Review Double Trouble Style

Review

Double Trouble

Style

Shadows:

It’s almost a year since Gaby Winters was in the car crash that killed her twin brother, Jude. Her body has healed in the sunshine of Pandanus Beach, but her grief is raw and constant. It doesn’t help that every night in her dreams she kills demons and other hell-spawn.

And then Rafa comes to town. Not only does he look exactly like the guy who’s been appearing in Gaby’s dreams—he claims a history with her brother that makes no sense. Gaby is forced to accept that what she thought she knew about herself and her life is only a shadow of the truth—and that the truth is more likely to be found in the shadows of her nightmares.

Who is Rafa? Who are the Rephaim? And most importantly, who can she trust?

Haze:

"But what if we can’t find Jude?" 

He leans closer. His breath is warm on my ear. "We will."

"How can you be so sure?" I want to believe him so badly, but this is Rafa. The guy who’s all action and no plan. His smile is tired, knowing. An echo of a shared past I don’t remember. 

"Because I’m not smart enough to give up, and you don’t know how to." 

Gaby Winters’ nightmares have stopped but she still can’t remember her old life. Still can’t quite believe she is one of the Rephaim—the wingless half-angels who can shift from place to place, country to country, in the blink of an eye. That she was once the Rephaim’s best fighter. That demons exist. That Rafa has stayed. 

But most of all, she can’t quite believe that her twin brother, Jude, might be alive. 

And Gaby can’t explain the hesitancy that sidetracks the search for him, infuriates Rafa, and sends them, again, into the darkest danger.

So, I read both of these on my trip. I purchased Shadows myself after receiving Haze as an e-ARC from Net Galley and Random House of Canada Limited in exchange for an honest review. (Thanks guys!) I was super excited to dig into an angel/ nephilim book because it has been for ever since I've read one. There was that phase/time when every book ever centered around angels or nephilim and I got really sick of them, so I've avoided them. I was really excited to read that type book again and was really hoping that these would be great. 

On that same track, let's talk about my thoughts on the general concept and story line.  I found Weston's approach to it all quite refreshing and I loved what she did with it all! It was not at all like all the other books out there. There was no info dumping, but the world building was great and there was enough history that it wasn't confusing. I thought it was a really cool twist, very original and I felt it worked quite well

Boy, oh boy, the characters! Ooo, did I love them! They were all unique and had depth and dimension they were lovable, and spunky, and fresh. Rafa was hotter than Hades even though he could be a bitt of a butthead, it was in a lovable way. 

I loved Gaby and Maggie just as much. Gaby was so tough, yet volatile and spunky, and loving, and she had breakdowns. I loved that she had breakdowns. She was strong but let's face it no one is so strong that they don't go through the occasional breakdown. Her breakdown's weren't annoying, just realistic. Although the character growth was a little lacking and very subtle, I didn't care and had no problems with the characters.

The plot for Shadows  was well paced for the most part and it was all deliciously dramatic. Haze's plot was just as good and the ending was killer. (That just started the part of the song "You Give Love a Bad Name" where it is all "shot through the heart and you're to blame, and I realized that that pretty much sums up every fan's feelings about the ending.) It was shocking and emotional and just mm! I was left clutching my heart and whispering no!

The writing was acctually really good and I admire Weston for her amazing story crafting skill. I really had no problems with either book and Haze was a great follow up to Shadows. It did anything but pale in comparison to the first book and I loved the craziness and the drama of it all. 

Last Thoughts: I'd highly recommend these books to anyone who likes this genre. To people who are wary of Angel and Nephilim books, I'd say give it a chance and keep an open mind because these are not your average, cookie cutter Angel and Nephilim books. I am giving it four and a half stars out of five but really there isn't much of a reason for it not being a five our of five, other than the fact that I've gotten really stingy about giving five star ratings.

Shadows: Goodreads, Liberty Bay Books

Haze: Goodreads, Liberty Bay Books

Gif. Consensus: 

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

4. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"With the dark taste of her mother's gaze, as intoxicating and deadly as staring into a serpent's small eyes, Katherine knew why they wouldn't want to go back for a year now...Katherine shivered, then Ethan broke eye contact with her, and she shook her head to clear her thought of reverie." Accession by Terah Edun

Thanks Net Galley and All Night Reads for the ARC copy.

*This quote was taken from an ARC copy and may be subject to change*

Color Song

Color Song

by Victoria Strauss 

---

Expected Publication Date: September 16th, 2014

Received from: Amazon Children's Publishing via Net Galey (in exchange for an honest review)

---

Artistically brilliant, Giulia is blessed - or cursed - with a spirit's gift: she can hear the mysterious singing of the colors as she creates them in the convent workshop of Maestra Humilita. It's here that Giulia, forced into the convent against her will, has found unexpected happiness and rekindled her passion to become a painter?an impossible dream for any woman in 15th century Italy.

But when a dying Humilita bequeaths Giulia her most prized possession - the secret formula for the luminously beautiful paint called Passion blue - Giulia realizes she's in danger from those who have long coveted the famous color. Faced with the prospect of a life in the convent barred from painting as punishment for keeping Humilita's secret, Giulia is struck by a desperate idea: What if she disguises herself as a boy? Could she make her way to Venice and find work as an artist's apprentice?

Along with the truth of who she is, Giulia carries more dangerous secrets: the exquisite voices of her paint colors and the formula for Humilita's Passion blue. And Venice, she discovers, with its gilded palazzos and masked balls, has secrets of its own. Trapped in her false identity in this dream-like place where reality and reflection are easily confused, and where art and ambition, love and deception hover like dense fog, can Giulia find her way?

This compelling novel explores timeless themes of love and illusion, gender and identity as it asks the question: what does it mean to risk everything to pursue your passion?

---

Let's start with my qualms:

- The blatant avoidance of incorporating many important themes.

-The awkward, yet interesting, addition of her "spirit's gift." While this element added whimsy and fun, it didn't make sense in this book and was never really further explored or anything. It seemed so important, but in the story it couldn't have been less important. It was just awkwardly present. 

-The horribly awkward and not at all interesting epilogue. I have no words. That sentence sums it up...

My likes:

- The Plot. It was very well done with unexpected twists in just the right places. It was dramatic and exciting, imbuing the book with a sense of adventures that reaches out and grips and excites readers. 

-The descriptive writing and the world building. Both were vivid and very real, the setting and everything else jumped off the page. 

-The Characters.They were interesting, lovable, and brought the story to life. They possessed a great amount of depth and dimension.  Giulia and her new found friends were relatable and made the book more interesting to read. By the end readers are left hungering for more, dying to find out what happens to their new found, literary friends next. 

-The general concept and story line. It was well done and stunningly fresh and original! 

-The themes that were included. The themes that Strauss did incorporate and touch upon, mostly at the end, were very important ones that were smoothly included. 

Last Thoughts: Generally speaking the good outweighed the bad and it was all quite enjoyable. It is refreshing, adventurous, and fun, winning it a three out of five star rating from me, and yest, I'd recommend it to those that find int interesting. 

Add it on Goodreads and buy it through Liberty Bay Books.

Gif. Consensus: 

The Winter People

The Winter People 

by Rebekah L. Purdy

---

Expected Publication: September 2nd 2014

Received From: Entangled Publishing, LLC.  (Thanks guys! This was in exchange for an honest review) 

---

Salome Montgomery fears winter—the cold, the snow, the ice, but most of all, the frozen pond she fell through as a child. Haunted by the voices and images of the strange beings that pulled her to safety, she hasn't forgotten their warning to "stay away." For eleven years, she has avoided the winter woods, the pond, and the darkness that lurks nearby. But when failing health takes her grandparents to Arizona, she is left in charge of maintaining their estate. This includes the "special gifts" that must be left at the back of the property.
 


Salome discovers she’s a key player in a world she’s tried for years to avoid. At the center of this world is the strange and beautiful Nevin, who she finds trespassing on her family’s property. Cursed with dark secrets and knowledge of the creatures in the woods, his interactions with Salome take her life in a new direction. A direction where she'll have to decide between her longtime crush Colton, who could cure her fear of winter. Or Nevin who, along with an appointed bodyguard, Gareth, protects her from the darkness that swirls in the snowy backdrop. An evil that, given the chance, will kill her.

---

Between the stunning cover and dramatic synopsis, who wouldn't want to read The Winter People? It is every paranormal lovers’s dream, drama, romance, mysterious "winter people," the looming threat of death, insanity, and of course magic. What more could you want?

Unfortunately, upon reading it I found that I could want a lot more. Starting out with the elimination of the "quadrangle" and Purdy calls it. Love triangles and similar situations are not typically admired by book worms because they tend to be cliché and unrealistic. This "quadrangle" is no exception. Salome spends her whole book chasing after one love interest, then another, and another. In fact that is almost all she does during the entire story. Which is severely unnerving, not to mention irritating, and reflects badly on women, and teenage girls. Her best friend is no better, but at least that is a personality treat, that can probably be chalked up to some deep psychological thing, or is just a phase. While, for Salome there is something beyond her control about her chasing after every hot person with testosterone that crosses her path, it is still up to her as well.

 I was also disappointed that she was constantly in need of protection. She lacked strength until she was given a strange burst of it at the end and had to constantly rely on others throughout the entire book. She even called herself a damsel and talked about how she was acting like a "damsel in distress,” and sadly she couldn't have been more right, but it wasn't just a onetime thing, it was constant, every second. Yes, she had a lot of troubles and dire situations, but eventually she should have had the strength to save herself, at least on occasion, even in basic conversations she called out to others and relied on other people to "save her." It was pitiful and I was upset that she was not a better model for the readers. The audience this is primarily written for, is at a stage in life where it is imperative that they have strong role models surrounding them. Salome, was definitely not one. 

All of the characters, in fact, were quite lackluster. They were all stereotypical, while vivid. They didn't seem to jump of the page as much as they could have because of the severe lack of individuality and originality.

Purdy's writing was solid. Her language was good, as well as the other basic mechanics of it. Occasionally phrases stuck out as odd, or something didn't fit like tugging on a sweater after we found out she was wearing only a dress tights and boots, but there was no major problems and I assume all of these little issues will be fixed before the release. 

The plot was well paced and the story itself was enchanting. It pulled you in from the start and kept your attention, demanding you devour every word, cover to cover. I was disappointed by the predictability of the action as well as the repetitiveness of it, but somehow I still couldn't put it down. 

In addition to this and Salome's passiveness, the reader was frequently told about all this work and research she was doing, but only once or twice, did she actually spend time researching. Other than those rare times, we were just told over and over and over again about how she was doing research, and how much time she was spending researching, but we never saw it happened. It was a bit annoying and it didn't make sense that we "saw" her run off dating this boy or that boy, but rarely doing this vital research, which logically just doesn't make any sense. It was not realistic. 

Last Thoughts: While I started out this book loving it, my opinion of it quickly spiraled downward. While enchanting, The Winter People, is greatly flawed, and instead of loving it like I first thought I would, I found myself in the opposite corner. I give it two out of five stars and I am sincerely disappointed in it.

Add it on Goodreads and buy it through Liberty Bay Books. 

Gif. Consensus: 

Amity

Amity

by Micol Ostow 

---

Expected Publication: August 26th 2014

Received From: Egmont USA via Net Galley (in exchange for an honest review)

---

Connor's family moves to Amity to escape shady business deals. Ten years later, Gwen's family moves to Amity for a fresh start after she's recovered from a psychotic break.

But something is not right about this secluded house. Connor's nights are plagued with gore-filled dreams of demons and destruction. Dreams he kind of likes. Gwen has lurid visions of corpses that aren't there and bleeding blisters that disappear in the blink of an eye. She knows Amity is evil and she must get her family out, but who would ever believe her?

Amity isn't just a house. She is a living force, bent on manipulating her inhabitants to her twisted will. She will use Connor and Gwen to bring about a bloody end as she's done before. As she'll do again.

Alternating between parallel narratives, Amity is a tense and terrifying tale suggested by true-crime events that will satisfy even the most demanding horror fan

---

This was the first book that I got from Net Galley and I'm really excited! Thanks so much Egmont USA and Net Galley! 

Everyone loves a good horror story, from childhood ghost stories to the gruesome real life horrors that are portrayed in media targeting an older audience. Humans are fascinated with gore, and horror, and savor the fear that tales inspire. We hold a morbid fascination with all things horror, with death, with gore, and with the indescribable. Amity gives readers all of this and more. 

Micol Ostow's writing was amazing. She really brought the tale to life. Her word choice was pure perfection and she used this as well as simile and metaphor to bring her story to life. The writing choices she made and her voice was stunning and will chill readers to the bone. Micol Ostow is a horror master and because of her writing, her book Amity is sure to keep readers up late into the night. 

The characters were deliciously deranged, even before Amity, and that made the story so much better. Gwen and Connor connect with the readers despite not being completely normal. The similarities they had made the story even creepier. The characters didn't really bring the story to life, the writing did that, but they got you invested in the story, and somehow Ostow wrote them in a way that felt like they were pawns. The way they were written makes readers feel like maybe they are just a pawn too and that…that is an eerie feeling. 

While this is a severely gruesome, horrifying, and utterly frightening tale, it also has important themes. Gwen gives us some great themes as she grows to find her strength. She is a model for girls in a way that fits in to a basic, horror free life. Gwen is what every YA female character should look like. 

The plot sends us both speeding and crawling at the same time in the direction of what is sure to be a grisly and terrible end. It's pacing was perfect and really added to the story. It was smooth and flowed well, building up the terror as it went along, crescendoing to a stunning, charged, and unexpected ending. 

Overall thoughts:  (Keep in mind it is only inspired by the Amityville horror. It is not a re-telling or exact replica.) Amity is the best horror story I've read! Ostow did an amazing job of writing it! It's not scary, but it's definitely morbid and horrifying, as well as more than a little bit creepy.  I can not recommenced this book enough to all of the horror lovers and everyone fascinated by morbid and gruesome things. Amity is spine-tingling-ly good and is what ever horror enthusiast dreams of. Five out of five stars.

Be ready to leave the lights on. Be ready to be horrified. Be ready for Amity.

Add it on Goodreads and buy it through Liberty Bay Books. 

Gif. Consensus: 

Teaser Tuesday!

Thanks to Net Galley and Egmont USA for approving me to read Amity by Micol Ostow! This week's teaser is from it, because I'm only a few pages in and I'm already in love with the writing!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

4. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"The sage had been meant to cleanse. With another house, another space, another plot of earth, it might have worked." (Kindle app pg. 275) 

*Please remember that this quote has been taken from an uncorrected proof and is subject to change*