Unforgiven by Lauren Kate

Series: Fallen (bk. 5)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance

Subjects: supernatural, angels, paranormal, romance, love, demons, high school, musicians

Setting: A town and a high school in Hell, and Lilith doesn’t know it’s Hell

POV/Tense: 3^rd person POV, past tense: Cam and Lilith

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 357 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover 

List Price: $18.99

Publisher: Hachette: Delacorte Press

Summary/ product description: “It’s the book FALLEN fans have been waiting for: Cam’s story, the brooding, bad-boy dark angel readers love.

High school can be hell.

Cam knows what it’s like to be haunted. He’s spent more time in Hell than any angel ever should. And his freshest Hell is high school, where Lilith, the girl he can’t stop loving, is serving out a punishment for his crimes.

Cam made a bet with Lucifer: he has fifteen days to convince the only girl who really matters to him to love him again. If he succeeds, Lilith will be allowed back into the world, and they can live their lives together. But if he fails…there’s a special place in Hell just for him.

Tick-tock.

Spread your wings and cry as bad boy dark angel Cam finally reveals his anguished heart in the epic new FALLEN novel, UNFORGIVEN.”

My Review:  After finally finishing the Fallen series after years of waiting, I decided to read the brand new companion to the series that’s centered around Cam. Cam is a great character and now I’ve convinced I like him better than Daniel (but not better than Patch from Hush, Hush). He may have status as a demon, but he’s definitely a good guy. He’s got a great sense of humor, and he’s not pushy when it comes to romance. He’s got bad boy look, but he’s pretty sweet when it comes to love.

This book take place in a fake town within Hell. Lucifer creates personal hells just for Lilith. Lilith’s heart was broken by Cam 3000 years ago, near the Jordon River when Cam wanted to marry her. Cam’s not able to enter places of worship, and Lilith was mad that he would not marry in a temple. Cam wouldn’t tell her that he’s a fallen angel and that setting foot in a temple would cause it to burn down. Lilith’s hatred is so deep and now Lucifer is putting her through constant punishment, making her live life after life, death after death, in different hells he creates.

Lilith is a high school student this time. He life sucks and the other bright spots are her guitar playing and her younger brother (who’s got breathing problems). Music is her escape. Cam meets her by a creek, strumming her guitar. She doesn’t remember him, but has a general dislike for him. He enrolls in her school, posing as a student. His goal is to win her love back, or Lucifer will force him to be his employee. Prom in coming up and it’s featuring a battle of the bands.

Lilith is terrified of performing and Cam tries to encourage her to showcase her talent and create a band. When she does make a band, she doesn’t want Cam in it, but eventually lets him join. Lucifer makes it difficult for Cam when he shows up pretending to be an intern for King Media, the queen bee Chloe King’s father’s record company. He even messes with Cam’s appearance. He’s giving Cam Hell, but Cam’s doing his best to fight for Lilith’s love. The book does have a lot of annoying high school rivalry and bullying. Chloe King’s meaner to Lilith than any mean girl would be in real life. It makes sense, though, since she is in Hell.

This was a fun, entreating read. It’s very refreshing, different from the original Fallen books. The dialogue it funny and the characters are great. I love the music stuff. This reminds be of Sinner by Maggie Steifvater, another companion/stand-alone spin-off to a series (the Shiver series). Music, magic, mayhem. Demons and fallen angels. It’s a fun supernatural read and I’d definitely recommend it.

Cover Art Review: Not sure I like the model in the photo, but I like the background and title text. I love the color and the velvet texture of the paper of the jacket.

Shade Me by Jennifer Brown

Publication Date: January 19^th, 2016

Series: Nikki Kill (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Contemporary Thriller

Subjects: mystery, crime, mental disorders, abilities, synesthesia, musicians

Setting: Brentwood, California

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Nikki Kill

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 441 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover 

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen: Katherine Tegen

Summary/ product description: “Nikki Kill does not see the world like everyone else. In her eyes, happiness is pink, sadness is a mixture of brown and green, and lies are gray. Thanks to a rare phenomenon called synesthesia, Nikki’s senses overlap, in a way that both comforts and overwhelms her.

Always an outsider, just one ‘D’ shy of flunking out, Nikki’s life is on the fast track to nowhere until the night a mysterious call lights her phone up bright orange—the color of emergencies. It’s the local hospital. They need Nikki to identify a Jane Doe who is barely hanging on to life after a horrible attack.

The victim is Peyton Hollis, a popular girl from Nikki’s school who Nikki hardly knows. One thing is clear: Someone wants Peyton dead. But why? And why was Nikki’s cell the only number in Peyton’s phone?

As she tries to decipher the strange kaleidoscope of clues, Nikki finds herself thrust into the dark, glittering world of the ultra-rich Hollis family, and drawn towards Peyton’s handsome, never-do-well older brother Dru. While Nikki’s colors seem to help her unravel the puzzle, what she can’t see is that she may be falling into a trap. The only truth she can be sure of is that death is a deep, pulsing crimson.

Shade Me is award-winning author Jennifer Brown’s first book in a thrilling suspense series about Nikki Kill.”

My Review:  Shade Me is a unique crime mystery. The main character has synesthesia. Every number, letter and emotion has a unique color to her. When Nikki gets a call from a classmate in trouble, and then a call from the hospital, she wonders why was she the one called? What does the famous Payton Hollis have to do with her? Payton was beaten to the edge of death and is in a coma. Nikki starts to dig into the mystery of who attacked Payton and why would she have a phone with only her number on it.

Nikki is a really awesome main character. The way she describes her synesthesia is really cool. Her synesthesia has been a problem most of her life, though. In school is distracted her. Math and English class especially. In high school it’s affecting her Chemistry grade the worst. To Nikki, 3’s and E’s are purple and she gets them confused. 0 is black, 1 is brown, 2 is pink, 3 is purple, 4 is silver…ect. Words have unique colors from the separate letters. Fear is bumpy gray and brown, danger is sparkly white. It’s really amazing how the author came up with all of this. She must have made a color list to keep track of everything so Nikki’s synesthesia is consistent.

Her synesthesia makes her unique, but she’s also a black belt in tae-kwon-do. She’s really kick-ass at it. I was in tang-soo-do for a few years and only made it to high blue belt (next would be brown, high brown and then black). I love how dedicated she is to her martial art classes. It’s such a cooler sport than cheerleading or soccer. Self-defense is important, but Nikki is sometime on offense in this book. My sensei would have never approved of her risky behavior.

The other characters in the book are pretty well thought out. Nikki’s dad is a photographer, and very lenient. He doesn’t punish her or ground her for getting bad grades or skipping school. The Hollis family is messy. Dru is Peyton’s brother and bit of a player. He and Nikki get romantically involved, but he’s also a suspect in the attack. Luna, their half-sister, is a total bi-otch, Peyton-wannabe. Their father is a movie director and a jerk. His wife isn’t that great either. There’s also Detective Martinez, who’s investigating the attack. He’s kind of young and helps Nikki. Nikki keeps her own investigation a secret mostly. No one but her dad and a counselor know about her synesthesia.

Shade me is a thrilling mystery and I recommend it to fans of YA mysteries about crime, such as Dangerous Lies and Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick. The Masked Truth by Kelly Armstrong, No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale, Clarity by Kim Harris.

Cover Art Review: Simple and cool. Love the colorful type treatment. Kind of don’t like the girl’s face though.

Infinite by Jodi Meadows

Series: Newsoul (bk. 3)

Genera(s): Fantasy, Dystopian, Sci-fi, Romance

Subjects: Reincarnation, love, supernatural, utopias, adventure, dragons, sylphs

Setting: Heart and the Range. Situated in an area that is pretty much like Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Ana

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 418 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover and now in Paperback

List Price: $17.99/$9.99

Publisher: HarperTeen: Katherine Tegen Books

Summary/ product description: “DESTRUCTION

The Year of Souls begins with an earthquake—an alarming rumble from deep within the earth—and it’s only the first of greater dangers to come. The Range caldera is preparing to erupt. Ana knows that as Soul Night approaches, everything near Heart will be at risk.

FLIGHT

Ana’s exile is frightening, but it may also be fortuitous, especially if she can convince her friends to flee Heart and Range with her. They’ll go north, seeking answers and allies to stop Janan’s ascension. And with any luck, the newsouls will be safe from harm’s reach.

CHOICE

The oldsouls might have forgotten the choice they made to give themselves limitless lifetimes, but Ana knows the true cost of reincarnation. What she doesn’t know is whether she’ll have the chance to finish this one sweet life with Sam, especially if she returns to Heart to stop Janan once and for all.

With gorgeous romance and thrilling action, the final book in the Incarnate trilogy offers a brilliant conclusion to the compelling questions of this fascinating world, where one new girl is the key to the lives of millions.

My Review:  I’m finally done with this series. I put off reading this final book for a year. I loved this series because it was so unique and interesting. I like the romance and the mix of fantasy and sci-fi elements. I don’t know if I will ever read a series like it again and now I finally am saying goodbye to it. It’s really hard for me to review this. I loved it, and I tried to drag it out.

It’s set during the wintertime in an area that may have once been Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, or a place like it. There are fantastical creatures like dragon, sylphs, centaur, trolls and even phoenix. It’s full of awesome world building that keeps you guessing whether this is set in some kind of distant future, or a whole different world. A million souls reincarnating for 5,000 years sounds pretty crazy. We find out more information in the e-novella, Phoenix Overture, but never the whole truth. I recommend reading it before this book. That novella is why I put off this book so long. It’s 90 pages long and I hate reading long things on my Nook.

I enjoyed the adventure in this finale.  Ana, Sam, Stef, and Whit travel north to find another wall where dragons live. They translate a Phoenix book along the way with the help of sylph. It explains the past and the truth about Janan. They have to make a plan to stop his ascension that could set off a super volcano event right inside the Range.

I loved Ana and Sam’s relationship. They share the love of music and play together sometimes. Ana was a big fan of Sam aka Dossam before she even met him, but she fell in love with the dark hair boy who said his name was Sam. Sam tries to protect Ana and encourages her curiosity and believes she can do what she sets her mind too. If she believes that she can get dragon to help stop Janan, then he will help even if he’s terrified of dragons.

If you have not read Incarnate yet, then why are you reading this review? Go read Incarnate! Jodi Meadows is awesome and she has a new book called the Orphan Queen coming out in March 2015.

Cover Art Review: The colors are so gorgeous on this cover. It’s like aurora colors. I love the feathers and the eyes on the girl’s face. I love the engraved feather under the book jacket too.