Rain

(Oh hey, this is apparently post #50! Wooo, mini-celebration! *dances and watches ink fireworks, in honor of this book being my 50th post*)


 Rain by Amanda Sun
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book, although I still liked it overall. I definitely enjoyed the deeper exploration of Kami mythology, which seemed to be the main focus. Kate...is, well, Katie. At least she seems to stay true to character in constantly making poor or illogical decisions. Yes, I understand Japanese culture isn't her native one, but there were decisions outside of cultural ones that just had me shaking my head. For example, decisions regarding that super-annoying love triangle (I seriously HATE love triangles. I have seen very few of them actually done in a way that doesn't make me want to shake the character and wonder why the heck she has to be so mean and disloyal. What would she do if a guy was doing that to her??). But she does seem to do some growing-up by the end of the book, so I have to give Katie some credit for that.

Definitely not a bad book, worth the time to read it if you enjoyed the first one. And I still want to read the next one to see what happens to this group.

This digital copy of Rain was given to me by NetGalley & Harlequin TEEN in exchange for an honest review.

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Scintillate: YA Fantasy Romance

Scintillate by Tracy Clark
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Meh...Okay, so I get why some people would love this. Instant love connection, boy that's bad on the outside, good on the inside, almost-love triangle, "unique" and "gifted" main character, and lots of mysteries. And the writing itself was fairly good at drawing me in, enough that I had no problem finishing this book.

But..I was a little bothered by it too. The metaphors felt forced, as if someone told the author you couldn't write a proper novel without metaphors, so she sat there and came up with a bunch to stick in her novel. The Finn's dialogue was overly flowery. I could bypass it in a book, most of the time, but I seriously hope I never have to hear it spoken aloud. I would die laughing.

Essentially, Cora suddenly starts seeing auras after a major illness, and around that time an Irish guy visiting her school starts noticing her too. Her aura is different than everyone else's, which she's been warned is a bad thing, plus some creepy man keeps trying to suck her soul out of her. So she has to balance lots of questions, confusion, and fear, plus figure out what's going on with the attraction between her and Mr. Irish guy.

I don't know, it was decent, but I think the sequel might influence how I view this book. I can think of two directions it might go, and I'm hoping the storyline takes the less expected one (and I will give Scintillate some credit--I was surprised by a few plot turns near the end, though I saw most of them coming). For now, I'll stick to the middle ground with this book--3 stars.

This digital copy of Scintillate was given to me by NetGalley & Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

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Becoming Alpha. You guessed it, a werewolf book

Becoming Alpha by Aileen Erin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm one of those people who's very skeptical about werewolf books. I almost never pick them up, and lately I've been avoiding supernatural books in general, feeling sort of tired of the genre. But...something about this book made me want to pick it up. And even though the story might've been a little cliche in some aspects, I'm glad I did--because I really enjoyed it. It was almost a guilty pleasure-type book. I knew it wasn't the most amazingly written story ever, but I couldn't wait to get back to it to finish it.

Tessa's family moves her to a new town, essentially to give her a fresh start. She has visions when she touches things, and it's a rather pesky ability. You'd think her had wouldn't want to move her somewhere he know more supernatural stuff is going on, but oh well, guess he had more faith in her ability to stay away from a school of hot, well-built guys than I would of any teenage girl.

And yep, guess what that school is for? Werewolves. And of course, Tessa is super attracted to Dastien, one of the werewolf guys. Partly because she's seen him before, in one of her scrying visions.

So we have powered, newly-werewolf girl dealing with werewolf guy, plus some vampires and witches thrown into the mix...it's a pretty fun combo. And I must admit, I look forward to reading the next one.

This digital copy of Becoming Alpha was given to me by NetGalley & INscribe Digital in exchange for an honest review.


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Defy: maybe for a younger, less-picky audience

Defy by Sara B. Larson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Defy has a few main plot points that could sum it up for anyone debating about reading this book: Medieval-type sword fighting/conquering kingdom, girl-hiding-as-boy, outlawed magic, love triangle, and villains who aren't villains, oh, and a few over-the-top scenes done for the sake of ringing the angst out of us.

I gave it three stars because the writing style was fairly good, and the plot intriguing enough for me to stay interested all the way through. In fact, the story was decent as long as you didn't analyze it too closely.

Once you do, however, you come up with some issues. First, why are these people wearing medieval armor in a jungle kingdom? It's not practical, and makes it seem like they're not really from their own kingdom. Second, why isn't the issue at the beginning already about overthrowing their king? The king is over-the-top evil, and a recent conqueror...you'd think most of the country would want to get rid of him already. And what happened to the previous royal family?? We also have breeding houses for building up an army, but that must mean this king is planning a 100 year war or something for him to think that was practical.

The book also had some odd moments that felt very contrived, and not practical. Like Alexa's two love triangle guys conveniently knowing all along that she was a girl, and then this random jungle trek where Alexa gets to spend every night with both those guys because she's required too, and then oh, she's suddenly the only person who has this special fighting magic, even though outside her kingdom there's a whole lot more people with magic.

It was decent, just...don't pick it apart/think too much if you want to enjoy it.

This digital copy of Defy was given to me by NetGalley & Scholastic in exchange for an honest review.

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