Category Archives: 2 Flames

First Comes Love
Author: Katie Kacvinsky
Source: Amazon Vine
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
 (May 8, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-0547599793

Like his name, Gray is dark and stormy. Dylan, a girl always searching for what’s next, seemingly unable to settle down, is the exact opposite: full of light and life. On the outside, they seem like an unlikely couple. But looks can be deceiving and besides, opposites attract. 


What starts as friendship, turns into admiration, respect and caring, until finally these two lone souls find they are truly in love with each other. 


But staying in love is not as easy as falling in love. If Dylan and Gray want their love to last, they’re going to have to work at it. And learn that sometimes love means having to say you’re sorry.

I don’t know where I have been, but I hadn’t even heard about this book until I received it in the mail.  I am not sure if there is much buzz going on about it, but I thought I would give it a try and see if it might be a beautiful gem hidden in the bountiful amounts of young adult books on the market right.

The start was okay.  The middle was okay. The ending was okay.  That about sums up my feelings for this book.  While I liked reading about Gray and Dylan, it wasn’t as great as I was hoping.  It is the typical opposite’s attract theme with characters that are on completely different ends of the personality spectrum.  We have Gray who is basically a recluse and has no desire whatsoever to experience friendships or relationships.  He is the classic loner with secrets he is reluctant to share.  I won’t spoil the book and tell you the secrets, but I will say it is a classic secret that has been used plenty of times to form a character.

Then we have the hyper and overly energetic Dylan.  To say she is a tomboy personality is a good comparison due to the fact that she dresses like one and doesn’t care too much about what other people think about it.  She is not into the make-up or any of the frilly things most girls her age is into.  I wasn’t a huge fan of her mainly because she was completely out there at times for me and it wasn’t much of an appealing character for me.

The pace of the book wasn’t too bad.  It is set up during the summer in Arizona.  Dylan is a free spirit and has decided to come to stay at her recently out of the closet Aunts house.  She meets Dylan on campus during summer school and has been watching him for a bit now.

While many teens and adults will more than likely enjoy this story,  I for one have grown tired of the same old plot line.  It could be my reading taste at this time, so I won’t hold it against the book.  It did have some good things about it which elevated it to just an okay read for me, just not one I would like to read again.

If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!

*I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Forbidden
Author(s): Syrie James & Ryan M. James
Source: Wunderkind PR
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Publisher: HarperTeen
 (January 24, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-0062027894

She should not exist.


He should not love her.


Claire Brennan has been attending Emerson Academy for two years now (the longest she and her mom have remained anywhere) and she’s desperate to stay put for the rest of high school. So there’s no way she’s going to tell her mom about the psychic visions she’s been having or the creepy warnings that she’s in danger.


Alec MacKenzie is fed up with his duties to watch and, when necessary, eliminate the descendants of his angelic forefathers. He chose Emerson as the ideal hiding place where he could be normal for once. He hadn’t factored Claire into his plans. . . .


Their love is forbidden, going against everything Alec has been taught to believe. But when the reason behind Claire’s unusual powers is revealed and the threat to her life becomes clear, how far will Alec go to protect her?

Forbidden is written by a Mother and Son.  Both contribute to the works in the book and give us perspective from Alec and Claire’s point of view.

While the book started out with strength,  as I read further into the book it started to falter.  I personally enjoyed the side characters better than the main characters.  Claire’s friends were refreshing and humorous.  I loved their witty comments and they brought much more to the story than Claire and Alec.

Claire is always on the move with her mother.  They never seem to stay in one place long enough and Claire has no idea why.  They have lived in their current residence for two years now and Claire really enjoys her school.  It is a private school so she has to keep up her GPA and grades to attend.  This isn’t really much of a problem though since she is super smart and works hard to keep her grades from slipping.

Alec is a mystery in this story.  He has a secret past that he is running from and wants to attend high school for the first time.  He meets Claire and her friends during registration day and becomes part of their group.  He has the instant attraction to Claire even if she has hopes of becoming better friends with another boy at school.

I wasn’t a fan of the instant love between the two main characters.  At times it even felt forced.  I also couldn’t  get attached to Alec because of his personality.  At times he would be mature and act his age.  Other times it was like he was reverted back to middle school with some of his actions and personality change.  Claire was also a little dense at times.  She couldn’t figure out why Alec would get so depressed or moody whenever she would mention the other boy Neil that she had a crush on.  It was obvious Alec loved her, but she couldn’t seem to see the obvious signs.

When some of the mystery starts to unravel and things start to clear up a little, you finally think you are going to get some answers.  While some things are clear,  there were other things that were left open that needed closure for this book to be better.  To me the book felt a little incomplete by the last page.

While I can see the younger teens enjoying this book,  I feel that the older teens and adults will have some issues with it.  If there is going to be more books in this series, I do hope the authors can work together at getting the actions and personalities straight for the ages their characters are.

If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!

*I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Daughter of the Centaurs
Author: Kate Klimo
Source: Amazon Vine
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
         (January 24, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-0375869754

Malora knows what she was born to be: a horse wrangler and a hunter, just like her father. But when her people are massacred by batlike monsters called Leatherwings, Malora will need her horse skills just to survive. The last living human, Malora roams the wilderness at the head of a band of magnificent horses, relying only on her own wits, strength, and courage. When she is captured by a group of centaurs and taken to their city, Malora must decide whether the comforts of her new home and family are worth the parts of herself she must sacrifice to keep them.

Forget the vampires.  Forget the werewolves.  No zombies.  Welcome to the new supernatural in the dystopian world.  In Daughter of the Centaurs, we are introduced to just that — Centaurs.  These are those half human/ half horse people from long ago legends and fables.  I was curious about this one.  Not only is the cover kind of pretty,  but it features the dystopian world with a different twist in the paranormal we have grown accustomed to.

This was in fact a hard read to get into.  It has a lot of narrative and the dialogue was lacking for me.  Then add in the fact that the Centaurs were nothing like I expected, a world that isn’t explained well on the how it came to be, and you have a so-so novel with no bang for the buck.  I really wish the author would have answered many of the questions that will arise for the reader.  How did this future world come to be?  This was the main thing for me.  If you want to present a dystopia novel to readers, you better be able to back it up on the how.  Now this could have changed since the copy I read was an ARC copy and not a finished copy.  It could have been fixed for final prints.  I just don’t think I would even buy a finished copy to find out.

Certainly not a read I expected to fall as flat as it did.  I had high hopes for it only to be bored halfway through and ready to quit.  If you want to step out of the current fads of reading — and have the patience to put up with everything I didn’t like — then give it a try.  This might be just what you are looking for.

If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!

*I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

The Hunger Games Tribute Guide
Author: Emily Seife
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Scholastic Press
 (February 7, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-0545457828

The New York Times bestselling Hunger Games is now a major motion picture — and here is the ultimate guide to the all the tributes in the 74th annual Hunger Games!


Here is the ultimate guide to the twenty-four Tributes participating in Panem’s 74th annual Hunger Games. Follow the Tributes’ journey from the Reaping to the Games, with a look at all the highlights along the way–the Tribute Parade, the stations of the Training Center, the interviews, and more. Get exclusive information about the Tributes’ strengths and weaknesses, their weapons of choice, and their experience in the Capitol before entering the arena.

If it is a book on the Hunger Games, you can bet I am going to buy it and drool over it.  When I received this guide for review, I did not hesitate in jumping right into it. Unfortunately, it was not what I was really expecting.

We get to see wonderful pictures from the upcoming movie, but nothing really new that we haven’t seen from released trailers.  It is set up in sections from explaining the reason for the Hunger Games all the way to where Katniss enters the arena.  It has color photos of each tribute with little facts on each one leaving the reader with no more information than what we started with after reading the series.

While it is great as a refresher book to remind us of the original story we have already read, it wasn’t something that really added to the experience.  The photos were the only added bonus but not enough to make me really excited.  If you are a hardcore fanatic for this series, then add it to your collection.  Otherwise, you might want to pass on this one and see if something better comes out.

If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!

*I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review*

Isle of Night
The Watchers #1
Author: Veronica Wolff
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Publisher: NAL Trade
  (September 6, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-0451234629

Is life offering fewer and fewer options? Then join the dead.


When Annelise meets dark and seductive Ronan, he promises her a new life-if she has the courage to chance the unknown. Now, she’s whisked away to a mysterious island and pitted against other female recruits to become a Watcher-girls who are partnered with vampires and assist them in their missions. To survive and become a Watcher, Annelise has to beat out every other girl, but she’s determined to do so, because to fail doesn’t mean dishonor-it means death.

Loved the cover.  Loved the plot concept.  Didn’t like the book too much.  That about sums up my experience of Isle of Night.  I have seen people compare it to The Hunger Games and Vampire Academy mixed together into one book, but this one didn’t have near as much impact as the previously mentioned books had.

Yes, Annelise must learn to survive and fight for her life to become a Watcher on the small secluded island.  Yes, she is surrounded by male vampires and other girls who are out to make sure she doesn’t survive.  That is about where the similarities end.  Ronan was mysterious and had some sexual appeal to him, but we never really got to see that much of him.  When we did it was more as an instructor and less of a possible romantic interest for Annelise.  I am still not sure about why the male vampires need Watchers and why Watchers are only women.  There are no women vampires either which was never really explained.

The author left too many things unanswered for the plot to fully take shape.  I feel this book was a mediocre book when a first novel in a series should set certain things in motion.  Instead I am left wondering who Annelise is suppose to be falling for in the love department, where the vampires are taking the weaker girls, and why they really need to be training to be a Watcher in the first place.  I really had to struggle to continue for the first half of this book.  The last half of the book does have a bit more action but it wasn’t enough to carry the book.

Is it something I would read again? Probably not.  Would I continue with the series? Yes just so I can see if things are resolved and to see if the author is going to explore more options in the next book.

If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it!

* I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review *