Death and the Girl He Loves by Darynda Jones

Series: Darklight Trilogy (bk. 3)

Genera: Paranormal Romance

Subjects: supernatural, prophecies, prophets, visions, premonitions, angels, demons, nephilim, New Mexico, love

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 255 pgs.

HC/PB: Paperback

List Price: $9.99

Publisher: MacMillan: St. Martin’s Griffin

Summary/ product description: “The fate of the world is not something a girl wants on her shoulders, and that is especially true for Lorelei McAlister. Unfortunately for her, that is exactly where the world’s fate has decided to take up residence. Lorelei has seen firsthand the horrors that lie beneath our everyday world. And those horrors are getting her friends killed. Because of this, she agrees to leave the sanctity of her hometown and is sent to a different world entirely. A boarding school. But even here she is being watched. Someone knows what she is. What she carries inside her soul. And on top of that she’s seeing visions. This is nothing new for Lorelei. But these visions are something more: death, destruction, and the end of the world. Lorelei must face the fact that there are people who want her dead, and no matter where she goes, no matter how far she runs, the lives of her friends and family are in mortal peril. Lucky for her, her friends and family include the handsome Angel of Death, a fiercely protective half-angel, and a ragtag group of loyal supporters who aren’t afraid to get a little dirty in the name of fighting pure evil.”

My Review: I didn’t realize that this was the last book in the series when I started reading it. I was hoping for more than three books, but this turned out to be an interesting conclusion. This turned out way differently than I expected. The ending was happy, and kind of epic.

I love this series so much. The covers are so unfitting for the book that’s inside. This has been fun and entertaining and full of romance. I love all the characters, both the main and side characters. Their personalities are so flushed out and they are developed so well that I feel like they’re real people. Lorelei and Brooklynn have the best friendship ever (I think it’s called a femship or womance). Jared is hot and the Angel of Death, and an interesting love interest. I like Glitch (aka Casey). He’s also a funny friend who has an odd fear of turtles (which I funny, near the end of the book when we find out why). Cameron is a nephilim and I’m pretty sure that he and Brooklyn like each other. The new character, Kenya, is also pretty funny. She acts so tough.

Anyways, the beginning of the book starts out at a boarding school in Maine. Lorelei’s been there for a few week, hiding out, going by Lorraine. She’s already made friends with a girl named Crystal and is being picked on by Kenya. Some guy threatens and attacks Lorelei and she decides to go back home to New Mexico. Thing are getting crazy there as the end of the world approaches. Lorelei, her friends and family come up with ideas on how to stop the word from ending. Lorelei’s ability to see into photos develops more. She’s basically seeing into the past, but it more like astral time-travel.

There’s a huge twist in the story in the last 80 pages or so. This may be a spoiler, but it’s funny when Lorelei thinks she’s in heaven and it’s crazy what actually happened. I think the ending did drag on a bit. I liked it, but I thought it was going in a different direction. I was expecting an epic battle, but what happened was even crazier than that. I was hoping things would go back to the way they were because I didn’t like this change, but everything worked out.

I’m kind of sad that it’s over now. So many other book series are four or five books, and thing trilogy was made up of pretty short book. The stories are so fast paced that you could probably read all three books in under a week. I read this book in less than 2 days and I feel like it went way to quick. I loved every second of it. I recommend this series to fans of Hush, Hush, Fallen, The Winter Haven series, and any other YA paranormal romance series. It’s truly a must read and is very under the radar.

Cover Art Review: Why are the covers so boring! School photos suck. I want to see New Mexico, angels and supernatural stuff. This looks too contemporary.

Eternal by Kristi Cook

Series: Winterhaven (bk. 3)

Genera: Paranormal Romance

Subjects: vampires, vampire hunters, supernatural, psychic ability, premonitions, boarding schools, New York, abilities

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 408 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $16.99

Publisher: Simon & Schuster: Simon Pulse

Summary/ product description: “True love and destiny collide in the conclusion to the Haven trilogy, which Booklist called “a blend of the Gemma Doyle trilogy, the Twilight saga, and Lois Duncan’s thrillers.”

Forced to endure the violent punishment of the Tribunal for murders he has no recollection of committing, Aidan is slowly rotting away in a Paris dungeon. Violet is all but an unreachable dream to him now.

But unlike Aidan, Violet has not given up hope as she works tirelessly with Matthew, her guardian and protector, to prove Aidan’s innocence and unravel the haunting vision that plagues her thoughts—the death of someone closest to her.

Determined to set Aidan free, Violet discovers that a dangerous vampire war is brewing—and that Aidan may be at the center of it all. It’s only when the war reaches the doors of Winterhaven and tragedy strikes the school that Violet has to finally accept her fate. But that could mean losing Aidan—forever.

With no other option, Violet must choose between true love and fulfilling her destiny…unless she can find a way to have them both.”

My Review: This book was epic and the ending completely resolved the series. I loved every minute of it, even though the beginning of it started out slow due to the lack of Aidan. Once Aidan returned, everything was just full of awesome and of course, romance. I loved this series from the very beginning. When I first saw Haven I wasn’t aware that I was looking at a book with vampires. When I found out that there were vampires, I was hesitant thinking it would be just another vampire book with a boarding school. Not true. It was not just another vampire series, though if you love Vampire Academy, I’d recommend it. This book is unique. It’s like if Vampire Academy and X-men combined, kind of.

Violet is a Sabbat. She is a born vampire huntress. Aidan is a vampire, so you can see the dilemma. Matthew is her Megved, which is kind of like a Sabbat sidekick and guardian. Suppossedly a Sabbat and Megved have a deep soul-mate connection and usually become lovers, but Violet feels like Matthew is more of a big brother. He’s about 26 and she’s only almost 18. He’s a professor at Winterhaven. Their psychic connection is kind of inconvenient. I love how there isn’t a love triangle at all. Aidan does occasionally feel jealous when another guy is with Violet, but Aidan is such a gentleman. He believes that he can find a cure for his vampirism with science. He’s not a carbon copy of Edward Cullen, but they do share a few personality traits. Aidan is much better than Edward ever was. Aidan was the son of a king of England, but was a Viscount, not a prince. Aidan sometimes slips into a British accent. Aidan is pretty much one of my favorite vampire characters of all time. It must be the Aidan Effect.

I also love all the side characters. They all have cool powers and different personalities, but they’re Violet friends and truly care about her and help and support her. Cece has astral projection and she spies for Violet once in this book. Sophie can sense a person’s injury or ailment by touching them.  Other characters have psychic powers like telekinesis and empathy. I kind of forgot who had what, but remember after a while. I suggest you refresh your memory of who’s who before reading. Violet of course has premonitions beside her Sabbat abilities. Pretty much all of Violet visions from the previous book are realized in this book, but some have changed outcomes.

I love this series and now that it’s over I’m going to miss it. I always hope for spin-offs and novella after a series ends and sometimes they happen, but usually not. This book had it’s twists and turn and moments when you feel like you’re going to cry. This whole series gave me the feels and sometime I actually felt like I was Violet and that Aidan was my boyfriend that I cared about so much. I felt her pain. I must be a book empath or something. This is such an emotional read and it’s probably because the writing style is both simple and descriptive. It’s this lush, romantic story with its sexy part too. I don’t think any adult PNR could ever get to my heart the way that YA PNR like this has.

I recommend this series to fans of Vampire Academy, House of Night, Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, the Shadow Falls series by C.C. Hunter, the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep, Talents series by Inara Scott, The Drake Chronicles by Alyxandra Harvey, and I guess if you liked Twilight, this series could work for you. Anyone who enjoys paranormal romance and psychic teens, read this book series.

Cover Art Review: I love the title, colors and the simplicity. The butterfly and the hourglass seem so awesome and minimal. Angela Goddard is the designer and she’s really into typographic and minimal. She also designed the Possession book covers and the Immortals series covers.