I read a total of 16 books this month, but it was pretty hit or miss, I either loved them or didn’t really like them.
1. Vampire Princess by Cameron Drake *** – The prologue of Vampire Princess was great, we are introduced to Princess Sasha whose family was attacked when she was a child and mostly destroyed but Sasha is special as she is a human/vampire hybrid with extraordinary powers who was rescued and kept hidden by her father’s advisor Caleb who has become her guardian. In order to keep her safe Sasha must act like a normal human teenage which means going to high school. We learn that Sasha is kept hidden by Caleb and Bernard until they had enough followers and Sasha has mastered her powers when they will take back their Kingdom. However, as she has to attend school in the meantime, she has strict rules not to make friends as they have to move around a lot. But when Sasha meets Dylan and Karen, she knows it is going to be difficult as Karen would be an amazing friend and I can already see she is going to fall in love with Dylan.
2. Japan 2041: The Last Bastion of Civilization (A scenario analysis) by Andrew Blencowe *** – So I didn’t know much about this book when I received it but it sounded interesting. It is basically a look at what the world would be like if Japan became the world’s superpower while the Western world fell into decline. The book is told for a series of essays and letters from the leading purple of the time that details the rise of the Japanese economy and the rise of technology and how they were at the front of the world.
3. Taurus (Murders of the Zodiac #4) by A. P. Morgan ***** – Taurus is the fourth book in the Murders of the Zodiac series and after waiting nearly a month for it I couldn’t wait to re-join Leslie and Ryan. We meet Leslie in the immediate aftermath of the Aries murders and the injured Leslie is brought home to recover while Ryan tries to keep his distance because of Jerome. We also get a perspective from the Zodiac master who sees Leslie and Ryan as his personal detectives especially Leslie and has no plans to harm either of them until his mission is complete in December and we are heading into mid-April.
4. Never Have I Ever Faked a Boyfriend (Never Ever Love #2) by Juliet Bardsley ***** – I thought that this might be a continuation of Gavin and Kenzie’s story, but it seems we are following a new set of characters and this time around we are following Bri and Eric. The opening to Never Have I Ever Faked a Boyfriend was great, we learn that Bri is covering her mom’s yoga classes since her mother is helping do the final preparations for her sister’s wedding for which Bri still doesn’t have a date. Her best friend Savannah tells her that Eric, the guy she has had a crush on is recently single since her girlfriend Aryana dumped him for a college guy, which they learnt from Kenzie.
5. Geneva Sommers and the Magic Destiny by C.J. Benjamin ***** – I believe that Magic Destiny is the final published book in this series and First Fairytale is a prequel to the series and given how Myth of Lies ended I was eager to jump back into this world and see how Geneva would get herself out of this one. While Geneva is still trapped in Lux her friends have managed to escape to the safety of the Betos but the revelations in Geneva’s letter to Nova turn most of the group against Jemma although Jaka is still adamant that they need to work together to save Geneva.
6. Unearthed by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner ***** – I didn’t know much going into Unearthed, but I have heard a lot of good things about it and the sequel. The opening was interesting as we are introduced to Amelia on the planet Gaia, when she comes across some unsavoury characters called Raiders. We learn through her that Earth is dying and the only other inhabitable planet is Centauri but the mission to get there went bad and all hope was lost until a coded message from an alien race called the Undying led them to Gaia. Amelia is a scavenger sent to raid the planet of its treasures, but she isn’t the only one on the planet, but running into other raiders means she is being robbed of vital equipment. That is until Jules stumbles upon them after getting separated from his scientific expedition group.
7. Geneva Sommers and the First Fairytales by C.J. Benjamin ***** – So, all I know about First Fairytales is that it is a sequel to the series detailing how everyone meets before the events of the first book. The first short story is the Christmas Gift which is Remi’s story, it begins when he and Geneva then known as Jane #65 are 8 years old and discuss Christmas which was outlawed after the Flood, but she dreams about celebrating it and Remi is toying with the idea of gifting her an old compass he found during his flood work. It is quite easy to see her how Remi fell in love with Geneva from an early age since she was one of his only friends and the person who understood and accepted him no matter what.
8. Elena Vanishing by Elena Dunkle & Clare B. Dunkle ***** – I didn’t know much going into Elena Vanishing other than it was a slightly fictionalized memoir written by Elena and her mother following Elena’s battle with anorexia. I have read a few novels are ED conditions but not a memoir. The book opens with Elena in a German hospital being treated for her condition despite the fact she feels that there is nothing wrong with her but after arguing with the doctors, they decide she should be treated in the US when means leaving Germany, her school, her friends and the freedom she has come to love. Over the next couple of months, Elena is moving for the German hospital to a US treatment centre as she is continuing to lose weight. The US centre isn’t helping either as Elena sees it as forced imprisonment rather than treatment as she doesn’t feel there is anything wrong with. Her mother decides to contact a doctor who treated her sister Valerie for depression and self-harm and blame is placed on the parents when they have done nothing wrong.
9. Final Draft by Riley Redgate *** – I have tried reading Riley Redgate’s newest book several times and after reading Noteworthy & Seven Ways We Lie and loving both I had high expectations for this book. The first time I tried reading this I abandoned it about halfway through, several months on I have decided to give Laila another chance, but I am currently 85 pages in and there is only a single line that I have really enjoyed, so it wasn’t looking good for this book. The friendship dynamic between the characters is great and I really like the characters, but nothing is happening at the moment.
10. Cherokee Summer by Susan Antony ***** – The opening of Cherokee Summer introduces us to Ace McAllister, a young girl who is living in a casino because of her father’s job but is also dealing with what seems like an emotionally unstable mother who drinks quite a lot. We then jump to the perspective of John Spears, who is a native American boy trying to save money for his education, but an alcoholic mother means he was raised by his grandmother after his father’s death. The first time Ace and John meet it isn’t a good experience as her boyfriend Cameron is horrible especially to her autistic brother Zack, but he takes a liking to John. Both teens have very hard lives filled with pressures but very little escape.
11. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton ***** – After hearing so many good things about the Belles in the past year I finally decided to pick it up. The opening introduces us to Camellia, who is a Belle. Belles can control beauty and she is one of only six Belles in the current generation. These Belles have been chosen to travel to the Imperial Island to compete to become the Belle of the royal family. We can already see there is going to be a large fantasy element alongside a very unique magic system. Each Belle is given a subject to work on, in Camellia’s case it is a young girl. They are going to use their arcana (their magic) on the subjects and transform their appearance, however, the transformations don’t last very long. In this world, the people were cursed with a horrific appearance, gray skin with red eyes and straw-like hair, which is why Belles are needed. The Belles have less than a day before the Queen decides who she wants to be the Belle to her family, the favourite and Camellia is determined to be that Belle.
12. Going Over by Beth Kephart *** – All I knew about Going Over is that it is the story of Ada and Stefan, teens in love separated on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall. The opening was great, we meet Ada who lives with her mother, sister and Grandmother in a ghetto in West Berlin. Ada is also a graffiti artist with a rebellious, punk attitude but Ada is different because she has a boyfriend; Stefan who is obsessed with astronomy who lives in East Berlin forced to be trained as a plumber by the Stasi. Despite their circumstances they still manage to communicate and occasionally see each other which gave me some hope for them.
13. The Goddesses of Japan (The Goddesses of the World #1) by Kazuko Nishimura **** – Before this book even starts, we have a huge cast of characters that you will probably have to go back to more than once throughout the novel, but I was so excited to read a book about Japanese mythology as I love all things Japanese. I also loved the full-color image of what I believe is Mt. Fuji at the opening of the first chapter was beautiful and one day I’d love to see it in real life. Part one of this novel is entitled The Origins of the Land of the Rising Sun and it is Izanami’s鈥檚 story and we know that Izanami is the female Deity, Creator of Japan. We learn of how she and Izanagi-no-Mikoto: male Deity, Creator of Japan married and together created Japan and populated it with their children who were given dominion over particular domains. The tragic story of the love between Izanami and Izanagi was beautiful but then we move onto the lives and conflicts of their children.
14. Gemini (Murders of the Zodiac #5) by A. P. Morgan ***** – Gemini is the fifth book in the Murders of the Zodiac series, and I was so excited to jump back into this world. It was strange to see the first perspective we get isn’t Leslie’s or Ryan’s but that of Janna. It turns out that Janna has a twin sister Keanna and both were killed in identical ways on opposite sides of the country so I’m thinking already that there is more than one killer in this book possibly a set of twins. We also get more perspectives from the victim’s that include Angel and her sister, Nyree & Elissa, Niña & Pinta and finally Norah and Emma Lynn. Ask these female sets of twins are killed in identical fashion, a knife in the heart, over several states so the police haven’t put it together yet but then we get Leslie’s perspective.
15. Replica (Replica #1) by Lauren Oliver ***** – I hadn’t heard much about Replica before reading it but it’s a flip book which I found interesting, (by the way I read Gemma’s perspective first). The opening was great we are introduced to Gemma, who has been very sick since childhood, but she is better now and looking forward to Spring Break with her best friend April. However, when someone throws a Frankenstein head through their window, Gemma believes it is a girl from her school but after a conversation she overhears between her parents she learns it was a message for her father as Frankenstein was the doctor who created the monster. Through this conversation, Gemma also learns about the Haven Institute but she doesn’t give it much thought at the time but when her parents tell her she can’t go to Florida with April immediately after, it all seems a little suspicious to me.
16. Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee & Susan McClelland ***** – As most of my readers will know I am not a fan of memoirs, but I recently read Elena Vanishing (a memoir about a teenage girl’s struggle with anorexia) and absolutely loved it, so I was excited to pick up Every Falling Star. All I knew about this book before picking it up was that it is a memoir Sungju Lee and how escaped from North Korea, having a love of the Orient I couldn’t wait to get stuck into this book. The opening introduces us to Sungju who is a young boy in awe of his father, who is a soldier in the North Korean military and wants to be just like him. Looking back on it Sungju can see he was the perfect product of the Korean propaganda machine. After a while, Sungju notices his father looking quite sick and eventually they leave the city for a holiday in the countryside but there is more to it than this. It is interesting to see someone as young as Sungju picking up on the unspoken conversation between his parents. After moving to the countryside Sungju is starting to see what life is like for those outside the cities and he is forced to watch a public execution of people deemed traitors by the government. Following a young boy’s perspective is a little difficult for me as I can’t connect easily with Sungju.
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