Public Enemies by Ann Aguirre

Series: Immortal Games (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy

Subjects: supernatural, magic, wishes, horror, immortals, revenge

Setting: Boston, Massachusetts

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, past tense: Edie (Edith) Kramer

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 372 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: MacMillan: Feiwel & Friends

Summary/ product description: “Learn the rules of the game…and then play better than anyone else.

Through a Faustian bargain, Edie Kramer has been pulled into the dangerous world of the Immortal Game, where belief makes your nightmares real. Hungry for sport, fears-made-flesh are always raising the stakes. To them, human lives are less than nothing, just pieces on a board.

Because of her boyfriend Kian’s sacrifice, she’s operating under the mysterious Harbinger’s aegis, but his patronage could prove as fatal as the opposition. Raw from deepest loss, she’s terrified over the deal Kian made for her. Though her very public enemies keep sending foot soldiers—mercenary monsters committed to her destruction—she’s not the one playing under a doom clock. Kian has six months…unless Edie can save him. And this is a game she can’t bear to lose.

My Review: Public Enemies is the sequel to Mortal Danger. I sadly didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book (that I gave 4.5 stars). I was often confused, maybe because I forgot what happened previously. Lots of the stuff in this book is too unbelievable and hard to imagine. The best part was the romance between Kian and Edie. Edie and Kian both are interested in intellectual things, like science, classic movies, and poetry. It’s set in modern day Boston. Edie goes to a private school called Blackbriar Academy.

To recap, Edie used to be the school laughing stock: ugly, overweight and friendless, but very smart. She attempts to end her own life, but is stopped by Kian, who makes her an offer that changes her life. Kian tells Edie she can have 3 favors, like a genie giving 3 wishes. When she burns her first favor, she asks him to make her beautiful. Edie spends her summer leaning about science and getting used to her beauty and planning her revenge on the popular crowd she calls the Teflon Crew. Edie learns that getting revenge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and that everything comes with a price.

Edie is dealing with immortal who were created by the collective conscious of human beliefs and imagination. Their existence is owed to us. Edie is being watched by the Harbinger, a trickster who made a deal with Kian to keep Edie alive. In exchange, Kian only has until he’s 21 to live and will be eaten (drained) by the Harbinger. Harbinger is kind of like Loki or other trickster gods. He’s kind of ridiculous in the way he acts and dresses. Chaotic, I guess.

There’s Dwyer, who’s the enemy and the Sun God (Apollo/Baulder). Wedderburn who’s a winter god and also who Kian used to work for. There are other kinds of creatures and being too. There’s Buzzkill, the killer clown who was an Internet urban legend. There’s a creature called the Chuthulu. There’s mythological monsters and there’s even demons.

You may enjoy Mortal Danger if you enjoyed: Any books by Brenna Yovanoff, Gretchen McNeil, Josephine Angelini, or Kendare Blake. Also mythology series like Darkness Becomes Her or Percy Jackson or Fury.

Cover Art Review: Not a fan of this cover. The girl looks like the evil queen from Snow White/Once Upon a Time.

Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre

Publication Date: August 5, 2014

Series: Immortal Games (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy

Subjects: supernatural, magic, wishes, horror, immortals, revenge

Setting: Boston, Massachusetts

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Edie (Edith) Kramer

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 372 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: MacMillan: Feiwel & Friends

Summary/ product description: “Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn't imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She's not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he's impossible to forget.

In one short summer, her entire life changes, and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly... bad things are happening. It's a heady rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil's bargains, she isn't sure who—or what--she can trust. Not even her own mind...”

My Review:  I had no idea what to expect when I started this book. I won an ARC in the mail and what a surprise. I had read Ann Aguirre’s Enclave trilogy and have mixed feeling about the series and it’s narration, but Mortal Danger is so different from those books. I can’t even fit it into one genera, but I’d say it’s mostly paranormal romance. It’s such a unique book; you’d have to read it to know.

 It’s set in modern day Boston. Edie goes to a private school called Blackbriar Academy. She was the school laughing stock, ugly, overweight and friendless, but very smart. She attempts to end her own life, but is stopped by Kian, who makes her an offer that changes her life. Kian tells Edie she can have 3 favors, like a genie giving 3 wishes. When she burns her first favor, she asks him to make her beautiful. Edie spends her summer leaning about science and getting used to her beauty and planning her revenge on the popular crowd she calls the Teflon Crew.

This book takes over used clichés of high school drama and revenge and turns it on it’s head, sideways and blends it with paranormal and sci-fi elements. Edie learns that getting revenge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and that everything comes with a price. There are also creatures a being from people’s nightmares and imagination lurking and watching Edie. People she cares about are in mortal danger.

I really enjoyed the romance in this book. Edie and Kian both are interested in intellectual things, like science, classic movies, and poetry. Even through that both wanted to be beautiful, their appearance hasn’t changed who they are inside and they both love each other for their personalities. Kian has a bad past, but he doesn’t let it get him down. Edie is able to overcome her humiliation and make friends with people she could’ve never imagined befriending. These characters Ann created are so complex and relatable. Sure, they have a lot of stuff on their plate we could never imagine having, but I can relate to Edie’s problems with bullying (but in middle school).

I was surprised to really like this book and I think other people will find this as an interesting and eye-opening read. It’s a little horror, and a lot of paranormal romance. You may enjoy Mortal Danger if you enjoyed: Any books by Brenna Yovanoff, Gretchen McNeil, or Kendare Blake. If you like ghost stories and things that are a bit creepy. It’s not scary, but it includes urban legends like Blood Mary and mythological being. Hope you enjoy it too!

Cover Art Review: Very minimalistic and textured. I like the bloody infinity symbol

Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd

Series: The Madman’s Daughter (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Gothic Horror/Historical Fiction/Sci-fi

Subjects: monsters, retellings, scientists, experiments, murder

Setting: London, England, the 1890s

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Juliet Moreau

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 420 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen: Balzer + Bray

Summary/ product description: “To defeat the darkness, she must first embrace it.

Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father's island—and the secrets she left behind. Now, back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy—though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her.

As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again.

As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer—Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.

With inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this is a tantalizing mystery about the hidden natures of those we love and how far we’ll go to save them from themselves.

My Review:  What was started The Madman’s Daughter continues in Her Dark Curiosity. The first book was a retelling of the Island of Dr. Moreau, and this book is a retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The 3^rd and final book will be a retelling of Frankenstein. This series is the only historical fiction series I ever enjoyed. I get really bored with steam punk and British hist-fic. This book is not steam punk. It’s Gothic and Sci-fi and really thrilling. Juliet is a great narrator and the book’s filled with gore and twists.

Juliet is back in London and there’s a murderer on the loose. The murders a so similar to how Edward (as the Beast) killed people back on the island. Edward has come to London and he’s struggling with the Beast side of him. Lucy finds Edward very attractive. Juliet doesn’t find their relationship very safe. Lucy plays a very big role in this book. We didn’t get to see her much in the first book. Montgomery also comes back. There’s a bit of romance, mainly kissing.  

There’s a lot of science stuff, but most of it is fictional. This kind of science didn’t really exist in the late 1800s. Successful transplants are pretty recent.  There’s a group called the King’s Men (members of the Kings Club) that explore the science that Juliet’s father was studying and experimenting. Juliet’s new guardian is a professor named Victor von Stein, whose part of the King’s Men. It made me think of the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme: “All the king’s horse and all the King’s Men could put Humpty Dumpty back together again.” Victor von Stein sounds close to Frankenstein too.

The book reminded me of some movies I’ve seen. Movies about mad scientist, or even the movie: The League of Extraordinary Men. The first book reminded me of movie about castaways and tropical islands and explorers. These books a very cinematic and I’d love to see them as movies. They’d be creepy and have awesome special effects and make-up/costumes.

From a person who doesn’t like historical fiction, this is historical fiction for people who are not fond of historical fiction. It’s for people who love sci-fi and dystopian series with things like genetic engineering and crazy experiments. Megan Shepherd is great at keeping you on the edge of your seat. The dialogue doesn’t cause boredom. It’s set in London, but written by someone from North Carolina. It’s smart and different and I can’t wait for more.

Cover Art Review:  This cover is not very exciting. I do like the dress on this cover better than the one on the first book. But the cover here does have a gothic feel.