SHATTER ME
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Source: Publisher
*I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Reading level: Ages 14 and up
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (November 15, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062085484
ISBN-13: 978-0062085481

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior. 

I was actually sent this book months ago to read and review.  I don’t know what kept me from reading it right away!  Now that I read the book, I wish I had started it that first day I received it in the mail! This book shattered my expectations and blew me away!


The summary on the back of the book didn’t really give me much to go on.  Just a couple of lines with part of them crossed out.  Here is what I had to go on:

At this point I am thinking about someone along the lines of Medusa except her touch instead of her eyes turn them to stone or something.  Yet when you start reading the book,  you start to realize it is better compared to Rogue from X-Men.  Her touch will literally kill you!  Juliette has been shunned by friends and family for a long time.  She has never had anyone to really confide in and has suffered in silence for most of her life.  When she is sent to captivity, she spends 264 days alone in a small cell with no contact of any kind to the outside world.  All she has is a small notebook that she writes in and hides it from anyone who might show up in her cell. 


Then on morning they arrive with a new cellmate.  One that has eyes that seem familiar.  Come to find out, the new cellmate is the boy from her past that showed kindness to her in school.  While he never really got the chance to talk to her back then, he never showed any hatred or repulsion that others had when being near Juliette.  She slowly starts to open up to Adam in the cell and they start to grow close.  Then one day out of the blue, they come for them.  The Reestablishment decides to use Juliette as a weapon to torture people.  If that wasn’t bad enough, it is revealed that Adam is in on this and she starts to reevaluate what she knows of him.  But is he really on the wrong side, or is he secretly leading a double life?


This is one of those books that suck you in so fast you don’t know what hits you.  A book where you will try to put it down to do something, but then you think to yourself that you just need to read one more chapter.  Then you realize the book has now been finished within a short amount of time and you want more!  I stayed up late reading this book and even tortured my family with me telling them that I wanted to just read a few more pages.  


This is one debut novel you are going to want to add to your wish list and one of the first books you will want to save up your money to buy.  I can’t wait for the next book in the series to release so I can read more of Adam, Juliette and the rest of the characters that captured my interest from page one!

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf
For Rereading! 5 STARS

DARK EDEN
Author: Patrick Carman
Source: Amazon Vine
*I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (November 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062009702
ISBN-13: 978-0062009708

Fifteen-year-old Will Besting is sent by his doctor to Fort Eden, an institution meant to help patients suffering from crippling phobias. Once there, Will and six other teenagers take turns in mysterious fear chambers and confront their worst nightmares—with the help of the group facilitator, Rainsford, an enigmatic guide. When the patients emerge from the chamber, they feel emboldened by the previous night’s experiences. But each person soon discovers strange, unexplained aches and pains. . . . What is really happening to the seven teens trapped in this dark Eden? 

When seven patients have been unable to be cured of their phobia’s, they are sent to the mysterious place called Fort Eden.  With its promise of a cure, Fort Eden takes the seven patients to the center of their phobia and confronting it head on.  


When Will and the six other patients arrive at the entrance of Fort Eden, Will sneaks off and decides he isn’t going to be apart of the therapy.  He doesn’t want to be there and he doesn’t know what to expect.  When he does sneak into Fort Eden though, he discovers mysterious rooms, cameras and puzzles to solve to find out just how Fort Eden can cure the phobias.  Will watches the other patients on the monitors from the bomb shelter. He tries to figure out how Rainsford is really curing their fears and discovers that it comes with a big cost.


I was pulled into this book from the first page.  If you decide to read the book, be aware that you can venture further into the world of Fort Eden through multimedia enhancements including audio and video as well as the written story.  While I didn’t use either of the other options, I still enjoyed the story as the written journey.  Everything you read through the story has some sort of meaning by the time you get to the unexpected ending.  Things that you don’t think are too important will come to light as a major clue in the story as well. 


If you are looking for a creepy and great new read this season, then Dark Eden will capture your interests and drop you into the fears of the seven kids. While it wasn’t my favorite of the year, it was a fun experience to read and try to figure out!

KNIGHTS & WHITE SATIN
Author: Cash Cole
Source: Personal Purchase

Paperback: 184 pages
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave (October 7, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1419961071
ISBN-13: 978-1419961076

Mike is a swinging bachelor with a big empty house and plenty of time and money to spend as he likes. But the second he sees Lee in the bar, he knows something’s about to change. He brings Lee home for some hot-tub fun-and plunges headfirst into love. And Lee is right there with him. But Lee isn’t flying solo. Years ago, he married his best friend Cate so they could please her parents, share a household and have a baby together. Their relationship is strictly platonic, and Cate is thrilled that Lee has found someone. She doesn’t want him to give up his love life to care for her, but she’s living on borrowed time due to a terminal illness. As Mike discovers passion the likes of which he never knew before Lee, he realizes he needs to step up and think of others for a change. And Lee-and his family-are about to learn what it’s like to have a real-life knight in shining armor.

I didn’t think this was going to be a great book because of the cover.  This was a lesson learned in judging a book by its cover instead of the writing on the pages.  First, the couple on the cover looks nothing like the characters described or the ones I picture in my head.  The tarot cards on the front do represent a certain part of the story, but it was a small part.  The only thing about the cover photo that really represents the book in true nature is the pose that the two men are in.  It is a pose that you will come to know throughout the entire story and has a meaning behind it.


When Mike meets Lee at a charity function, he has no idea how fast he would fall for him.  What he also has no idea about is the secrets that Lee holds as well.  Lee married his best friend Cate after college for a matter of convenience.  Together they had a son so Cate could enjoy the experience of being a mother.  Lee is gay, but he loves his son and his best friend.  Cate is also dying from breast cancer.  After the charity function, Mike and Lee share a passionate night of love.  It is interrupted though by a phone call Lee receives that Cate collapsed and is being rushed to the hospital.  When the doctors tell Lee that Cate’s cancer is back, he feels the world crumbling around him.  Mike arrives at the hospital after Lee left his phone at his house and discovers that Lee is married with a child.  He feels like Lee lied to him and calls his friend Kelly/Keith to chew him out for setting him up.  Once Mike figures out that it was a marriage in name only he returns to the hospital and tells Lee and Cate that they can move into his house.  Not only does he do this because he feels bad for Cate, but he selfishly wants Lee to be around him.


I wasn’t a really big fan of Lee and Mike.  Their emotions were all over the place and I couldn’t really feel a strong romantic connection between the two.  It felt like their relationship was sex based instead of a true romantic story because they jumped into it way too fast.  My favorite characters of the story had to be Kelly/Keith and the rest of the drag queen group.  They were hilarious and kept me laughing throughout the entire book.  Imagine you walk into a room with the following people: Two gay guys in love, one of the gay guys’ wife, a priest who happens to be gay and was involved with the other gay guy, girls uptight Catholic parents, a toddler boy who is sweet and trusting and a bunch of drag queens performing a show for everyone!  It was hilarious. Especially the scene when her parents are confronting the priest out in the hot tub and she falls in.  


While I wasn’t a big fan of the romance between Mike and Lee, the story itself was pretty good.  I laughed through the antics and witty dialogue.  I cried near the end when things were falling apart but starting anew.  I even liked the side characters that were written in the story.  Overall not a bad book to read if you are wanting to step into the romance world of male/male. 

ETERNITY
A Fallen Angel Novel
Author: Heather Terrell
Source: Personal Purchase

Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen (June 28, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061965715
ISBN-13: 978-0061965715

The end . . . or a new beginning? 

As Ellie comes to grips with her destiny as the Elect One, her relationship with Michael grows tense. When she meets a mys­terious boy named Rafe, things get even more complicated. 

Yet the time has come for the Elect One to stand against the group of evil fallen angels who are bent on destroying the world. In order to face the immeasurable malevolence heading her way, Ellie tries to put her personal life aside. But she soon learns that whoever holds her heart also holds the key to mankind’s salvation—or destruction. As the end days approach, Ellie is faced with an epic decision. Who does her heart really belong to? And is her love strong enough to save the world?
 

I had a really hard time getting into this book for the simple fact that the first book in the series didn’t wow me enough to keep the story fresh and memorable.  I struggled to remember what had happened in the first book to make sense of what was going on in this one.  After a few chapters though, the puzzle started coming together better and I started to remember bits and pieces of the previous book.

The book starts out shortly after the previous one ended.  Ellie is back home and needs to keep up the pretense of not knowing everything that she discovered in the previous book.  She isn’t sure who remembers and who was forced to forget so she puts up her walls of defense and goes about her day as a normal teenage girl.  When she realizes that Michael remembers everything as well, they agree to keep it quiet so the Fallen are unable to track them.  Enlisting the help of Ellie’s best friend Ruth, they try and figure out the seven signs of the end of the world in hopes of figuring out their roles in the coming fight.

Michael has been changing lately and Ellie can’t figure out why he isn’t acting like the boy she fell in love with.  When Ellie is introduced to Rafe at a school fundraiser, she feels herself attracted to him but not in a romantic way.  Sure he is cute and caring, but she knows her heart lies with Michael.  When Rafe exposes what he really is to Ellie and Michael, they find themselves training and learning about their roles for the final fight.

The book actually moved at a faster pace than the first book in the series.  I found myself reading this book quickly and enjoying the plot of it better this time around.  I felt a better connection between Michael and Ellie as well.  The prologue gives you a great hint at what is to come in the end, but you will still be pleasantly surprised about it all.  The one thing I thought was a little far fetched was how easy it was for Michael and Ellie to defeat some of the Fallen.  If they are suppose to be twice as strong as Ellie and Michael, how were they able to take them down so fast and easy?

Overall a great conclusion to the series– at least I am assuming this is the final book.  If you haven’t read the previous book in the series though, I recommend you reading it first to avoid confusion.  This is one that is definitely not a stand alone novel.

 
Okay book, but it left me wanting more! 3 STARS