Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

My Take: This book is a bizarre world that is extremely hard to explain. The story takes place in a very strange setting and it has a very different feel to the writing that I don’t think I’ve ever felt from another book. It’s like a young adult version of an epic fairytale. Does that even make sense? I think the closest I can come to explaining the “feel” of the writing while reading Cruel Beauty is that it was similar to the bizarreness I felt while reading The Night Circus.

The main character, Nyx, has lived a cruel, horrifying life and she has so much animosity for her family. Normally, a character with that much negativity is one I would have a hard time liking, but I never had that problem with Nyx because it was the life Nyx has lived that had me completely understanding all the hate she had in her heart. But even with all that hate, I wouldn’t say that she is totally full of pure hate because if she were, she wouldn’t feel so guilty or have such a desire to make things right, or to do good, or to save the people of her land. I think most people who lived the life she lived, would just give up! They wouldn’t try to fulfill the destiny that was thrown upon Nyx’s shoulders.

And when Nyx is introduced to her new husband, Ignifex, and his shadow, Shade, I was immediately intrigued by Ignifex. I really didn’t care too much for Shade because he actually kind of annoyed me. And even though Ignifex was cruel (what I think a lot of people would define as evil), he was still interesting to me. His snarky comments and his banter with Nyx were extremely entertaining. I kinda struggled with the book because I really wanted to like the “bad boy,” and it kind of bugged me that he was supposed to be so evil. But the bizarre world kept me reading along and I’m glad I did.

There are a lot of magical elements throughout the book that keep the story very unique, and there is, of course, a huge betrayal/twist in the story. And then, when all elements of the story finally come together, and all the parts of the puzzle about this bizarre world finally fit into place, I was absolutely blow away by how amazing the whole story was! And I loved the ending! I will be keeping my eyes open for any other book written by Rosamund Hodge.

Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publisher’s summary: History is on repeat, and things didn't go so well the last time.

Alexandria isn’t sure she’s going to make it to her eighteenth birthday--to her Awakening. A long-forgotten, fanatical order is out to kill her, and if the Council ever discovers what she did in the Catskills, she’s a goner... and so is Aiden.

If that’s not freaky enough, whenever Alex and Seth spend time "training"--which really is just Seth's code word for some up-close and personal one-on-one time--she ends up with another mark of the Apollyon, which brings her one step closer to Awakening ahead of schedule. Awesome.

But as her birthday draws near, her entire world shatters with a startling revelation and she’s caught between love and Fate. One will do anything to protect her. One has been lying to her since the beginning. Once the gods have revealed themselves, unleashing their wrath, lives will be irrevocably changed… and destroyed. Those left standing will discover if love is truly greater than Fate...

My take: I’m completely blown away by how amazing and exciting this book is, and I feel like there is so much to blabber about! The thing I got most excited about in Deity was that we actually get to see the gods in this book! It was phenomenal! And boy does the shiz hit the fan! Another thing that I just loved about Deity was that, just like in the previous books and right smack in the middle of this book, it’s like BAM!... something crazy happens, and it feels like it came out of nowhere! And then I’m left thinking, “What the heck is going to happen now? Isn’t this craziness supposed to happen at the end? Can the end even compete with this?” And the answer to my questions each time is, “OH YEAH, it gets 100 times better than this!”

Aside from the craziness, there are scenes that would leave me with tears streaming down my face, but then the very next scenes would have me literally laughing out loud. Can it get better than that? And last, but not least, there are the intensely hot scenes and the outright heart melting scenes…all that gooey romance stuff that we love so much. Well, at least that I love so much!

One thing I will have to say is that I wish I had read this book earlier on, probably the moment I received it in the mail because some people revealed a pretty big spoiler for me. I don’t think I could have escaped the spoiler even though I’m pretty good at avoiding them, but it still sucks! I don’t even think these people realize they are revealing a spoiler by talking about “it” or by putting “it” in their reviews. And, if I didn’t know about it, I think this particular thing would have had me suspicious, in denial or (best of all) it would have caught me totally by surprise…especially, because I already knew about a specific character that I shouldn’t trust. And I honestly think I would have flipped my freakin’ lid and I would not have been able to function! Too bad I already knew about “it” because I think I over-analyzed the situation…and I would have preferred the full-on, freak-out mode!

OH! I can’t forget to talk about the characters! There’s a new character who’s introduced that I’m really excited to learn more about. His name is Solos and I feel like I didn’t get enough of him yet. We do get a good mix of both Aidan and Seth, so I’m super happy with that. And I think there is more of a black and white feeling now about who can and can’t be trusted. But ’m sure we’ll still have some crazy betrayals in future books; I mean…COME ON…it’s a Jennifer L. Armentrout book we’re talking about here! But there are a lot of things brought out in the open in Deity and I’m very happy about that.

Aside from the major disappointment with that spoiler, this book was still an amazing read. And, once again, I’m left with having to wait for the next book in this series. OH! And before I forget, the ending of this book has a killer and totally amazing cliffhanger. I’m excited but at the same time completely terrified by how this series will continue.

Embers & Echoes by Karsten Knight

Publisher’s summary: Ashline Wilde may have needed school to learn that she is actually a reincarnated goddess, but she’s ready to move beyond books. She leaves her California boarding school behind and makes for Miami, where she meets a new group of deities and desperately seeks her sister Rose, the goddess of war. But she’s also looking for love—because even though her romance with Cole had to be snuffed, Ash is a volcano goddess—and she doesn’t get burned.

This sequel to the edgy and action-packed Wildefire continues a fiery drama on an immortal scale.

My take: This book was crazy awesome! And the crazy awesomeness continues all throughout the entire book, which has me in absolute amazement!

If you read Wildefire, then you know that it ended in a way that literally blindsides you! It comes out of nowhere and has you literally falling out of your seat, and has you thinking, “What the heck just happened there? Seriously????” And then the book just abruptly ends that way. Well, luckily, Embers & Echoes picks up from that very exact moment! The whole scene that develops in the very beginning of Embers & Echoes is so freakin' sick!!! It reminded me of why I liked Ash so much because she is one hardcore chick!

One of the many things that make this book so crazy awesome is how many crazy, psychotic evil villains there are! All of the gods in this series are totally crazy, but even in all that crazy you will find that there is a lot more crazy evil than there is crazy good.

It’s not just the beginning of the book that has some amazing, dope scenes. Just like the summary says, Embers & Echoes is action-packed! There’s so much that happens in this book that I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many times I was on the edge of my seat, or how many times I was in utter fascination over what was transpiring on the pages of Embers & Echoes! But the one thing that trumps all the other feelings I had throughout this book, was how many times I was outright pissed off at Karsten Knight. This is one of those books where you feel like the author will not allow you to be happy for any character. Yeah, there are still some happy scenes and a lot of funny moments, but right when you are feeling pretty content with the situation or you are feeling pretty happy with the way the story is headed, Karsten abruptly smashes that happiness into oblivion! I can actually give you the page numbers where Karsten pissed me off and, trust me, I was on twitter right after reading those pages, giving him a piece of my mind!

I can honestly say that my only problem with the book was that several times I had a hard time creating a mental picture of what I was reading. But that one problem was so unbelievably minor, that all the extreme positives almost have me forgetting about that one issue.

There’s a pretty crazy twist near the ending of the book, but it was the actual ending that was purely cruel! But the ending would have been even MORE cruel if Karsten had ended it 5 pages earlier...the place where he was originally going to end the book. THAT would have been insane and he would have had some crazy stalker fans beating down his door to get him to finish those last 5 pages! (Those last pages are the first pages of the next book!) And even though I did get to read those last 5 pages, I will be more than impatiently waiting for the final book, Afterglow, in 2013, and I can hardly wait to see how the story will end!

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!

Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Publisher’s Summary: Every flame begins with a spark.

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She's struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve's violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California's redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn't go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she's one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she's got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there's guaranteed to be a storm.



My Take: This book friggin ROCKED! I was amazed throughout the whole book by the craziness and creativity that Karsten conceived in Wildefire. Karsten’s imagination is truly unique in a way I have trouble explaining, and it’s completely different than what I’m used to. I loved the entire book, but it was the very last page that set this book over the edge of how I feel about it. I’m still sitting here in shock and thinking, “WHAT THE… ***???” I was trying to describe to a co-worker my thoughts about the ending, and I was stuttering trying to put my thoughts into words! And I mean that literally…I truly WAS stuttering. I CANNOT put into words what the heck I think about the ending.

While I was reading Wildefire, learning and experiencing in my mind the craziness that goes on because of these gods, I was thinking, “Wow, these gods and goddesses are not something that we would want walking around on our planet with that kind of power!” The evil characters in this book are truly psychotic (uh hum...Eve!) But even the gods and goddesses that are “good” can still cause serious damage, even when they don’t want to. That is, until they can learn how to control their power.

The main character, Ash, is HARDCORE! In the very beginning of the book, Ash is beating the living crap out of this girl Lizzie because Ash's boyfriend cheated on her with Lizzie. When I say that she was beating the living crap out of Lizzie, I REALLY mean it! She actually knocked teeth out of this chick’s mouth, and the whole time Lizzie was still talking smack! This little scene I just described is just a very small piece in so much craziness that happens in this book…and that’s only one example. Ash is one hardcore Goddess! If I am going to start picking teams for every book, I would have to say, "TEAM ASH" for this one.

This is the first time in a really long time that I really liked a book that a male author wrote. I don’t want to be all sexist, but a very high percentage of the books that I really love are written by female authors. So I am extremely happy that Fikshun recommended Wildefire to me! This is for sure a book that I would recommend to someone else.

Now you have to check out this hilarious video of Karsten talking about Wildefire. I'm still giggling over here thinking about it!

Received review eGalley from:

Simon & Schuster