Tell Me Something Tuesday #7

Tell me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Cambria Hebert. Every week we get to answer to a new question.

This week's question:

How do you feel about negative book reviews? Writing them and reading them…

My answer:

I haven't participated in a Tell Me Something Tuseday for a while, but this week theme was so appropriate for what I've been thinking lately that I had to do the post. Ok, so this summer I had the bad luck to read a few books that I didn't really like so obviously they ended up with one or two stars reviews. Whenever I write a bad review I feel kind of bad myself. It's not that I don't mean exactly what I write, I usually write a review right after I finish a book so it still has all my feelings in it. So why do I feel bad? Because I have to dab mouth someone else's baby. Yes, I believe that books are their authors' babies. And especially since I right the review right after reading a book the feeling, whether bad or good, are usually enhanced. I do keep in mind though that someone is going to read my review, and I believe that especially a bad review needs to be accompanied with the proper explanations. I just hope that the reasons I give are enough. Even when I don't manage to finish a book I will review it but I would mention not finishing it. Some times I think that choosing not to finish a book might be even better than finishing one I don't like feeling like I am in hell while reading it. So yes, I might use hard words to describe my equally hard feeling but I try to have a reason behind them not blindly attacking an author and their work. Especially if it's an indie author or a review book or a debut novel.

That was all about the writing part, now about reading bad reviews. I have to confess that when I truly hate a  book I would go around reading bad reviews after I wrote mine and click like if I am on Goodreads or make a comment to agree. It's really hard to be the only one not liking a book, it can be lonely and you cna wonder if you're crazy so it's always nice to see that others agree. So you can guess I have spent a fairly good amount of time reading bad reviews. Some of them have the proper explanations like I mentioned before but some of them are truly awful. Yes, I can understand finishing a book and truly hating it and want to trash talk about it and okay you have the right to do so but after you spent some time away from the book go back to your 5 line review and add the reasons why you truly hated it. You might actually help people who read it to decided whether they might be interested in it or not. 

And to conclude, I've seen a few disturbing things through my blogging life. Reviewers attacking authors and of course the other way around, but I believe that if both sides respect and appreciate the effort and time invested in both writing and reading a book there would not be any extreme examples of Reviewers vs Authors fights. Bad reviews do have their purpose just like every other review they are there to help people see a book from different points of view. It is still the reader's choice to whether pick up a book or not.

My own bad reviews:

1. Possessions
2. Ethereal
3. Shapeshifter's Secret
4. Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator
5. Stained

Unpack This [July 23 - July 29]

Unpack This is a meme I started instead of my usual IMM. It was inspired by my love to open boxes, yes I love doing that.

These week I only got two ebooks and one of them free.

Draykon (Draykon #1)

by Charlotte E. English

Get it for free on Smashwords.

The Assassin and the Empire (Throne of Glass 0.4)

by Sarah J. Maas

This is the fourth prequel novella of the Throne of Glass, I stll haven't read the third one but I will read both of them soon and I know I am going to love them just like the two first ones. I can't wait to get the actual book either.

What did you get to Upack this week?

Possessions (Possessions #1) by Nancy Holder

Possessions introduces us to the story of Lindsay, a girl who is starting over in a new school after an emotional breakdown she had in her old life. But Marlwood Academy is not your typical school, yes, you have the popular girls and the girls that are dying to be popular but Marlwood is also haunted by the ghosts of girls from the time it was an asylum. Lindsay will soon discover that the deadly games that the popular clique in Marlwood plays are connected to the dead girls from the past.

I thought this book was going to be great, it had everything I love. A boarding school, ghosts, creepy past and the occasional girl drama. BUT, it wasn't that good at all. Lindsay was a terrible main character, she had a breakdown in her old life because the popular girl she was trying so hard to please hooked up with her boyfriend. I mean ok it sucks, but hell girl your mother died and you were fine but you had a breakdown over that? Really? Then she was going on and on about how she wasn't going to be the same that she wasn't going to fall under Mandy's, the queen bee in her new school, spell, but she was simply weak and terrified wherever Mandy was involved. She kept saying how her hair were wild and untamed or something like that, like she wanted to convise us that she was wild and untamed. Dream on Lindsay, it's not happening.

Then there are all the other characters, Julie, the best friend. God, I don't even know how she got that title. She sucked as a friend. She was following Mandy everywhere desperate for attention. She ignored Lindsay, didn't believe her, was constantly in Mandy's side. So I don't really see why Lindsay would consider her a BFF. Anyways, then there was Troy-the love interest-he was okay, simply okay, we didn't get to learn much about him, just that he was hot and unavailable. Seriously these two are the only info we have on him. Then comes Mandy, the mean girl, who wasn't really that mean. If you want the title of the queen bee you got to earn it, she wasn't that much of a villain, I was expecting her to be vicious but she wasn't and that was a bit underwhelming. The only character I found interesting and likable was Rose, the other scholarship girl. She was curious and smart and a thrill seeker but she only showed up in one chapter were we got to know her and then she went to join the dark side, with no reason or explanation whatsoever on how that happened.

The plot wasn't that original either. A bunch of mean girls getting possessed by vengeful spirits of dead girls. I must have seen a thousand movies with that theme. There wasn't that much of a background story about the dead girls which didn't give them any essence. Also the writing style was a bit weird for me. It had small sentences and not much of a flow between paragraphs. Lindsay would be talking about one thing and then all of a sudden she went on and on about something completely irrelevant. It was a bit confusing to keep up with.

The only reason this book got two stars instead of one, is because it had a few creepy moments and I love eveything creepy and scary, but Goosebumps were more scary than this one.

★★☆☆☆

book 6             book 32             book 21

book 9

Ethereal (Celestra #1) by Addison Moore

Didn't see that coming...

Starting this book I thought I would love it or at least like it for that matter, but unfortunatelly that wasn't the case. I did not like this book and it's mostly because of the characters.

Skyla is the new girl in town. She moves in the house of a dead girl Chloe and soon takes over her life. Chloe's best friend soon becomes Skyla's same with Chloe's boyfriend. But Skyla has a secret (of course she does), she can hear people thoughts. And once she realizes that Logan, her new isnta boyfriend/love does too she finally seeks the answers she was never able to get.

It should have been an intersting story, and maybe the plot is kind of interesting, with the angels and all, but when you can't stand the characters the plot doesn't matter anymore.

Where to begin?

Skyla: she was so unworthy of the main character title. Seriously. She was jealous of a dead girl. And I don't mean jealous "I am afraid he might still have feelings for her", I mean "I am going to steal him from you, you stupid dead bitch, back off now" jealous. Sick, right? The BFF Brielle was also a disaster waiting to happen, she befriends Skyla instantly, gets her Chloe's empty spot in the cheerleading team, gets her in all the cool parties and hooks up with Skyla's disgusting step-brother.

And as much as I hate insta friendship, I hate insta love even more. And this book had a double insta love. Logan and Gage, cousins and the most perfect and handsome boys Skyla has ever seen (her words not mine) both fall head over heels for her (can't really see why) in a blink of an eye. Of course Skyla has the hots for both but picks one so she can have someone to make out with. And boy do they make out. From the very first party.

Ok, let me say now that I did not finish this book. So maybe it gets better by the end, and seeing how so many people have read it and liked it, I think it possibly does, but I just couldn't read anymore and simply don't care. So the review above is for the first half which I did read. I hope other angel books are not like this one.

Thank God I got this for free!!!

★☆☆☆☆

book 31           book 31              book 20

book 8

In a Wolf's Eyes (The Saga of the Black Wolf #1) by A. Katie Rose

In a Wolf's Eyes is the story of Wolf, a slave and gladiator and Ly'Tana, a princess and bribe to be to the Crown Prince Broughton a.k.a Brutal. After the current King ends up dead and Brutal dadly beaten Wolf and Brutal's magician pet have to flee, bacause they are the ones who killed the King. In the whole chaos that follows the attack Ly'Tana and her people manage to escape too, but Brutal won't let her go that easy. He manages to capture Bar, Ly'Tana's griffin right in front of her so he can place a trap to get her back and finally conquer her Kingdom.

What I really loved about this book is the characters. Both the main characters and the secondary are truly brought to life. Haunted by their pasts, fighting for their freedom, falling to their knees and getting back up. Real-life characters. And my favorite: Brutal. Yes, he is the villain, but you love to hate him. And trust me I hated him ever since the first couple of chapters and a very infuriating horse scene. He is truly the perfect villain. He had me wishing for his painful death, while at the same time hoping he would keep living so I would keep hating him. Perfect bad guy material. 

Another thing I liked was the wolrd building and the characters' past. That made everything more real. They come from different places with different stories and through out the book you get to see bits and parts of their memories and of the history of their world.

On the other hand, I felt like the story didn't move as fast as I wanted it too. Yes, there was a lot of action, but just when I was all hyped up and lost in sword fights the main characters had to start thinking about every little detail in their future plans and what brought them there, it was a bit distracting. Also I thought that up until the moment the two main characters met the book was slow, fortunately their meeting didn't disappoint.

★★★★☆

book 30

book 7

Demonglass (Hex Hall #2) by Rachel Hawkins

Oh my... what an amazing book! Be careful, don't start reading this one unless you already have Spell Bound. Trust me.

In Demonglass we follow Sophie to her trip in London the summer right after everything in the first book happened. Accompanied by her best friend, the vampire, Jenna and her betrothal Cal, as we soon discover, Sophie visits Thorne Abbey, the place where her father lives and her Grandmother Alice was turned into a demon. But what she finds there is even more surprising than she expected, there are other two demon-kids living in Thorne Abbey along with few of the Councils members. Sophie will try to find as much as she can about the two other demons, her father, the history behind Alice's transformation and of course herself, all the while running from the Eye and discovering who is actually raising all these demons.

This book was AMAZING. I was a little sad that it wouldn't take place at Hex Hall, I really loved that school, but still it was amazing. Everything I was expecting, action, drama, sarcasm and a lot of surprises, both good and bad along the way. After reading halfway through the book I couldn't stop there was so much going on, so many new discoveries and secrets revealed and so much yet to be discovered.

As always I loved Sophie and her sarcasm, this girl had me laughing every other sentence. And Archer, oh Archer, how much I missed you! I was really glad he was back. All the moments he spend with Sophie were simply magical.

I can't really say anything else about this book cause I am afraid I would just start posting spoilers. I mean... I am still socked from the ending. Massive CLIFFHANGER. You have been warned!

★★★★★

book 30              book 19

book 6

Unpack This [July 16 - July 22]

Unpack This is a meme I started instead of my usual IMM. It was inspired by my love to open boxes, yes I love doing that.

These are all the books I got. Switshed, Angel and Hollow Pike are used and I got the from awesomebooks.com, while Born Wicked is new and I got it from thebookdepository.co.uk and has one of thr most beautiful covers I've seen.

I haven't read that many angel series, probably Ethereal is the only one and I am reading it right now, and I heard that L.A.Weatherly's Angel series is one of the best of the kind so I had to get it.

As for Switched I have been curious about the series for a long time now, even back when it was self-published. I really wanted to get the version with the red cover and the girl sitting in the middle of a poppy field, or whatever field that was, but I found this one used and when it arrived I fell in love with the cover. So pretty.

I know not many people have heard of Hollow Pike and I will tell you if it's a shame once I actually read the book, but I was immediately drawn to it. For as long as I can remember I see dreams that someone is hunting me and is trying to kill me (they never did) so I was really curious to get this one, since the main character has the same dreams too.

Finally, Born Wicked. What can I say about this one. Firstly the cover is a love at first sight. I read so many good reviews about this book that I had to have it. And of course it's about witched one of my favorite paranormal themes.

That's all I got this week.

What did you get to Upack?

Emotionally Scarred (Empath Chronicles, #0.5) by Selina Fenech

So small...I wish there was more.

This is the prequel to Emotionally Charged and the story of how Emma joined the Empaths team. I have to admit I wasn't a fan of Emma reading Emotionally Charged, and really who was? But seeing how she was treated at school made me feel kind of sorry but by the end of the story it was pretty obvious that she wasn't worth my sympathy. She is a true villain.

I recommended you guys pick this one up and read it, it will only take a few minutes. It gives a good feeling about what the story is about and how the author has the whole hero vs villain thing going on in every characters mind.

★★★★★

By the way it's free on Amazon.

Teaser Tuesdays #9

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

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• 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!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Kiss me. He instructs. His eyes widen at the prospect.

I press my lips against his-soft.

~10%, "Ethereal" by Addison Moore

"I'm here with my dad."

He quirked an eyebrow, and for just a moment looked a lot more like the Archer I remembered. "Demon family reunion?"

~p.135, "Demonglass" by Rachel Hawkins

"Pitty you'll never see him again," Kel'Ratan remarked, nudging his horse forward, toward the palace gate that would lead as north.

I sniffed. "What do you mean by that?"

~25%, "In a Wolf's eyes" by A. Katie Rose

As you can see I am multitasking this week. It will take me a while to finish something, but I would most likely finish them all together.

Leave the link to your Teaser Tuesday.

Unpack This [July 9 - July 15]

Unpack This is a meme I started instead of my usual IMM. It was inspired by my love to open boxes, yes I love doing that.

While waiting for a few orders of mine to arrive I was lucky enough to get 3 ebooks for free, one of them for review. Here's what I got.

Won:

I won this one from the release party for Charade on Facebook. I great party with tons of prizes. I am really glad I won it 'cause I only hear great things about this book and can't wait to read it myself.

For Review:

Eden-West is the second book in the Eden series. I was totally in love with the first one and got really excited when Janelle contacted me again for a review book. This is next on my to-read list so you can expect a review really soon.

Free from Amazon:

I was really curious about Until Next Time, so when I saw that this was fre for a few days I immediately grabbed it. It's still free if you guys want to give it a try too.

What did you get this week?

Teaser Tuesdays #8

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

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• 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!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Cal and I know each other well enough," I said. "Why would I want to know him better?"

"Because," Dad said, finally meeting my eyes, "you and he are betrothed."

~p.18, "Demonglass" by Rachel Hawkins

Leave the link to your Teaser Tuesday.

Seraphina (Seraphina, #1 ) by Rachel Hartman

Due to the upcoming release of Seraphina, I decided to re-post my review. But before you go ahead and read my thoughts on this amazing book, you can first read the small prequel that was released a few days ago. I just found it and I loved it. I missed reading about Seraphina.

Prequel: http://www.scribd.com/doc/97577759/Seraphina-Prequel-WEB


Review
Woooowwwww!

That's the only thing coming out of my mouth right now, although my head is filled with thoughts. This book was simply...wow! I loved it. It's like it took an empty part of me and filled it with so many emotions.

But let's stop talking nonsence and get straight into business. At the beginning I was a bit confused about what was going on, and honestly I thought it might not be as good as I hoped. See, I love dragons and desperately wanted to read a book about them. Fortunatelly I kept reading and after I got through the first couple of chapters the story started drawing me in. I was hooked.

This is the story of Seraphina, a talented sixteen-year-old girl working at the palace as a music assistand. But Seraphina has a big secret, one that is starting to be imposible to keep to herself, and everything is about to fall apart at the most important day of all is closing in. The treaty's anniversary, between humans and dragon, has everyone in the palace going crazy, especially after the prince is murdered in a suspicious draconian way. But who is the real enemy and will Seraphina be able to hold her secret to herself while finding out who wants to destroy the peace?

I loved the characters of the book, especially the two main ones, Seraphina and Lucian Kiggs. They are both smart, logical and loyal. Both brave and ashamed of what they are. You know when you read a book and you wander why the main character can't realize what's going on while it's so obvious to you? Well, this never happened in this book. The characters where true to themselves and refreshingly smart and witty. 

Finally the world that Rachel Hartman created is so beautifully described that it came to life. I especially loved all the Saints and religion, the Quighole and every other detail that made the world more real.

Definetely something you want to keep your eye on! I can't wait for the next one.

★★★★★

Gifted: A Donovan Circus Novel by Liz Long

Lucy is gifted, like so many others in the world with a special power, hers is fire. Lucy is a firestarter, someone who can create and control fire. Soon after the death of both her parents she decides it's time to return to the place she spent part of her childhood, the Donovan Circus. There gifted people, mixed with a few actual humans, put on an amazing show to entertain the masses. Lucy will make new friends and start to feel like she belongs again, but before the good feeling can sink in someone turns up dead. Burned to death. And the new firestarter is the number one suspect. Now Lucy has to clear her name and find out who the real killer is before more people she cares about end up dead.

Gifted had all the thinks I love reading about. A circus, someone with firepower and people popping up dead. I really enjoyed the circus life and all the different characters we were introduced to. So many amazing gifted people. I wasn't the hugest fan of Lucy in the beginning cause she just couldn't realise the obvious, that her gifted was so much better than anyones else, that she was truly special, but she finally saw that. Her two love interests on the other hand (yes this has a love triangle in it) were both swoon worthy. I found myself more attracted to Keegan though, although it's pretty obvious she won't end up with him and I felt sorry for him cause Lucy was kind of leading him on.

There was a lot of action in the beginning of the book and a pretty awesome fight at the end of it, but in the middle the book got a little slow. Lucy was not hanging out with her friends that much, instead she was always with her two love interests, talking on and on. That was the downfall of it. It was a bit frustrating after the great beginning, but fortunately the ending was action packed too. Hence the 4 stars. 

All in all, this is a great book. Especially if like me you are a huge fan of circus novels and firestarters.

★★★★☆

book 29             book 29

book 5
Get Gifted for FREE from Amazon.

Unpack This [July 2 - July 8]

Unpack This is a meme I started instead of my usual IMM. It was inspired by my love to open boxes, yes I love doing that.

I am back in my own apartment, which I adore so much. I never want to leave it again, well maybe for some vacations...Anyways, this week, I only got one book. But it's a book I've been dying to get. It just got published and I just finished reading the previous one.

City of Swords by Mary Hoffman is the sixth book in the Stravaganza series, hopefully not the last one, but there is no word of a next book. I will read it and then probably figure out if it's the last one. If you haven't read the series you might want to give them a try. I mean look at these covers.

What did you get to Unpack this week?

City of Ships (Stravaganza, #5) by Mary Hoffman

After finding a velvet pouch in her school, Isabel travels to sixteenth century Italy, only she soon fond out it's not really Italy, but Talia, a country in another world. She is not the only one that had traveled from present London to Talia, the other Stravaganti, as they are called find her and explain that she is to play a certain role in her visits to Talia, but no one knows yet what it is. With an upcoming war at their doorstep, the people of Talia gather their warships and Isabel will find herself in the middle of it.

Let me first say that my rating is biased. There is no way I would ever give a Stravaganze book any other rating than 5 big stars. I am so much in love with the world of Talia, and the traveling from our world there, every time seeing another city, that I can't help myself. Mary Hoffman did for me in YA what Raymond E. Feist did in Epic Fantasy, I fell in love with the wolrd and the characters. Before I even pick up the book I know I will love it.

I don't want to give away anything, cause all the characters from the old books came back to the next ones, but in this one there were many things done differently which made it even more special. Like trips to Elizabethan England and of course there was the battle in the middle of the sea. 

The main character, Isabel, is like the the previous characters. In order for someone to be chosen for Talia they have to be miserable at their own life and Isabel is just that. Jealous of her totally perfect twin brother, trying her hardest to go by life unnoticed. But naturally, just like in the previous books, with every trip in Talia she changes. By the end of the book she was a more confident person. 

In this book the old Stravaganti show up as they did before and help Isabel, but this time there are more trips to Talia than usual. It's really good to see them all back in Talia. But I was expecting them to show up for the final battle which didn't happen.

All in all, I loved this book and the whole Stravaganza series. The next book, City of Swords, was just published and I already got it and it's waiting to be read. I think this might be the last book of the series and I can't wait to see how everyone will end up.

★★★★★

book 28              book 18

book 4