper while he killed, often teaching Jasper about how to prevent getting caught and how to dispose of dead bodies. Jasper now lives with his grandmother, has a best friend and a girlfriend, and he still deals with the aftermath of his father's capture and conviction.

When people start turning up dead, Jasper knows that the town has yet another serial killer on their hands. Besides trying to convince the police that he knows what he's talking about, Jasper has to deal with his fear that he is truly like his father; a cold-hearted, sadistic killer. While Jasper investigates the murders with the hope of using his knowledge to catch the killer, he struggles with the fear that people will believe that he is behind it all. But things are complicated when you worry that you might be an evil sociopath, like your own father.

This was such an awesome book! It was dark, it was disturbing, and I couldn't put it down. I read it extremely quickly, I was sucked in from the start. My advice concerning this book is to start reading it when you have a lot of free time on your hands. You won't want to leave it until you've flipped the last page. 

One thing that I loved about this book was how dark and disturbing it was. I often read romances, which tend to be sweeter, less serious or calmer reads. But this book....it was dead serious. I want to mention that there were rather detailed descriptions of assault and murder, so that more sensitive readers can make an informed decision on whether or not this book is for them. Personally, I loved that aspect of the book, because it just felt so creepy. I rarely find books that have genuinely disturbing content, but this one was dark enough that it satisfied my craving for something more gruesome. That's not to say that the crimes were extremely detailed, but they were explained in enough detail that they brought up the creep and thrill factor quite a bit. 

Jasper's struggle was very intense and it kept me reading just as the murders did. Reading about his fears that he might be a sociopath, that he might be fated to become a murderer like his father, it was a well-written depiction of this struggle and I found it very believable. Despite Jasper's fears and some of his darker thoughts, I found him a very likeable character. He seemed like a genuinely good guy, wanting to save peoples' lives and fighting the things that his father told him to believe. While this is an extreme example, I think that this is reminiscent of the issues that many face concerning breaking out of their shell and questioning the things that their parents or guardians told them as children. This sense of connection between Jasper's issues and smaller, real-life issues made Jasper even more likeable, and I absolutely rooted for him to stop the killer and find peace from the start.

Jasper's friend and girlfriend are great characters as well, his friend being somewhat weak and comical, his girlfriend strong, loyal and determined. As for Billy Dent, Jasper's psychopathic father, he was written very well, in a way that I could easily imagine what kind of atmosphere might be experienced in his presence. He was pure evil. I feel like there are such few characters that are so evil, but Billy Dent really really was, undoubtedly, a monster. Because he was such a well-written villain, I loved reading about him, despite his crimes. He was especially creepy because, unlike paranormal monsters and villains, there really are people like him out in the world. I think that's what made this book all the more striking. 

I wish I'd picked this novel up sooner. I have to add the sequel to my wishlist!

I recommend this to mature YA readers. If you like creepy contemporary thrillers, and the content mentioned in this review wouldn't bother you, this is a must-read. 

Find I Hunt Killers on Goodreads

50/50 Friday - Best/Worst World an Author Has Created

This meme is hosted at The Butterfly Reader and Blue Eye Books

This week's topic is best / worst world an author has created

Best World

 

As if there was any competition for this! Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, and the rest of the series, takes place in a world full of magic and danger and walking talking skeletons. When I read a book from this series, I feel like I leave the real world entirely and I'm just sucked into the book. It's amazing.

Worst World

 

The futuristic world found in The Selection by Kiera Cass just wasn't for me. Aside from kind of hating the world itself and the values present in the society, I just felt like the world building was a bit superficial. It didn't seem as realistic as it could have been. While I don't base whether or not I like a book or setting based on the values of the society it is set in, I mention this because, due to the poor world-building, it added another dimension of disappointment.

What are the best and worst fictional worlds you've come across?

Dance with a Vampire by Ellen Schreiber

 

Series: Vampire Kisses
Author: Ellen Schreiber
Page Count: 208
Published: April 21st, 2009
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
  4 Stars ★★★★

In this continuation of Raven and Alexander's story, Valentine Maxwell, Jagger's younger brother, has arrived in Dullsville and appears to be targeting Raven's brother. Raven fears that this might be some sort of revenge plot because of the issues that she, Alexander, and Valentine's siblings dealt with in the past, so with Alexander's help, she tries to uncover what's going on. 

At the same time, Raven is having doubts and worries about her dream of becoming a vampire. She wants to be with Alexander and she knows that he loves her just as much as she loves him, so when Valentine threatens to tell her vampire lover about her secret worries, she fears that her relationship with him might become more complicated, or that it might not even survive at all. 

The Vampire Kisses series is such an enjoyable series. The books are perfect for when you want a short read after tackling a long, complex book or if you're trying to ease yourself from a reading slump. While the writing style might be a bit simpler than in other young adult books, it's still a great read for fans of vampire love stories. 

Even at the fourth volume in this series, Raven is still the funny, quirky, unique character that was introduced to readers in the first book. She is so, so likeable, and I find her sense of style, her hopes and dreams, and her love for vampires endearing. She actually reminds me a lot of myself. It's nice to have goths or alternative individuals within fiction that aren't the personification of the gloom-and-doom stereotype. 

Alexander remains the somewhat cliche, swoon-worthy, gothic vampire, love interest that Raven fell for in the first book. I find him just as endearing as Raven, with his romantic gestures and dark style. However, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with his character in this novel. I was considering Raven's fear that Alexander would, for whatever reason, reject her when she admitted her worries about becoming a vampire. This made me wonder what might be going on in their relationship, if he might not be as sweet as the author shows us on the page. I mean, I think most people would make sure that their partners don't think they might leave them over legitimate fears concerning becoming what is basically a whole other, paranormal or supernatural, species? It seems like common sense, and Alexander must have failed Raven in some way if she was worrying over this so much. 

This book ended with a rather sad cliffhanger, though not a hopeless one. I'm glad that I own the next book so that I can read about what happens next sooner rather than later! This is a series that I like to come back to, it's one that I think I'll read until it ends. 

Overall, a very enjoyable book. While it raises somewhat frustrating questions concerning Raven and Alexander's relationship, I honestly think that these questions add some intrigue and a bit of suspense to the story. 

I recommend this series to fans of YA vampire romances. If you're looking for a short paranormal read, this series is for you.

Find Dance with a Vampire on Goodreads