Saturday Situation – April 30

 

Happy Saturday everyone! It's time for a new Saturday Situation, hosted by Candace at Candace's Book Blog and Lori at Pure Imagination.

Here are this week's reviews:

Bumped & Demon’s Fall 

Demon's Fall by Karalynn Lee -- Review (**18+over material)

 

Demon's Fall

by Karalynn Lee

Publication Date: 10/25/10

Rating: 3 / 5 Stars

Thank you Netgalley & Carina Press for the electronic ARC.

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

 

When Kenan, an incubus, finds a caged angel for sale in the Hellsgate marketplace, he sees her as a challenge. Certain that his skills in seduction will work as well on a heavenly creature as they do on mortal women, he buys Jahel, intent on having her soul as a novelty in his collection.

Knowing he must gain Jahel's trust if she is to come to his bed willingly, Kenan treats her more as his guest than as his slave. When she reveals what brought her to the mouth of Hell in the first place-retrieving the soul of a young girl she was guarding-he even offers to help her complete her mission.

Though he has promised Jahel freedom, Kenan soon realizes she has captured his heart instead. And as their passion for one another grows, they find themselves caught in a struggle between Heaven and Hell, one that will lead them to the very edge of the apocalypse...

  

Review:

Demon’s Fall is a sweet, almost novella-length paranormal erotica story where Kenan, an incubus, purchases a captured angel, Jahel, with the intent to collect her soul through his incubus powers – sex of course. Kenan collects souls, which once extracted from a person/being, become token coins. With the purchase of Jahel, he sees her angel soul as the ultimate soul that would be in his collection. These initial plans, however, do not go as planned as he becomes more and more enamored with Jahel’s physique, and also after he decides to be honest and truly trying to gain Jahel’s trust by offering to help Jahel with her mission which brought her to Hellsgate in the first place.

I found the angel-demon relationship and dynamic to be an interesting storyline – and I especially was fond of the originality of the setting and some parts of the mythology / Biblical references. The author provided very well written descriptions of the places and different characters and beings encountered in the story. The story’s time period is a bit unclear, but from Kenan’s mentions of his previous conquers and souls collected, it sounds like it could be anywhere from (what I think) the Middle Ages up to early/mid 1700’s. Though when this story takes place does not really have much, if any, significance to the story.

I really did enjoy reading this story. Though I thought it was going to have more elements of erotica in it, the scenes and elements that are found in the story are well written and fun and exhilarating to read. Though this book is put under the “erotica” genre, it pretty much only went as far as soft-core erotica, so for those that are looking for steamy sex scenes between angels and demons in every other page, this would not be a story for you. I’m a sucker for the forbidden love element, so the story delivered with Kenan and Jahel falling for each other. The ending was especially adorable, and a happy ending is always a plus.

 

"Waiting On" Wednesday: April 27 Edition

Chain Reaction (Perfect Chemistry #3)
Author: Simone Elkeles
Publication Date: August 16, 2011
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):


Luis Fuentes is a good boy who doesn't live with the angst that his big brothers, Alex and Carlos, have always lived with. Luis is smart, funny, and has big dreams of becoming an astronaut. But when he falls for the wrong girl, Luis enters a dark world he's never known, and just when he thinks he's got life all figured out, learns some disturbing news about his family that destroys his positive outlook on life. Will that Fuentes bad boy streak come out with a vengeance and lure Luis to live on the edge like his new girlfriend and his own father?
Continuing all the steamy romance of the first two books, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Simone Elkeles gives fans one more satisfying taste of the irresistible Fuentes boys.

 I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, and am eagerly awaiting this third book. Though, seriously, it's really not for "young readers", but rather older young adults because of the sexual/explicit content matter. :)

Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11)
Author: Charlaine Harris
Publication Date: May 3, 2011
Publisher: Ace Books


Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

"With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. But Sookie suspects otherwise and she and Sam work together to uncover the culprit - and the twisted motive for the attack. But her attention is divided. Though she can't 'read' vampires, Sookie knows her lover Eric Northman and his 'child' Pam well - and she realises that they are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, she is drawn into the plot -which is much more complicated than she knows. Caught up in the politics of the vampire world, Sookie will learn that she is as much of a pawn as any ordinary human - and that there is a new Queen on the board . . . "

 MORE ERIC! Need I say more? I am totally psyched for the newest book to come out. I have been a fan since before TrueBlood and even before the series itself got popular. I got into them when Ms. Harris was just releasing book #5 (Dead as a Doornail). I've had the great pleasure of meeting her and getting my 1-7 books signed by her at my local Borders, and each one has its own unique little message. Even more awesome:: Charlaine is coming to a neighboring town and will be at an Anderson's Bookshop event on May 5th - where, for a small fee, I get a copy of the new book, get it signed and get to see her/hang out with her again. I hope there will be a Q&A part. If so, is there any questions anyone is dying to ask, that I could bring with me and try to ask your question?  

Totally excited! *gleeeeeeee*


"Waiting On" Wednesday is hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine. Be sure to head over to her blog and check out what other books our fellow book lovers are waiting for this week!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Mean Girls in Books

 Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Mean Girls!!

These are not listed in any significant order (or degree of meanness) --  just listing what books come to mind.

1. Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter: Underneath all that pink, tea cozies and portraits of kittens is a being who loves to embrace "It's good to be evil and dole out punishments." When Hermione and Harry lead her to the woods to get .... rid of her (I'm not going to say exactly what happens for those of you who have not yet read it), I just wish Harry had brought along one of those evil quills and force her to use it on herself. 

2. Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge from James and the Giant Peach: Telling your nephew the thing that killed your parents is out there and coming to get you. Giving James less than scraps to live off of. Locking James up in his rickety "room"- if I remember correctly was an attic? These B***s seriously need a smack down and then some.

3. Debbie Pelt from the Sookie Stackhouse Series/Southern Vampires series: She really was quite an animal (ha). But she got what she deserved in the end. I still find it extremely hard to believe Alcide actually was in love with her and thought that she wasn't that bad of a person. *sigh* Men...

4. Cecily from Lauren DeStephano's Wither (Chemical Garden #1): She acted like such a little prissy b** and so looking forward to sex, reading up on the Kama Sutra and pleasing her husband....she is just 13! That's all I'm going to say about her without talking about the rest of the book.

5. Melisande Shahrizai from Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series: Though she pays well as a patron for Phedre, I was not a fan of her using "special" whips on Phedre, nor creating such havoc and trouble for Phedre and Jocelin.

6. Dorothea and Heketah SaDiablo from Anne Bishop's Black Jewel Trilogy: The evil, dark witches of the land intent on taking over Hell, the main female character (Janelle) and especially the Sadist.

7. Mrs. Coulter from His Dark Materials series: Way to be a mom and express some love.

8. War from Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely series: Yes, yes I guess she does have to be a bit of a mean B** being called War and all - doesn't mean I hate her and feels she needs a smack down by the good guys.

9. President Coin from Mockingjay: Who all elected her as president again? She totally does not represent what the revolution stands for. Oh and I believe soooooo many people would not have died untimely deaths if it wasn't for her "leadership."

10. Caroline Bingley from Pride and Prejudice: She totally epitomizes snotty B*** to the extreme. 

What female characters do you think belong on this list?

Teaser Tuesday (April 26)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:
         "Paulie looked thoughtful. 'Well don't use Elmer's glue,' he 
              warned. 'It sure didn't work on the Blackberry.'" 

                             ~"Bleeding Violet" 
                                  by Dia Reeves
 

Bumped (Bumped #1) by Megan McCafferty - Review

Bumped 

by Megan McCafferty

Publication Date: 04/26/11

Rating: 1 / 5 Stars

Thank you NetGalley, HaperCollins, and Balzer + Bray for the electronic ARC.

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents are forced to pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and had never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Until now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in religious Goodside, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to bring Melody back to Goodside and convince her that “pregging” for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.  

Review: 

I was excited to read this book, since the synopsis looked good and all the hype over it. I was sadly disappointed with Bumped when I did get to read an advanced galley.

While this dystopia is an interesting concept, I felt it fell short of bringing the "so what?" to the storyline. It seems that within the last/current/to-come months, there have been many fertility-crazed dystopian YA's that have come out (XVI, Wither - to name a few). Sadly, I felt Bumped did not bring very much to the table, in terms of having engaging characters (I will say that Zen and Melody were decent characters), a decent plot and being well written.

Within the first few pages of the book, I knew I was not a fan of the writing style - especially with all the made-up-for-the-book slang. I did not think that using "bumped" instead of referring to sex, pregnancy, and all the other normal terms, was an engaging or cutting edge/ futuristic way of talking about sex, pregnancy and breeding teens based on their genes. I actually found it rather annoying by about page 50 or so. 

I found the writing style to be choppy; specifically, when the author is switching back and forth and back and forth from Melody's perspective to Harmony's perspective. There were numerous times I had to go back to the beginning of a chapter to figure out who was narrating such and such part. And the narrative seemed to be quite rushed, so much that after I was done reading it, I was thinking to myself, there really wasn't very much happening in the book at all

There were also many lingering, pretty big questions that the author never addressed; ie, explaining the virus that causes humans to lose fertility by the age of 18, why the age of 18 specifically, how Goodside was developed/ the history or at least some background on its origins and separation from the rest of the world that became and is bumped obsessed, what happened to in-vitro fertilization and sperm/egg banks?

So, while the premise the author introduces in Bumped is quite interesting and has potential, it missed its mark in creating an enjoyable satirical dystopian story. 

 

Top 5 Sundays - April 24

First off,  Happy Easter to those who celebrate. I <3s cute lil' bunnies ^^

Hosted by Larissa from Larissa's Bookish Life

The theme for today is:

Favorite Dystopian Worlds!

(I have to say this is an awesome theme, since there are so many dystopian books coming out recently, and a lot of them quite interesting and fun reads)

My Top 5 (in no particular order):

The Giver

 


The Hunger Games Trilogy

Matched

Inside Out

Brave New World