Manipulating the List

 Katherine Elizabeth Sheppard is only one heart-pounding step ahead of the Collector. A friendship of sixteen years suddenly transformed into a game of manipulation after her name appears on the Collector's list. Responding to little more than the primitive instinct for survival at any cost, she becomes a cold-blooded killer at the age of twenty-two. But her assistance in mortality can't stop there, she must continue to assist in the death of others in order to bypass her own fate.

3 STARS out of 5
TITLE: Manipulating the List 
AUTHOR: K.B. Lever   
GENRE: Young Adult

SPOILERS AHEAD. Read at your own risk.

First of all, I’d like to disclose that this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. I’m open to new reads and I happen to like the premise of this one. Minus the cover, not really eye-catching. To be honest, sometimes book covers influence the way I prioritize my top tbr. Anyway, this book takes the grim reaper stuff to a whole new level. This is a story about Jonathan and Katherine. A story about the weird friendship between a boy who collects souls based on a list AND the one girl who could manipulate the said list.

 

This was going to be the beginning of our new friendship; a friendship where he would give me clues to find his next victim and then my race would ensue to find them before the collection time so that he could bypass collecting me.

 

At first, this book seriously gave me the headache. 

Okay, I know how the Collector works, but I felt confused as hell with all this manipulating mumbo jumbo. It was stated that “by the end of the given timeframe, a name on the list would have to be collected."

If that’s the case, and the Collector has been doing this for decades, then what’s the point of Katherine tracking those victims? Should handling those victims on a silver platter to the Collector actually manipulates the list?

So I read on. Wondering how the heck could I actually ever enjoy reading this book.

I don’t know why I aggravate myself by reading a book out of my genre but since I was the one who requested this book for review, I thought I should give it a try and keep an open mind. Fortunately, that wasn’t very hard to do because the writing style was really good.

When finally:

“I didn’t know what interfering with the Collector’s list was going to do to me.” -Katherine

Hah! After that admission, I actually sighed with relief. At least, I know that the stuff which was initially bothering me will be resolved somewhere in the book. I just have to be patient.

And I’m glad I did.

This is one of those books that won’t grab your attention in the beginning. If I’ll be perfectly honest, the first few chapters were a total yawnfest.

But when things picked up, it would freaking pull you at your collar – happened just after the first two hunts, when the MC was running away from everyone. Dang! A girl on the run! By that time, I’m finally acknowledging the fact that the author has some serious writing skills. Why! She just amped up the suspense factor!

So obviously, I thought this was turning to be a pretty, exciting read.

I was wrong.

Another bad thing happened. I don’t have anything against Australians but I got bored again – this time, because of too detailed Australian back stories. It’s one thing to engage in a chat with a cab driver, but to have him recap the whole story of something he actually witnessed back in the day -- again, TOTAL YAWNFEST.

My relief totally disappeared because of one unrealistic romance found in the book. Don’t get me wrong, I love whirlwind romances. But for me, it just didn’t work with this one. It was hurried, and I even thought the romance was done as an afterthought. Maybe find another connection between Liam and Katherine other than being hopelessly in love?

Honestly, the story could do well without the said romance. (Or maybe it’s just me hoping for some twisted sense of fate that Jonathan the Collector and Katherine would get it on. Oookay, scratch that. That would be really gross because technically, the Collector died when he was 14 y/o and would definitely come off as a betrayal against Winnie, his first love and the reason why he died in the first place.)

Oooh, but the irony.

And WTH happened to the men who abducted her almost at the end? And Liam saying, “Some things are better left unanswered m’love.” I don’t like a book making me guess especially if it’s at the end of the book. Should I assume they all died since Liam was also a Collector?

And then BAM! It was finished. I’m like, seriously that’s it?? Good thing there’s a sneak peek for Book 2. Some things just needed to be cleared up before I can move on with my reading.

Overall, for a debut novel, this was a decent read.

Angelfall

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

5 STARS out of 5
TITLE: Angelfall
AUTHOR: Susan Ee
GENRE: Young Adult

WOWOWOWOW!!! 5 BIG STARS!!

The first YA book I've read about angels was Hush, Hush; and that doesn't even compare to this one.

THIS BOOK is phenomenal! Hooked me from the very beginning and never let go! It was so unputdownable that I started this a bit late last night, only to sleep past 4am then continued reading this the moment I woke up 2 hours ago. It's like this book took precedence over brushing my teeth and eating brunch.

WOW. Just wow.

This is a dystopian story about Penryn, a teenage girl who is truly determined to save her 7 y/o crippled sister, Paige, from the hands of angels.

The angels in this book are not much different from the angels we know. Though they're definitely not the cherubs type, they were described to have flawless skin and have really beautiful, strong wings -- on varied colors, of course.

Unfortunately for Penryn, she was stuck with a dying angel. A dying angel with deep blue piercing eyes, that is. And no wings to boot. He's one of the fallen, or so they claimed.

Actually, he looks exactly like a gorgeous Olympian champion. It's more than a little disturbing just how much he looks like a supreme example of a human being. I mean, shouldn't an angel that's part of a legion to eradicate humanity look, well, evil and alien?

Raffe -- short for Raphael -- is actually one of the few archangels left. He was beaten and mutilated all due to angel politics. Just when I thought God was supreme and omnipotent.. who knew dirty politics exist among the angels?

He was saved, then kidnapped by a human. And a teenage girl no less! Penryn needs his help to find her way to the aerie to save her sister.

What came next was a bunch of giggle fits directed at Penryn and her illusion that she can stand her own against an angel like Raffe. She actually tried to use the angel sword against him!

"My sword would never hurt me. And my sword is the only one you can wield."

Reminds me of Harry Potter and his wand. I just loved this! Loyalty was tested, and Penryn proved to be on Raffe's side all through it all.

Together they took up a journey back to the aerie with different goals -- for Penryn, it was to save her sister and for Raffe, to find a way to stitch his wings back.

Let me share the lines which made me grin really hard: 

It occurs to me that I might be in the unprecedented position of being able to glean some intelligence on them.

What I would do with angel intel, I don't know. But it can't hurt to gain a little knowledge.

And of course, who could forget about this one?

"Oh. My. God." I lower my voice, having forgotten to whisper. "You are nothing but a bird with an attitude. Okay, so you have a few muscles, I'll grant you that. But you know, a bird is nothing but a barely evolved lizard. That's what you are."

That actually made me super LOL! Oh, how much I loved this book! It's extremely well written and the world building is absolutely perfect! This is surely one of the most memorable paranormal reads I've had. Can't fight this angel cravings! I need the sequel ASAP! 

Sweet Evil

Embrace the Forbidden

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?

This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.

Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She's aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn't until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He's the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

2 STARS out of 5
TITLE: Sweet Evil
AUTHOR: Wendy Higgins
GENRE: Young Adult

Oookay. That was so ANTICLIMACTIC!

Don't get me wrong though. I enjoyed the first half of the book.

It was well written. The world-building was really good, though it came off as plain storytelling from a few characters. But I can't blame the author for that. There's no way one can tell the origin of this angels & demons fiasco without going back to the days where earth wasn't even created yet.

The author gave her own spin to this angels & demons tale -- adding Dukes of sins and their kids, the Nephilims, who work their asses off to bring chaos to mankind.

I even liked the main character, Anna, and her unquenchable thirst to find out who she really is.
 

Being able to hear and see and smell everything within a one-mile radius was major sensory overload. And unfortunately, perfect health did not make me immune to pain.

It would definitely suck to have talents like that and then knowing you aren't exactly a normal human being to begin with... thanks to a fellow Nephilim and the son of the Duke of Lust, Kaidan Rowe, for the knowledge he had so easily and willingly imparted.

At one point, I actually giggled at what he shared:
 

"I had a tattoo once," said Kaidan. "Last year, just before we left England."

"What do you mean, you had 'once'?"

"Bloody thing was gone by the morning!" His voice was indignant.  "Sheets were black with ink. I put myself through all that for hours, and my body just pushed it back out!"

I WOULD HAVE LOVED THIS BOOK. I really would.

But here's a sad thing about world-building taking precedence over character development -- CHARACTERS GET LOST IN THE MUDDLE. I couldn't feel them anymore. This book got so much potential but then lost it.

I should be ending this review here but I couldn't help myself.

Here's a note for you, Kaidan, because you frustrated me the most! ---

Kaidan (Ky-den),

First of all, let me tell you
how very much distracted I am about the right way
to pronounce your name in my mind
every time I glance on my Nook.

To say the least, it frustrates me,
Even while writing this now.

I know you're a smokin' hot drummer
with an English accent;
and your work of seducing the ladies
should earn you a ticket to my swoon-worthy shelf,
BUT you, Mr. Rowe, came up short.

Almost halfway,
your lines seemed a bit off and forced.
You used the word "Er..."
and sometimes stuttered like a virgin teenage boy.
UGH. Where was the hot Kaidan guy I met at the beginning??
Where the heck was he?!

Your fear of your demon father is perfectly understandable.
Unfortunately, it made you appear as a wuss.

No offense.
Though I will be watching your moves on the next book.
I hope you grow a freaking backbone.

Much hate for now,
Your less-than-thrilled reader
ME 

Onyx

Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems.

Something worse than the Arum has come to town…

The Department of Defense are here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who’s got a secret of his own. He knows what’s happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.

But then everything changes…

I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…

3 STARS out of 5
TITLE: Onyx
AUTHOR: Jennifer L. Armentrout
GENRE: Young Adult

Here, we pick up from where things left off at Obsidian.

Daemon and Katy are back! And they're seriously kicking DOD's asses this time! But before we head to that, let me tell you how much I hate the bets taking place on novels nowadays. They're too cheesy. Just look at this:

"Stop distracting me, Kitten. Back to my bet -- by New Year's Day, you'll have admitted that you're madly, deeply, irrevocably, and irresistibly in love with me."

Warning bells kept ringing on my mind when I came upon that. Reminded me of the reason why I never continued reading My Favorite Mistake. Bets like that seemed ridiculous, and IMO, did not make the banter between the characters any good. It just made me want to pull my hair out a couple of times.

Nothing personal on bets. Just saying.

I started getting bored with this whole alien shenanigans, even Daemon's hotness couldn't stop the yawn coming out of my mouth. I actually almost put this book on hold, when all of a sudden Katy acquired some alien powers and met another guy named Blake!

Daemon and Blake.
I smelled war.
Oooh, it's definitely on!

LOL

You see, the thing with hyped books like this one is that even when the pace seems slow, I somehow felt obliged to finish the book just to know if something good and exciting will come out of it.

Fortunately, like the first book in the series, Onyx has something original and a bit exciting in store for the patient reader. So if you're like me who likes getting some action fast with this type of books, well.. just hang on people! ;)

Obsidian

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don't kill him first, that is.

3 STARS out of 5
TITLE: Obsidian
AUTHOR: Jennifer L. Armentrout
GENRE: Young Adult
 
3 CRAZY SAUCE!!

This is the first time I've read an Armentrout book, and definitely wouldn't be my last!

Katy, Katy.. What to say about her? Hmm. I loved the fact that she maintains a blog site dedicated mainly to her recent reads. I liked how she says that she's done with being the pushover Katy, and does exactly that -- yay for the spaghetti scene!!

Sauce and noodles coming up!

Oh, hello Daemon! Sorry, former pushover Katy just threw them on top of your head. But you totally deserved that you.. you!!!

The male lead, Daemon, is as hot as any other book boyfriends I've had. Who the heck could resist those startling, intense, shocking, unnatural, vibrant, rare green eyes?? The endless description just goes on!

But I refuse to put him to my swoon-worthy heroes shelf because I have a love-hate relationship with him.

You see, he's this hot guy who's actually a light resembling a body.. in short, he's a freaking alien. And haven't I told you yet, aliens shouldn't look that hot on book covers. The general public might have this misconception of how aliens really look like. Someone might encounter a little green man with big eyes and spindly arms on the street, and that someone may never know what just passed by him.

So I say, let's boycott the cover because the guy's too hot for words.  Okay, now I'm babbling. Moving on.

This is the main reason why I couldn't connect fully with Daemon's.character:

Daemon was a douchebag to the highest order.

And that was Katy talking btw. Daemon's hot and cold toward our heroine. At first few encounters, that should be the case and I understand why. He needs to protect his sister and his race from the Arum, I get that. But I'm past halfway with the book and three traces later for Katy -- Daemon's still acting the same. That's one sexual tension definitely NOT done right. I was frustrated and really annoyed with his character. I mean, just please man up dude!

Carissa and Lesa, Katy's latest friends from her new school, were also kind of annoying. It felt like the author just added their characters so that there'll be side characters when Dee's not around for Katy.

Annoying characters aside, I actually found myself enjoying reading this.

UNTIL that one stupid decision made by Katy almost at the end of the book which led her running straight to Baruck's arms literally, where she almost died and tantananan! Daemon to the rescue!!. I mean, how stupid can you really get? Humans on this book simply can't fight and expect to live AGAINST a powerful alien who lurks on the shadows.

OVERALL, I liked the plot. The execution, not so much. Felt a bit like Twilightish to me, minus all the glittering vampires of course. I kept bracing myself for some really great alien action, and all I got was a mediocre fight against four Arums! That definitely lowers the rating.

But like what I've said earlier, this won't be my last Armentrout book. I'm planning to devour the sequel soon!