Night Star by Alyson Noel

Title: Night Star (The Immortals #5)

Author: Alyson Noël

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Release Date: November 16, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Haven still blames Ever for the death of her boyfriend, Roman, no matter how hard Ever’s tried to convince her it was an accident. Now she’s determined to take Ever down...and destroy Damen and Jude along the way. Her first step is to tear Ever and Damen apart--and she has just the ammunition to do it.

Hidden in one of Ever’s past lives is a terrible secret about Damen--a secret that illuminates new facts about her relationship with Jude, but that’s so dark and brutal it might be enough to drive her and Damen apart once and for all. As Ever faces her greatest fears about the guy she wants to spend eternity with, she’s thrust into a deadly clash with Haven that could destroy them all.

Now it’ll take everything she’s got--and bring out powers she never knew she had--to face down her most formidable enemy. But in order to win, she must first ask herself: Is her own survival worth dooming Haven to an eternity of darkness in the Shadowland? And will learning the truth about Damen’s past hold the key to their future?

I love Alyson Noël’s Immortals series, it’s just an interesting concept and it’s also quite different from all the other paranormal books out there. Night Star, the fifth book in the series, continued to amaze me and now I can’t wait to see how it’s all going to turn out in the final book that comes out next summer. Noël writes an incredible story and creates these characters that feel real despite the fact that there are no such things as immortals...at least there aren’t as far as I know.

When Roman died, Ever lost almost all chances she had of ever finding the antidote that will allow her and Damen to finally be completely together. Now she must do her best to get back the shirt he wore on the night he was killed by Jude. Only Haven is standing in the way of that. She wants nothing more than revenge for what she thinks Ever did to Roman. Prepared to do anything to protect herself from Haven, Ever finds out new truths and comes closer than ever to losing her life. With more and more people knowing their secret, Ever and Damen find themselves facing new problems and new enemies.

I have a sort of love-hate relationship with Ever. At times I absolutely love her and want her to have everything she wants but at other times I just want her to stop and grow a brain or a back bone. To me though, that makes her more realistic despite the whole immortal thing. Despite the weird relationship I have with her, most of the time I tend to like her more than hate her. In spite of all her faults, there’s just something about her that i can’t help but love. Haven on the other hand, I never really particularly took to her, even from the very beginning. She always seemed like she was trying to hard or that it wouldn’t take much to set her off. And obviously that proved true. Once she had only a small amount of power she got greedy and essentially turned over to the dark side.

Damen is a hard character to explain. Every time I think I’ve got him figured out something happens that changes almost everything and I have to figure him out all over again. Sure it gets a little bit tiresome but it also makes him more interesting and keeps me interested. If only he would just tell Ever the whole truth once and for all I would be happy and would just like him that much more. Jude is a bit of a puzzle too. I’m never really sure what to expect from him or even who he is. There are just somethings about him that are mysterious and I never really know what to make of him. Maybe eventually I’ll have him all figured out...hopefully by the end of the last book. As for Miles, he just makes me laugh. Even when he’s dead serious I can’t help but smile. He brings humor to the story and sometimes I feel that without it, the books would be quite heavy.

What I love about this series is that I never know where the story is going to take me. One minute I think I know what’s going to happen and the next something completely different takes place. Even emotionally I never know where it’s going to take me. The story is like a roller coaster ride and I absolutely love it. With Night Star, there is still plenty that I don’t completely understand but I’m sure in will all come together very soon.

I love Alyson Noël and her Immortals series. Every time a new book comes out I get all excited and start reading it as soon as I have my hands on a copy. Once again, Night Star left me wanting more and I can’t wait to see how everything will come together in Everlasting.

Please excuse the mess...

I'm working on the design of my blog so please excuse me if some things don't look quite right. I'll be fixing all the kinks in the next couple of days.

UPDATE: I think I've worked everything out but please let me know if you see something that doesn't look quite right so that I can fix it.

Book Blogger Hop (26) & Follow Friday (18)

It's Friday so it means it's time for the Book Blogger Hop and Follow Friday!

First off, the Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Jennifer of Crazy-for-Books. It is a way for all the book bloggers out there to get together and find out about each other's blogs. I've found a lot of great blogs and bloggers through this hop and it's always fun to take part in each week.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:

WHY DO YOU READ THE GENRE THAT YOU DO? WHAT DRAWS YOU TO IT?

As many already know, I mostly read YA books, and pretty much every genre that ends up falling under that umbrella. As to why YA, as of Tuesday I will just be coming out of my teen years so I guess it's still a pretty important part of my life. Mostly I can relate to the characters and what they are going through a lot more than I can when I read adult books (probably why I tend not to read any adult contemporary). It feels like YA is all I've always read and I absolutely love it, so why change.

The Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View each week. It works a lot like the Book Blogger Hop except that it's only on Fridays. I haven't been taking part in this hop as long but I've found a lot of great new blogs through this one too.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:

WHAT MAKES UP YOUR NON-HUMAN FAMILY?

If by non-human we mean pets, I don't have any...unless you count the random mice that show up in our basement from time to time. At this point I don't even live with my actual family. I have nothing against pets per say. When I was younger we had a bird for almost 8 years. Now one of my roommates is allergic to pretty much anything with fur so that's a no go for lots of pet...and our landlord doesn't allow pets in the house. So all that to say, I don't have a non-human family.

UPDATE:

None that I can think of at this time. Though be on the look out I will be posting reviews more often so be sure to check back.

That's it for this week!

Enjoy your weekends!

Choker by Elizabeth Woods

Title: Choker

Author: Elizabeth Woods

Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR

Release Date: January 4, 2011

Source: From Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Sixteen-year-old Cara Lange had been a loner ever since she moved away from her best and only friend, Zoe, years ago. She eats lunch with the other girls from the track team and tries to avoid the popular girls who, after an embarrassing incident in the cafeteria, endlessly torture her, calling her Choker. But mostly she spends her time watching Ethan Gray from a distance, wishing he would finally notice her.

Then one day Cara comes home to find Zoe waiting for her. Zoe’s on the run from problems at home, and Cara agrees to help her hide. With her best friend back, Cara’s life changes overnight. Zoe gives her a new look and new confidence, and the next thing she knows, she’s getting invited to parties and flirting with Ethan. Best of all, she can talk about everything with her BFF.

But just as quickly as Cara’s life came together, it starts to unravel. A girl goes missing in her town, and everyone is a suspect--including Ethan. Worse still, Zoe starts behaving strangely, and Cara begins to wonder what exactly her friend does all day while Cara’s at school. You’re supposed to trust your best friend no matter what...but what if she turns into a total stranger?

I didn’t have much to go on except for the summary when I first started reading Choker. It sounded interesting and like something I would enjoy. As it turned out, it was very interesting and I did enjoy reading it but not at all in the ways that I expected. One thing is for sure, this is one book that really played with my mind.

Cara has only ever had one friend, Zoe. But in the fifth grade, her parents moved her to another town where she never really made any new friends. Now in high school, Cara sits with the other girls in the track team at lunch and stays alone the rest of the time. Mostly, she stays away from the popular girls who like nothing more than to tease her, until one day she chokes on a carrot and becomes even more ridiculed. Just when Cara thought things couldn’t get any worse, Zoe shows up in her room and things all of a sudden start looking up. Things may be getting better for Cara, but for the rest of the town tragedy strikes. Not only that, but as the days go by, Zoe starts acting more and more strange, getting to the point where it scares Cara.

There is so much more to Cara than meets the eye. She comes across just as your typical loner but once you scratch the surface you find out that she’s much more than that. A lot of her personality is actually based around her relationship with Zoe. Cara depends a lot on Zoe, and sometimes it was almost like she couldn’t really function without Zoe’s support or opinion. But that, like much else in the book, isn’t what it appears to be. The story focuses a lot on the relationship between the two friends, especially from Cara’s point of view. As much as the reader finds out about Cara, there is very little that is said about Zoe, only what Cara knows about her and her past. The mystery around Zoe is essentially a large part of what moves the story forward. Outside of Zoe, Cara only really cares about Ethan Gray. Cara’s relationship with him is somewhat similar to the one she has with Zoe in the sense that a lot of her actions are motivated by him.

The story itself works in a similar way to Cara. Almost right from the beginning, I thought I knew how things would turn out. In my mind I had the whole thing figured out, I was just curious about how long Cara would take to catch up with me. But as the story moved forward, I started doubting what I had originally thought. To be honest, when I thought I had everything figured out, I thought I would get bored by the story but the complete opposite happened. From the moment I began doubting my original thoughts, I got dragged in to the story, wanting nothing more than to get to the bottom of things. And like I’ve said, things definitely did not turn out the way I expected them to. Woods’s writing was also a large part of what kept me going through the story. She wrote in a way that you only ever got the smallest amount of information possible to understand what is happening which only served to make me more curious.

Overall Choker was a very interesting read. What I thought would just be another run of the mill story about two friends turned out to be so much more. I found myself going through a wide range of emotions, never knowing what to expect. This was a great debut for Elizabeth Woods and I look forward to reading what comes next from this author.

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

Title: Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy #6)

Author: Richelle Mead

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: December 7, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Rose Hathaway has always played by her own rules. She broke the law when she ran away from St. Vladimir’s Academy with her best friend and last surviving Dragomir princess, Lissa. She broke the law when she fell in love with her gorgeous, off-limits instructor, Dimitri. And she dared to defy Queen Tatiana, leader of the Moroi world, risking her life and reputation to protect generations of dhampir guardians to come.

Now the law has finally caught up with Rose--for a crime she didn’t even commit. She’s in prison for the highest offense imaginable: the assassination of a monarch. She’ll need help from both Dimitri and Adrian to find the one living person who can stall her execution and force the Moroi elite to acknowledge a shocking new candidate for the royal throne: Vasilisa Dragomir.

But the clock on Rose’s life in running out. Rose knows in her heart the world of the dead wants her back...and this time she truly is out of second chances. The big question is, when your whole life is about saving others, who will save you?

Join Rose, Dimitri, Adrian, and Lissa in Last Sacrifice, the epic, unforgettable finale to Richelle Mead’s international #1 bestselling Vampire Academy series.

****SPOILER ALERT!!! DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS BOOK OR THE PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES!!!****

Last Sacrifice was simply AMAZING. I apologize ahead of time if it seems like I’m rambling but I’m having trouble putting my thoughts into words about this book. I’m always torn between wanting to keep reading and making it last as long as possible when it comes to the last installment of a series. I was happy to be reunited with Rose an her friends once again their adventures never ceased to amuse me.

Not a stranger to trouble, Rose Hathaway now finds herself in more trouble than she has ever been. She is being accused of having murdered Queen Tatiana, a murder she has not committed. Being who she is and having the friends she does, Rose gets the help she needs in order to clear her name. In order to clear her name, Rose and her friends take on most of the Moroi Court and travel across the country to find all the necessary evidence. Ready to do whatever it takes Rose and her friends only have so much time to do what they hope. To get more time what better way than to have Lissa run for Queen of the Moroi?

By this point in the series, I honestly feel like the characters in the books are real people that I could randomly meet in the street. Rose is one of my favorite heroines out there and should she actually exist, I’m sure we would be best friends. In this book, I love her more than ever. Her butt-kicking, sarcasm, and moral code just make me love her that much more. And her friendship with Lissa just seals the deal for me. She would do anything for Lissa and just about anyone else she loves. My only problem with Rose in this book is that she is with Adrian but that can easily be overlooked in the long run. In this book I was really liking the bond between her and Lissa this time around. The two spent a lot of time apart so it gave good insight into what Lissa was thinking and feeling as well as what was going on with everyone that was left behind at Court.

You’ve heard me say this before, Dimitri pretty much drives me crazy. In the other books I didn’t always understand his actions and most of the time those actions confused me and made me angry. But now I love Dimitri more than ever. There is a clear change happening in him throughout the book. And without giving anything away I was way more than happy with the end result. Now if only Dimitri actually existed I would be extremely happy. I am Team Dimitri all the way, but I still love Adrian. The guy sure has a lot of flaws but deep down he has a lot of potential to be a really great guy. I feel like I never really talk about Christian even though I absolutely love him. Most of the time he just makes me crack up with his cynical comments and just his general attitude. He and Lissa really work well together and I’m happy they were able to work everything out.

I often find myself be let down by the last book in a series but this one really didn’t disappoint. The story took me to places I never expected to go. Every time I turned a page I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Each chapter finished on a cliffhanger only making me want to read further, resulting in me reading the whole book in one day and that doesn’t happen to me often. More than anything else, I loved the ending. Everything came to a complete circle, there were no loose ends left to tie up. And the way that was all done made me really happy and had me giggling while getting teary eyed when I read the very last page, read the book and you’ll understand.

Last Sacrifice was an amazing finale to an extraordinary series. Except now that it’s over, it feels like there’s something missing. I can’t wait for Bloodlines, the spin-off series based on some of the minor characters. Hopefully there will be some appearances from my favorite Vampire Academy peeps.