Invisibility by Andrea Cremer & David Levithan

Publisher's summary: A magical romance between a boy cursed with invisibility and the one girl who can see him, by New York Times bestselling authors Andrea Cremer and David Levithan.

Stephen is used to invisibility. He was born that way. Invisible. Cursed.

Elizabeth sometimes wishes for invisibility. When you’re invisible, no one can hurt you. So when her mother decides to move the family to New York City, Elizabeth is thrilled. It’s easy to blend in there.

Then Stephen and Elizabeth meet. To Stephen’s amazement, she can see him. And to Elizabeth’s amazement, she wants him to be able to see her—all of her. But as the two become closer, an invisible world gets in their way—a world of grudges and misfortunes, spells and curses. And once they’re thrust into this world, Elizabeth and Stephen must decide how deep they’re going to go—because the answer could mean the difference between love and death.

From the critically acclaimed and bestselling authors Andrea Cremer, who wrote the Nightshade series, and David Levithan, who wrote Every Day and co-wrote Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist with Rachel Cohen and Will Grayson, Will Grayson with John Green, as well as many other novels, comes a remarkable story about the unseen elements of attraction, the mortal risks of making yourself known, and the invisible desires that live within us all.

My take: Invisibility was a fun, fresh and relaxing read, and I adored the story.

I’ve nothing but amazing things to say about David Levithan’s Every Day, and I’m also a huge Andrea Cremer fan, so when I first heard about this book, I was dying to get my hands on a copy.

The only thing I struggled with in this book was wrapping my head around the whole invisibility thing. It was hard for me to make it real in my head when all I kept thinking about was, “How the heck did Stephen’s mom take care of him when he was a baby?!” But enough about that…it’s just a story right?

The romance between Stephen and Elizabeth was heart melting. Their journey to discover why Stephen is the way he is, why only she can see him, and whether there is anything they can do to change his condition was so much fun that I’m smiling even now as I write this. I think the best part of this journey is Laurie. Laurie is Elizabeth’s brother, and he is by far my favorite character.

The overall feel of this book is kind of a contemporary feel, but with a paranormal twist. If you’re looking for a fun, sweet, relaxing, cute and romantic read, then this is the book for you!

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Publisher’s summary: It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

My take: What the heck? Did all that just really happen? That is THE craziest ending EVER! Seriously…THAT was insane!

When I first started Angelfall, I sensed that it might be a really dark book because it seemed very grim. And, as I got further into the story, things just got insanely crazy. Angelfall is one of those types of books that make you wonder if you’ll have crazy dreams or even nightmares after reading. But even during the most insane moments…moments that should have had me totally freaking-out…Susan Ee had a way of writing them so they weren’t quite as disturbing as they could, and probably should, have been. I haven’t figured out how these brilliant authors are able to do that, but she did it brilliantly well.

The characters are very well done in this book. I really liked and admired the main character Penryn, and I pretty much grew attached to Raffe from the moment he was introduced. But it was Penryn’s mother who was the most fascinating. I want to know if she really is psycho, or if she really has demons controlling her. The things that woman does throughout the book are both disturbing and comical.

There’s not much more I want to say about Angelfall other than it’s a really small book and a very quick read, I would highly recommend it and I'm dying for the next book in the series.

Spellcaster by Claudia Gray

Publisher’s summary: When Nadia's family moves to Captive's Sound, she instantly realizes there's more to the place than meets the eye. Descended from witches, Nadia can sense that a spell has been cast over the tiny Rhode Island town—a sickness infecting everyone and everything in it. The magic at work is darker and more powerful than anything she's come across and has sunk its claws most deeply into Mateo . . . her rescuer, her friend, and the guy she yearns to get closer to even as he pushes her away.

Mateo has lived in Captive's Sound his entire life, shadowed by small-town gossip and his family's tormented past. Every generation, the local legends say, one member of the family goes mad, claiming to know the future before descending into insanity. When the strange dreams Mateo has been having of rescuing a beautiful girl from a car accident actually come true, he knows he's doomed.

Despite the forces pulling them apart, Nadia and Mateo must work together to break the chains of his terrible family curse, and to prevent a coming disaster that even now threatens the entire town, including Nadia's family, her newfound friends, and her own life. Shimmering with magic and mystery, New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray's new novel depicts a dark and unforgettable world of witches, curses, buried secrets, and star-crossed romance.

My take: Wow! I’m actually really surprised how much I really liked this book! When I got to the end of Spellcaster, I wasn’t quite sure if it was going to be in a series, but I’m thrilled to find out that there is going to be a series…because I’m seriously eager to find out what happens with the characters.

The very first scene in Spellcaster starts off with something crazy happening. I was totally caught off guard that something like that would happen right from the start. If the beginning of the book could start off that way, then the end just has to be pretty awesome, right? Well my assumptions were correct! The ending was pretty awesome.

Spellcaster is different than most of the other books I’ve read because it moves back and forth between the POV of the protagonist Nadia and the villain. So the difference with this book is there is not a whole lot of surprise. The benefit to seeing the story in the POV of the villain is that you know that she’s extremely crazy! She’s right up there with the all-time ultimate of all evil villains.

Personally, I loved the character Verlaine the best. So I was super happy when we got a couple POV scenes with her character. I would love it a lot if the next books in this series have her character throughout because I would love to learn more about her.

Overall, Spellcaster is a really quick and fun read. It reminded me why I love Claudia Gray’s writing style.

Easy by Tammara Webber

Publisher’s summary: Rescued by a stranger.
Haunted by a secret
Sometimes, love isn’t easy…

He watched her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior…

The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he’d worked so hard to overcome, and the future she’d put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart.

Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth—and find the unexpected power of love.

A groundbreaking novel in the New Adult genre, Easy faces one girl's struggle to regain the trust she's lost, find the inner strength to fight back against an attacker, and accept the peace she finds in the arms of a secretive boy.

My take: First of all, I want everyone who’s reading this review to be fully aware that a lot of content in this book is all about THE very things that I normally say absolutely NO to when reading a book. So, me giving this book 4 stars is pretty ginormous. Number one, I do not read Contemporary. Number two, I do not read anything that has Adult or New Adult content. And, lastly, I stay 100 feet away from anything that has to do with sexual assault. All of the peeps out there who have been trying to push me into reading this book really don’t know me too well. But even after saying all that, I actually quite enjoyed this book.

I listened to Easy on Audible on a road trip, and I only started listening to it because I was struggling to keep awake while listening to another book. I’m not going to tell you what other book I had to put on hold in order to listen to Easy, but I think everyone would die if they knew what book I set aside to listen to this one.

Anyways, the scene in the very beginning pretty much should have told me to run far, far away. But it didn’t frighten me as much as it normally would, and I was consumed into the writing style so that I kept on listening.

Easy was written with extremely well developed characters. Jacqueline is struggling with a previous breakup, then this horrible thing happens to her and then she grows into a very strong character throughout the story. Everything about Lucas is easy to fall in love with from his hot looks, to his funny, playful and protective personality. And then there are the several douchebag characters that were very well developed too.

Obviously, you can see that this book is full of all kinds of drama, so it’s a given that there would be a lot of tears shed while listening to this book. And yes, I sobbed! The best part of the story was the romance with Jacqueline and Lucas! The whole development of their relationship was extremely well done.

Moonset by Scott Tracey - Blog Tour Review

Publisher’s summary: Moonset, a coven of such promise . . . Until they turned to the darkness.

After the terrorist witch coven known as Moonset was destroyed fifteen years ago—during a secret war against the witch Congress—five children were left behind, saddled with a legacy of darkness. Sixteen-year-old Justin Daggett, son of a powerful Moonset warlock, has been raised alongside the other orphans by the witch Congress, who fear the children will one day continue the destruction their parents started.

A deadly assault by a wraith, claiming to work for Moonset’s most dangerous disciple, Cullen Bridger, forces the five teens to be evacuated to Carrow Mill. But when dark magic wreaks havoc in their new hometown, Justin and his siblings are immediately suspected. Justin sets out to discover if someone is trying to frame the Moonset orphans . . . or if Bridger has finally come out of hiding to reclaim the legacy of Moonset. He learns there are secrets in Carrow Mill connected to Moonset’s origins, and keeping the orphans safe isn’t the only reason.

My take: Moonset was a lot of fun to read! What I loved most about this book were the many characters with diverse personalities, and I loved how very well Scott Tracey truly developed each of their personalities.

I have to say that I was a little worried during the first 30 pages because I felt like I was experiencing sensory overload. There was a heck of a lot going on in the story during those first 30 pages and, at the same time, a lot of characters were being introduced . . . and I felt like it was a little too much. But then, immediately after everything started to calm down, there was a scene that had me already falling for a couple of the characters. In this scene the main character, Justin, just knows that the orphans’ guardian is purposely pestering Justin’s “twin” sister Jenna in a quite hilarious way.

As I mentioned earlier, the characters were very well developed. When Ash was introduced, I almost grew a crush on her, right along with Justin. Her snarky personality was a lot of fun right from the start. Mal is the best “fun dude” in the story, but my fave character is probably Justin’s twin sister…her bossy, bitchy personality was my favorite.

The villain in the end was a little bit of a surprise and was done brilliantly. But this villain wasn’t even my biggest worry throughout the story. It seems a little too obvious to me that the “adults” (that’s what Justin calls them) in the story are really what we should all be concerned about. They are a little too secretive for my liking. I’m super eager to find out more in future books.





About the author!
Scott Tracey is a YA author who lived on a Greyhound for a month, wrote his illustrated autobiography at the age of six, and barely survived Catholic school (and definitely not for the reasons you might think).

He is the author of WITCH EYES, chosen as one of Amazon’s Best LGBT Books of 2011, as well as an ALA Popular Paperback in the Forbidden Romance category. The final book in the WITCH EYES trilogy, PHANTOM EYES, will be released in the fall of 2013.

He is also the author of MOONSET, a new series which will be released April 8, 2013, as well as a contributor to the SHADOWHUNTERS & DOWNWORLDERS anthology, edited by Cassandra Clare.

His career highlights include: accidentally tripping a panic alarm which led to nearly being shot by the police; attacked in a drive-thru window by a woman wielding a baked potato, and once moving cross country for a job only to quit on the second day.

His gifts can be used for good or evil, but rather than picking a side, he strives for BOTH (in alternating capacity) for his own amusement.

Website ☆ Twitter ☆ Facebook ☆ Goodreads

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Publisher’s summary: It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail's legions of fans have come to adore.

My take: Etiquette & Espionage was a lot of fun to read. Apparently this is a spin-off from Gail Carrieger’s popular adult series, The Parasol Protectorate. Etiquette & Espionage is definitely young adult.

In the beginning of the story there is a really funny scene that had me realize these books are intended to be a fun and funny story. I mean, really, the girls are learning etiquette and espionage on a floating school and it takes a really fast, high jumping werewolf that wears a hat (even when he shifts) to herd them all onto the platform to get them to enter the school? That should tell you!

The characters are all really different. The main character, Sophronia, always seems really concerned about learning how to truly act properly, but she’s so distracted elsewhere that it almost seems like it’s too much of an inconvenience for her to actually learn how to be a lady…even though it’s not like she didn’t really want to learn. This isn’t the case for all of the characters. There’s another girl who I would really like to be consider as the “mean girl;” a girl who really only wants to be a lady and go to a proper etiquette school. And then there’s a girl who seems like she has no intention of being a lady at all. My favorite is Sophronia’s little clockwork dog. So cute! Oh…and the boy that is introduced is cute too.

There is this whole detective thing going on throughout the story, and it all unfolds in the end in a very fun way. I’m really looking forward to reading more from this series.

Renegade by J.A. Souders

Publisher's summary: Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she’s believed that everything is perfect. Her world. Her people. The Law.

But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into Elysium’s secluded little world, Evelyn comes to a startling realization: Everything she knows is a lie.

Her memories have been altered.

Her mind and body aren’t under her own control.

And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.

Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb...and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.

My Take: I was immediately intrigued with this book the moment I started reading. And then, when I got to the second chapter, I started feeling like I was experiencing déjà vu, but it wasn’t my déjà vu! It was the main character’s (Evelyn’s) who completely forgot everything that had just happened to her, and it was as if she were starting her day all over again. It was at that point that I was determined to devour this book and find out what the heck was going on! Renegade is bizarre, unusual, dark, twisted and intense from start to finish!

The intriguing characters and the bizarre world that J.A. Souders imaginatively constructed in Renegade were very well done and were easily, and very vividly, recreated in my mind’s eye. As for the characters…I’m still having a hard time deciding what I think about Evelyn, but I really liked Gavin. And Mother is beyond psycho! What the heck is up with that woman?

The whole book was executed beautifully. The first half of the book was all about slowly discovering, right along with Eve and Gavin, what the heck was actually going on in this bizarre “under the water” world. And it’s all so crazy good that I just couldn’t get enough of the bizarreness. And then it’s the last half of the book that trumps it all! But it’s not like the last half of the book all of a sudden then becomes highly action packed! It’s just that things get so unbelievably out of hand that you realize how crazy things really are! The ending is epic! Except, it was an awesomely sucky ending!

Origin by Jessica Khoury

Publisher's summary: Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home--and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.

Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin--a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.

Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.

My take: I really enjoyed reading this book! I liked Origin so much that I was able to create a very vivid picture of Pia’s rain forest in my mind…with lots of green, splashes of flowers and lots of exotic animals, and, amongst all of that…a science research lab right smack in the middle of it all. And I love taking my mind back to that picture.

The characters in this story were very well developed. Pia was utterly fascinating in and of herself as the protagonist. She is a genetically born immortal who has been raised as a singularly consistent and compliant test subject; and she’s perfectly happy with that role, but she doesn’t always like the tests. In her mind all she cares about is that one day she will become one of the scientists running the lab and that she will be running the tests and genetically creating immortals just like her. I knew that I would be fascinated with her character right from the very first chapter as I read about one of the tests she was going through. The only thing I had a hard time with while reading about the characters was picturing Pia and this boy character, Eio, as teenagers throughout the story. I kept picturing them as slightly younger than teenagers, and I couldn’t get that picture out of my mind. I think it might have been because of Pia’s lack of normal human knowledge that had me picturing her as a younger girl. And, naturally, that means I kept picturing Pia’s love interest (Eio) as the same age as her.

The other characters that were introduced in the beginning of the story I wasn’t too sure about; however, just a few chapters further in, we (along with Pia) are introduced to a few other characters that I just fell in love with…of course one of those being Eio.

The best parts of this book were discovering all the secrets and knowledge the scientists were keeping from Pia and also discovering if the only things she’s ever known are truly for the good or for the bad.

Oh! I do want to point out that I struggled big-time with the pronunciation of a lot of the names of the people and places in this book. So if anyone has an Origin pronunciation guide, I’d greatly appreciate you sharing it with me! LOL

The end is, of course, the best part! Jessica Khoury created a horrifically awesome twist and a couple of horrific betrayals that has almost the entire last part of the book in utter chaos…and it was crazy awesome.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Publisher's summary: After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

My take: From the very first chapter, I was intrigued with Throne of Glass. Celaena, a fearless, imprisoned assassin, is offered a one-shot deal to win her freedom by competing against 23 other criminals in a competition to find a new royal assassin. What I think intrigued me the most was that I was going to be in the head of this indomitable assassin.

But I want to give you a heads up – I’m having a really hard time trying to find the words to adequately express how I feel about this book. For the first half of the book, I think I had really high expectations of how I thought the story would somehow play out; and even though I was kept entertained for that first half, I still thought there would be more action. It even got to the point where I was thinking the story wasn’t progressing or moving along even close to the way I thought it should. So, I ended up putting the book down for a day and then going back without any expectations. And from the very exact page where I started reading again, I was hooked for the remainder of the book.

I think the strongest trait of this book was the complex characters and how well they were developed by Sarah J. Maas. I absolutely love Celaena as a heroine. And even though we don’t see a whole lot of her frightening assassin side throughout the book, you do find out that she has this crazy, awesome reputation of being an assassin you just wouldn’t want to mess with. I also absolutely love both Prince Dorian and Choal, the Captain of the Guard. There’s one other character that comes into the story (a princess named Nehemia) who I just adored as well. Most of all, it was the interaction between the characters that makes this book a lot of fun to read. I’m still not quite sure if there really is a love triangle going on between Celaena, Prince Dorian and Choal, but if so I’m torn about this one. For some reason, I have a major soft spot for Choal, and for some reason I think he’s probably better for Celaena than Prince Dorian. But a lot of my favorite scenes are actually interactions between Prince Dorian and Celaena.

Pretty early on we learn that the world where this story takes place use to have a lot of magical elements to it, so I had high hopes from the beginning that we would see some fantastic fantasy elements. Unfortunately, you discover that the king has destroyed ALL magic in his kingdom. I won’t say if we see any magic in this book, but I will say that I have high hopes that we will see a lot of magical elements in Sarah’s future books in this series.

The end to this book was really crazy. Nearing the end, there were moments when I feared a tragic betrayal and wondered how the story would end, but the real ending was pretty awesome and has me super excited to see what will happen next to Celaena! And now, after reading this one, I’ve found that there are 4 short stories/prequels to this book, so I purchased them all since they are currently only $0.99, and I’m really looking forward to reading those as well.

Make sure you come back to here to Magical Urban Fantasy Reads this Thursday for Sarah J. Maas’ blog tour stop!

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Publisher’s summary: About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear….

My Take: The first time I heard about this book was from Jaime (Two Chicks on Books), and it was Jaime who finally got me to read Poison Study by literally putting the book into my actual hands! And I am so happy that she introduced me to this series. This is ultimately a brilliant book in so many ways that I will have a hard time explaining all my feelings about it.

Poison Study starts off pretty strange, but everything that happens from the first page had me captivated. The book starts out with Yelena walking resolutely to her sentencing, to be executed for a murder she committed. But at the last minute, Valek (the Commander’s right-hand man), offer’s Yelena a cruel and drastic way to have her sentence commuted.

Immediately and from the very beginning, I did not like Valek! I felt like he was evil and manipulative. But the further along I got into the book, I found myself in absolute awe over how smart he was. Manipulative is an understatement! And then I started to wonder if he even really was a bad guy! There are some crazy betrayals, and a couple of characters that I thought in the beginning were bad guys end up being some of my favorite characters in the book.

There are so many awesome twists and turns in this book that I’m now fascinated by Maria V. Snyder’s imagination! Poison Study was a lot of fun to read, and I’m more than a little excited to start reading Magic Study!

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dannard

Publisher’s Summary: There's something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia. . . . Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about.

Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she's just read in the newspaper:

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor . . . from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she'll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including the maddeningly stubborn yet handsome Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

My Take: The moment I saw the cover of Something Strange and Deadly and read the summary, I was more than eager to read this book. So the moment I got a copy in mail, I was more than eager to pick it up and start reading it right away. And now that I’ve read Something Strange and Deadly, I have to say that I’m in between liking it, and really liking it.

In the very beginning of this book there is a pretty awesome scene that has Eleanor (the protagonist) coming face-to-face for the first time with one of the Dead…and it delivers a mysterious message to her. Dun, dun, duhhhhn!!! (LOL…that sounded better in my head than after I typed it out!) And, at that moment, I was really intrigued by the story. But beginning almost right after that scene I had a really hard time getting into this book. I tried to rack my brain as to why I was struggling so much while reading this story. At first, I thought it was maybe just the time-era when the story was written. But then I realized that I love a lot of books written in the era of the 19th century. So now I’m left here thinking that maybe I was just feeling like I was reading a book without any paranormal elements to it. I guess the Dead and the ghosts that actually were in the story, weren’t in it enough for me…even though “they” are what this story is all about. Does that even make sense? Otherwise, the story was really good! There were a couple twists that I put together pretty quickly, but there was one twist that totally caught me by surprise!

As for the characters, I really like Eleanor! She is a really good protagonist, especially coming from that era in time. There’s also a character named Jie, who’s introduced a little bit later in the book who was probably one of my faves! Best of all, Daniel is an awesome love interest! Mysterious, smart, dangerous…I could go on and on!

So, basically, in Something Strange and Deadly you can find an awesome female protagonist in the 19th century era, a hottie boy who is off limits, with zombies and ghosts added into the mix! Does that sound like something you want to read?

Goddess Interrupted by Aimee Carter

Publisher’s Summary: Kate Winters has won immortality. But if she wants a life with Henry in the Underworld, she'll have to fight for it.

Becoming immortal wasn't supposed to be the easy part. Though Kate is about to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, she's as isolated as ever. And despite her growing love for Henry, ruler of the Underworld, he's becoming ever more distant and secretive. Then, in the midst of Kate's coronation, Henry is abducted by the only being powerful enough to kill him: the King of the Titans.

As the other gods prepare for a war that could end them all, it is up to Kate to save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future.

Henry's first wife, Persephone.

My take: Now that I can better appreciate the characters in this series, I enjoyed reading this one! I was super excited to pick up Goddess Interrupted once I finished The Goddess Test and I’m not disappointed at all!

After Kate spent 6 months away from the new world that she is a part of now, she is super excited to return. I found that to be odd; Kate growing so attached to the new world even though she was away for such a long period of time with utterly no contact. But anyways, she returns to pure craziness and Henry is now acting odd toward her.

Pretty much right from the start, I was left wondering if something horrible was going to happen to one or more of the characters. At first I wasn’t overly concerned with why Henry was acting so unusual toward Kate, but I then began questioning, along with Kate, whether or not he truly cares for her. Kate pissed me off a lot in this book. I felt like she was way too emotional, and she let being pushed around get the best of her. Instead of learning from her mistakes in the first book, she seems a little too naïve…instead of acting on her feelings and insecurities, she just dismisses them. She’s one of those girls I think would find a DB guy to beat her, cheat on her, and talk crap about her right to her face…and then, even if she were to threaten to leave, she’d end up making excuses for his behavior! OK...so I went a little extreme with that one. It's not that bad, but bad enough to get on my nerves. LOL Well, she does actually grow a backbone slowly-but-surely throughout the book. Thank goodness! Anyways, enough with my ranting about Kate.

Overall, this story was really good. And, at the end of Goddess Interrupted there is a crazy twist and a horrible betrayal, and now I’m dying for the next book in this series!!!

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Publisher’s Summary: It's always been just Kate and her mom—and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear her mother won't live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld—and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he's crazy—until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride, and a goddess.

My Take: Holy crap! The ending to The Goddess Test totally rocked! That was a super sweet twist!

While reading The Goddess Test, I can honestly say that I only just “liked” the story, but it was the way that the story ended that made reading the whole book totally worth it! Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t as if I didn’t like the story because I did! While reading, the story kept me intrigued enough to keep moving forward, but it wasn’t a major thrill. But since there was that awesome ending, I’m now sitting here reminiscing, thinking about everything that happened throughout the whole book. And the part that I just brushed off as simple story-telling is now more important to me! It makes me want to go back and re-read it, because I think I would like it better the second time!

Pretty much all of the characters in The Goddess Test are likable. I kind of predicted who the villain was pretty early on (I won’t say, I don’t want to spoil it for you), but it didn’t at all ruin the story for me. Kate was too caring to the point where she would easily get pushed around and get taken advantage of; I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t have severe trust issues after this book. Ava is the chick that you love to hate, but then she could also possibly be one of my favorite characters. Then there’s Henry. I’m totally Team Henry! How can you not fall for the Hades? LOL. Oh, wait! That wasn’t a spoiler, was it? But I’m pretty sure you find that one out in the very beginning.

There’s really not much more I can say for you because it’s best to go in completely blind when reading this one. And if you’ve already started but never finished, don’t give up on The Goddess Test because the end ROCKS!

Endure by Carrie Jones

Publisher’s summary: It’s all-out war (and no-holds-barred romance) in the climactic conclusion to Carrie Jones’s bestselling series.

Zara is at the center of an impending apocalypse. True, she’s successfully rescued Nick from Valhalla, but it simply isn’t enough. Evil pixies are ravaging Bedford, and they need much more than one great warrior; they need an army. Zara isn’t sure what her role is anymore. She’s not just fighting for her friends; she’s also a pixie queen. And to align her team of pixies with the humans she loves will be one of her greatest battles yet. Especially since she can’t even reconcile her growing feelings for her pixie king . . .

Unexpected turns, surprising revelations, and one utterly satisfying romantic finale make Endure a thrilling end to this series of bestsellers.

My take: I was quite upset when I heard that Endure was the last book in the Need series! I thoroughly enjoyed these books, and Carrie Jones couldn’t have ended the series any better than she did with Endure.

However, I have to admit that I was worried about how this book would turn out. There were a lot of things that happened in Entice (Need #3), and a lot of loose ends that needed to be tied up. So I wasn’t sure how Carrie was going to pull all that off in only one book! But even though there was a lot of craziness in this final book, amongst all of that craziness the loose ends were nicely tied up throughout the whole book.

As for the love triangle? It does get resolved, and I’m happy with how it got resolved, but I’m also a little disappointed with how easily it was resolved. I mean, I really love a good drama-filled struggle when it comes to a love triangle!!! But when it came to this love triangle, it was as if the other guy just no longer needed to be in the picture anymore! It actually irritated me quite a bit how he was pretty much pushed off to the side. I guess that probably was the only way for everyone to be truly satisfied with the decision.

There is something that happens to Zara about midway through the book that totally threw me off, but what happened was perfect! And then the end is just pure craziness and totally hectic! At one point near the end, there is this really crazy twist, and I was thinking, “What the…? Seriously?”

What I loved most about this series is how much I grew to adore the characters. Issie is my favorite! She is such a sweet, quirky, funny girl. Everything she would say had me giggling. Also, throughout the series, I genuinely grew to admire Zara. She became a remarkably strong heroine, and she deserves the title 100% because she always stuck to her beliefs in choosing to save the world over her own needs and desires.

If you are looking for a series with books that are both fun and quick to read, then you should definitely check these out! We need some more evil pixie books because they are awesome!