Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer by Maureen McGowan -- Review

Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer (Twisted Tales #2)

by Maureen McGowan

Publication Date: 04/01/2011

Rating: 3 / 5 Stars

Thank you Netgalley, Silver Dolphin Books and Baker & Taylor Publishing Group for the E-ARC.

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

In this thrilling story full of adventure and romance, Sleeping Beauty is more than just a lonely princess waiting for her prince—she's a brave, tenacious girl who never backs down from a challenge. With vampire-slaying talents that she practices in secret, Sleeping Beauty puts her courage to the test in the dark of night, fighting evil as she searches for a way to break the spell that has cut her off from her family. In a special twist, readers have the opportunity to make key decisions for Sleeping Beauty and decide where she goes next—but no matter the choice; the result is a story unlike any fairy tale you've ever read!
Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer is an entirely new type of fairy tale–one that will keep today's kids guessing and offer them hours of magical fun.

Review:

An interesting twist on the classic story of Sleeping Beauty. This book allows you at certain points in the story to choose a path for the characters - allowing you to have a say and some control over how the story goes on, and thus, the conclusion of the story. 

I found the twist on her curse to be fun -- where she sleeps during the day, in her glass coffin, as an endless line of suitors pass by her, and at night, she is awake, but everyone in the castle/kingdom are asleep (flip-flopped situation for daytime and nighttime). 

  

I enjoyed her decision to become a vampire slayer at night to protect her (father's) kingdom. And then, well, she falls for a vampire (well at least in "my story" she does). All in all, this was a quick enjoyable short read.

Dark Descendant (Descendants #1) by Jenna Black -- Review

 

Dark Descendant (Descendants #1)

by Jenna Black

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

From the acclaimed author of the Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist books comes the gripping first novel in a new series about a private eye who discovers, to her surprise, that she’s an immortal huntress.

Nikki Glass can track down any man. But when her latest client turns out to be a true descendant of Hades, Nikki now discovers she can’t die. . . .

Crazy as it sounds, Nikki’s manhunting skills are literally god-given. She’s a living, breathing descendant of Artemis who has stepped right into a trap set by the children of the gods. Nikki’s new “friends” include a descendant of Eros, who uses sex as a weapon; a descendant of Loki, whose tricks are no laughing matter; and a half-mad descendant of Kali who thinks she’s a spy.

But most powerful of all are the Olympians, a rival clan of immortals seeking to destroy all Descendants who refuse to bow down to them. In the eternal battle of good god/bad god, Nikki would make a divine weapon. But if they think she’ll surrender without a fight, the gods must be crazy. . . . 

Review:

I was hoping for and expecting a better book by this offer, given that her Morgan Kingsley series is amazing. Yes, I know that this book is YA, while the other book series is adult/paranormal(/edging on erotica?), but I thought Dark Descendant just didn't deliver. It took almost 3/4 of the book to get the background and introductions in place, and then left so little room for developing the story.
I don't know if I will read the sequels to this, though the concept of Olympic descendants is interesting... 

I guess we shall see.

Rating: 2 / 5 Stars

 

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

 

City of Fallen Angels 

by Cassandra Clare

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

City of Fallen Angels takes place two months after the events of City of Glass. In it, a mysterious someone’s killing the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine’s Circle and displaying their bodies around New York City in a manner designed to provoke hostility between Downworlders and Shadowhunters, leaving tensions running high in the city and disrupting Clary’s plan to lead as normal a life as she can — training to be a Shadowhunter, and pursuing her relationship with Jace. As Jace and Clary delve into the issue of the murdered Shadowhunters, they discover a mystery that has deeply personal consequences for them — consequences that may strengthen their relationship, or rip it apart forever.

Meanwhile, internecine warfare among vampires is tearing the Downworld community apart, and only Simon — the Daylighter who everyone wants on their side — can decide the outcome; too bad he wants nothing to do with Downworld politics. Love, blood, betrayal and revenge: the stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels. 

Review:

Where to begin...

Though I really enjoyed reading the first three books (aka the complete trilogy - not this "oh wait, let's write 3 more books for the series"), I was sincerely disappointed with City of Fallen Angels.

From the first few pages of the book, I thought it was going to focus on Simon and dealing with his new life, and vampire-sexiness. But no. I had to endure more "let's smash the happily ever after" between Jace and Clary. There are only so many times you can flip-flop from "he loves me, he loves me not" and "I live for her and love her, I should forbid myself to love her and even look at her". In my opinion, this scenario was already a pretty big plot line in the last three books, and like some other reviewers commented: you, Ms. Clare are over-doing; flogging a dead horse. Seriously, essentially every time this drama between Jace and Clary happened in CoFA (which was hmm like 80% of the book, give or take), I was rolling my eyes mentally cringing at Ms. Clare and skimming those parts of the book.

Oh, and because clearly we don't have enough soap opera love drama already, Simon has to deal with his lady issues -- and it really seemed just to be "pfht" and inconsequential.

There were two other big things that bothered me:

1) the growing biblical theme and introduction of Lilith:
While I thought that the first three Mortal Instruments series did not over do the demons/angels/heaven/hell topics and plots, I was thoroughly annoyed with this book taking those plots/topics one step too many. Ms. Clare should have really not went beyond the world and settings she had already created in the first 3 books. Isn't there enough material (aka monsters and races of characters) already within the mortal instruments world that could pose sinister plots and such?

2) the title:
"City of Fallen Angels" -- before reading the book, I assumed that the story line might be about *gasp* fallen angels, devils, or types of "demons" we had not yet been introduced to. Ummm... yeah.... there were no "Fallen Angels" in this book. The phrase is not even mentioned in the book.
I can guess some of you are about to argue "Lilith is a fallen angel" -- No, she is not. Her story was that she was Adam's first wife, gone done somethin' bad, and got kicked out of the garden of eden and into Hell - thus becoming a demon.
Ms. Clare, where are these Fallen Angels? With a title like that, I think this book might have had potential-success if it had a plot line and story involving or revolving around something to do with fallen angels. But alas, it fell well short of being a successful attempt at a continuation of the mortal instruments series.

Rating: 2 / 5 Stars

 

The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1) by Kelley Armstrong

The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1)

by Kelley Armstrong

Publication date: 4/12/11

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

Strange things are happening in Maya's tiny Vancouver Island town. First, her friend Serena, the captain of the swim team, drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Then, one year later, mountain lions are spotted rather frequently around Maya's home—and her reactions to them are somewhat . . . unexpected. Her best friend, Daniel, has also been experiencing unexplainable premonitions about certain people and situations.


It doesn't help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret, and he's interested in one special part of Maya's anatomy—her paw-print birthmark.


Review:


I am a VERY Big fan of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, and did somewhat enjoy her Darkest Power trilogy. So when I found an ARC at one of my half-price bookshops, I was ecstatic - I thought this new series that's along the same lines/thread as her Darkest Power trilogy would be just as good as her other books, if not better.

With The Gathering, however, I feel that the book fell completely short of being good. For most of the book, it's just Blah - nothing significant is happening, no real character development. And it was just so slow in terms of getting through the story and plot. Sure Ms. Armstrong through some mysteries and very "hmmmm" occurences and events, but nothing in the story was really compelling me to finish reading the story right around 1/4 into it, and up until ~ Chapter 15 -- I read the rest of it only for the reason of finishing it. But even that took effort - I could not read the entire book in one sitting (which is usually the case with Armstrong's other newly released books). This was my biggest turn-off of the book -- if there is no real plot or something driving the story, or even having a strong and likable protagonist/narrator, it's just kind of what I consider information mush and begs the question "So what?" I felt that Ms. Armstrong gave us numerous "So what" situations, events, and even characters.

A positive aspect to the book was the introduction of a new power/ magic to Armstrong's Otherworld setting. My problem then arose with well, there is no significant development or use of this new power.

Overall, I would not recommend this to someone - especially if they are already a Kelley Armstrong fan nd are considering reading this.

Rating: 2 / 5 Stars