Snakeroot by Andrea Cremer

Publisher’s summary: The next thrilling novel in the internationally-bestselling Nightshade series!

Fans asked for it, and now they've got it! Andrea Cremer is continuing the story she began in in her internationally bestselling trilogy: Nightshade, Wolfsbane and Bloodrose. In this new installment, Bosque Mar haunts the dreams of both Adne and Logan, trying to escape for the Nether, where Calla, Shay and the other Guardians trapped him in the final battle in the War of All Against All. Will he turn Adne to the dark side? Will Logan reclaim his birthright? And will darkness take over our world? In a novel filled with magic, romance and breakneck action, master storyteller Andrea Cremer's newest installment will not disappoint!

My take: You guys have no freakin’ idea how exciting it was (and still is!) that I got the opportunity to read Snakeroot early! I’m a huge Andrea Cremer fan, and I was super excited when she announced that she was going to continue her Nightshade series with the side characters from the Nightshade Legacy. And OMG!...Andrea totally satisfied my hunger for this world with Snakeroot!

I’ll have to admit that as I was getting close to the end of Snakeroot (and even after I was finished), I started to get super worried that there wasn’t going to be any more books following this one. But whew! I cleared it up with Andrea…Snakeroot is the first book in a NEW trilogy. And thank goodness there’ll be more because this story isn’t close to being finished in Snakeroot.

In Snakeroot, the story is told in several different points of view. The primary point of view is Adne because she obviously will be playing a big central part in this trilogy. We also get to read in the POV of Connor, Sabine and Logan Bane. The best part about reading a story with these side characters is that we get to really understand their characters better than we did in the Nightshade trilogy. For example, my view of Logan is totally changed from the way I saw him in the previous Nightshade trilogy to how I’m thinking of him now from reading Snakeroot (Nightshade Legacy.) I don’t know why I just thought he was a wimpy punk in Bloodrose, thinking that was the reason he did what he did in the last book (or if he was just starting to see what the Keepers were doing wrong), but I for sure didn’t see him for who he really is…and we get to see who he really is in this book.

The one thing that frustrated me big-time is the lack of communication between Adne and Connor. This seems to be a common factor in a lot of YA books, but I guess if we all had perfect communication, we would never have issues…right? LOL

There’s a whole new plot twist that I really liked where the Searchers now have no idea what to do with themselves, and there is a whole lot of craziness going on as they try to figure out what to do. On the other hand, there is something truly horrible going down that the Searchers really should be putting their focus on.

I just know this is going to be a great new trilogy where I’ll constantly be dying to read the next book in the series because I’m already craving for the Nightshade Legacy book #2 and Snakeroot isn’t even scheduled to come out until December. *sigh*

Make sure you come back tomorrow to see Andrea Cremer’s Guest Post for the 2nd Annual Authors are Rockstars event. To make it even better, it’s Andrea Cremer’s birthday tomorrow and there’ll be a giveaway!

Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

Publisher's summary: In a city of daimons, rigid class lines separate the powerful from the power-hungry. And at the heart of The City is the Carnival of Souls, where both murder and pleasure are offered up for sale. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures—if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live.

All Mallory knows of The City is that her father—and every other witch there—fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal. She knows it's only a matter of time until a daimon finds her and her father, so she readies herself for the inevitable. While Mallory possesses little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence and danger that is the Carnival of Souls.

My take: Holy crap! Melissa Marr has an extremely demented mind. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised after reading her Wicked Lovely series! Or even by going to her book signings and getting toe tags as swag! But even then, I did not at all expect Carnival of Souls to be so crazy bizarre. And that is not, at all, in a bad way…I absolutely loved it! Carnival of Souls only just proved what a brilliant, unique, writer that Melissa Marr is. This is one of those books that when you start reading it, you wouldn’t even try to make a prediction of where the story will lead.

In the Carnival of Souls, the story is written from the POV of several different characters, and each character is completely unique. So we get to experience this bizarre world Melissa created through several different viewing angles. And she actually ties up all the angles in the end…quite amazingly. When I first started reading, and even throughout the story, I had trouble deciding if I even liked any of the characters. I don’t want to say too much to avoid spoiling anything, but right when I thought that I might like a character, that character would do something that would totally baffle me and leave me wondering, “Is this supposed to be a bad guy, or a crazy, demented good guy?” Luckily, in the end, we finally see where each character stands, and you can decide for yourself if you think they are good or bad.

It’s not just the characters in Carnival of Souls that are extraordinary; it’s the lifestyle of the daimons that are even stranger. It’s baffling to think that these daimons would actually choose to live in The City, rather than trying to live in the human world.

The ending of Carnival of Souls leaves at a cliffhanger, but it didn’t kill me to leave the story from there. And I’m more than eagerly hoping that there will be a sequel…and soon.

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!

Rift by Andrea Cremer

Publisher’s summary: Chronicling the rise of the Keepers, this is the stunning prequel to Andrea Cremer's internationally bestselling Nightshade trilogy!

Sixteen-year-old Ember Morrow is promised to a group called Conatus after one of their healers saves her mother's life. Once she arrives, Ember finds joy in wielding swords, learning magic, and fighting the encroaching darkness loose in the world. She also finds herself falling in love with her mentor, the dashing, brooding, and powerful Barrow Hess. When the knights realize Eira, one of their leaders, is dabbling in dark magic, Ember and Barrow must choose whether to follow Eira into the nether realm or to pledge their lives to destroying her and her kind.

With action, adventure, magic, and tantalizing sensuality, this book is as fast-paced and breathtaking as the Nightshade novels.

My take: Loved it!!! Yep…all I need are those two words! For a while now, I’ve been in a little bit of a reading/blogging funk, and Rift was just the book to pull me out of it! When I first picked up Rift, it did take me a while to get into the story, but I think it was mostly because I needed to allow myself to get connected with the time era of the story. But once I got myself there…I didn’t put it down until I finished it, and that is not an exaggeration. Even when I walked around my house to do something, Rift never left my hand.

What I loved most about this book was the main character, Ember. She grew up in a time era when women were only used for looking pretty, getting married and having children…where the daughters of rich men usually arranged for their own daughters to get married, just so they could acquire more power or land. Ember’s dream her whole life was to fight like a warrior, but her dad had other plans for her. Luckily for Ember, her father owed someone big time…and, as payback, they came to collect Ember literally in the beginning of the book.

I knew this book was a spin-off from the Nightshade trilogy, so I was more than thrilled to see what this story was all about. But when I first started reading it, I was concerned that there might not be any paranormal elements to it. But, as always, I was wrong! What I loved about this book is that we get to read about how magic was being used properly, but then how evil was unleashed into the world with evil magic as well. We actually read about the first wraith entering earth! It’s awesome!!! Now that I’ve read this one, it makes me want to go back and read the Nightshade trilogy again to see if there are any cool links.

I think the characters were all pretty predictable for me. I had natural instincts about each of the characters in this book, and I ended up being right about all of them. There were no surprises, but that could have been Andrea Cremer’s intention, but I couldn’t really tell you if that was her intent. There is one particular character early on that I thought was a prick…but then I’ve come to realize that he’s either a complete idiot, or he’s pure evil! I guess I’ll have to find out in the next book, and it’s going to drive me insane having to wait for it.

The only thing I was a little disappointed about in Rift is that I only got a very small piece of the romance in the end. But I can see how it was not really possible to put the romance in the majority of the book because, unfortunately, to make the romance work, it would have had to be an extremely long work-up. But other than that, the whole story was amazing, the ending was awesome, and the romance in the end was intense but cut very short. I can’t wait to see what the next book brings me!

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?

Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins

Publisher’s summary: Talk about terrible timing…Just as Sophie Mercer has come to accept her extraordinary magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium Councel strips them away. With her powers locked inside her, Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of her sworn enemies – the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the Prodigium. Or at least that’s what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her magic, Sophie isn’t so sure.

The only known spell that can help Sophie regain her magic is at Hex Hall – the place where it all began, and now the headquarters of the evil Casnoffs. Together with her best friend, the vampire Jenna; her boyfriend, Archer; her fiancé, Cal (yeah, her love life is complicated); and a ghost for a sidekick, Sophie must battle an army of demons. But even with her friends at her side, the fate of all Prodigium rests on her shoulders alone.

Sophie’s bound for one hell of a ride… Can she get her powers back before it’s too late?

My take: Holy crap! That was certainly the best way to end the series! I have to give Rachel Hawkins a round of applause because this is for sure a series that I will keep on pimping out to anyone who will listen. LOL!

It was pure torture to wait for the release of Spell Bound! The moment I got it in the mail I’m pretty sure I squealed! I was so eager to get my hands on Spell Bound that I went home on my lunch break to check the mail! So, yes, I read this book almost immediately after the release date.

Spell Bound starts off pretty much right where Demonglass left off, and that was a relief because Demonglass has a freakin’ crazy but awful cliffhanger. The entire book flows perfectly, and it kept me on my toes the entire time. Even if I had a moment’s thought that I could relax, BAM, something would happen and I was back on my toes again.

The characters in this trilogy play a tremendous factor as to why I adore this trilogy so much. Sophie, for one, is a kick *ss protagonist! I almost forgot until I picked up this book how totally awesome her snarky humor is! Her personality adds that perfect touch to the trilogy, and I totally love her. I wish Sophie and I were BFFs because that would totally rock! Archer! Oh Archer! I love you Archer! Anyways, Archer compliments Sophie without a glitch. I think some of the best parts in this trilogy were whenever Sophie and Archer would banter back and forth. Then there’s Jenna; she is the best BFF for Sophie! Jenna is such a sweet, cute, loveable vampire that I just wanna squeeze and hug. Lastly, there is Cal! He is the sensible sweet guy who I just love to love, and I would totally be OK with taking him home to meet my dad. Oh, my, gosh! I almost forgot Elodie! I couldn’t stand that chick in Hex Hall but she turns out to be one of my fave characters in Spell Bound.

The ending to Spell Bound was incredible! Nearing the end of Spell Bound, there is a gut-wrenching tragedy and the story started to get extremely crazy and chaotic, and I started to worry that Rachel Hawkins might not be able to end the series properly! Once it was all over I thought, “Holy crap! She totally pulled it off!” She tied up everything as if she knew exactly how it was going to end and how it was going to get there.

This trilogy has a nice mix of magical creatures in the urban fantasy world, but the series primarily surrounds witches and demons. If you're looking for a book with totally awesome characters, an amazing romance, a lot of action, and some fun twists, then this is the series for you!

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Publisher's Summary: The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

My Take: The Night Circus is a truly unique love story; I think it will become one of those classic love stories that will never die and will be told over and over again. This love story is very sweet and magical, and I grew so attached to the story and its characters that I was actually sad when the story ended!

This story plays out over the course of several decades and, throughout that time, I almost felt like I was actually sitting in the grandstands, watching the characters grow up and experiencing how the circus evolved over the course of the story.

Each chapter switches back and forth between the lives and viewpoints of several key characters and also bounces back and forth between different dates in the past. When I started reading, this was a little hard for me to follow. And because I particularly suck at remembering names, it was a little hard for me to remember whose story I was reading about and to remember when the story was taking place. My suggestion to anyone reading The Night Circus is to pay close attention to each character’s name as well as to the time-line of each character’s story. If you do this, you should have no problem following this unique love story!

Originally, I received an ARC of The Night Circus for review, but whenever I picked it up and started reading, I just had a really hard time getting into the story. In fact, several times I actually fell asleep while reading! But it wasn’t the story I was having a hard time with, it was actually the writing style! But even though the writing style was hard for me to follow, I was still very intrigued by the story. So I ended up giving my ARC to a blogger friend and purchasing the audio book instead.

The story primarily revolves around two characters, Celia and Marco, who are introduced before the circus begins, and I grew particularly fond of each of these characters and their personal stories. As children, Celia and Marco are bound to each other to compete in a magical duel. They don’t know what the duel entails, when it will start or how they can win. But after extensive training, over the course of at least ten years, they learn that Le Cirque des Rêves is the venue for their duel and that their duel has begun. I really loved Celia’s temper in her younger age and how she expressed herself through her magic, and I really loved how she later becomes a strong and caring young woman.

Pretty much every person involved in the circus gets tangled up in this duel, without them even knowing about the duel or even knowing they are involved in the duel! I grew particularly attached to two twins named Poppit and Widget who were born the very night the circus begins, and they play a huge role at the end of the story. There is one particular moment with Poppit near the end where I felt like a proud parent and I had tears in my eyes. And, as I sit here and think about the story, I can list a bunch of other characters I grew really attached to, but if I talk about all of them, I will bore you to tears!

I do have to say that aside from the wonderful characters in The Night Circus, there were several story elements to Le Cirque des Rêves that I truly loved. One of these was this pure genius, totally intricate and awesome clock! And the exact moment when this totally awesome clock is introduced is the exact moment when I became totally entranced by this unique story.

I was really happy about how the story ended, but I was also really sad that I had to say goodbye. I felt like the circus had packed up, without warning, and left without me!

Started out by reading the ARC for review and then finished by listening to the audio-book that I purchased with my own money.

Amazon ★ Barnes & Noble ★ The Book Depository

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Publisher’s Summary: In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

My Take: It took me WAY too long to write this review. I don’t know if this is a problem for everyone, but whenever I read a book that I absolutely LOVE, I have a hard time writing a review about it.

Cassandra Clare has never let me down, proving over and over again that she has a wicked, awesome imagination! Where does this imagination come from? And she once again came through with Clockwork Prince, creating another super imaginative story that I fell in love with! This is the very reason why I have a SERIOUS addiction to her books and why I get so crazy about a new release. And each and every time I read another one of her books, it just fuels my addiction even more! I just know THIS kind of crazy obsession CAN’T be healthy! LoL!

I am so utterly in love with Will right now! I think that if he were real I’d become one of those crazy stalker chicks who would hope that she could grab his attention and then he’d fall in love with me…er, I mean “her.” He!He!He! There were many, many times when I just know I had a puppydog look on my face when I was thinking, “Ahhh!! I’m sooo in love with Will! Tessa, can’t you see that he LOVES YOU???” But Will is not the only character I fell in love with! I think I have grown a major attachment to EVERY character in this series. Charlotte is so sweet and motherly. Henry’s the sweet guy you want to give a big hug to and talk with about all his crazy contraptions. Jem is so caring, he thinks about everyone before himself. And I totally love Magnus! How could you not? Sad to say, but I actually even have a soft spot in heart for Jessamine! And who wouldn’t admire Tessa? I want to live with them all at the institute! So...badly!

What I really loved about this book was that we finally learn what the heck is going on with Will. And when I finally learn what’s making him so mean to everyone (anyone who tries to care about him), well, let’s just say the whole thing only fed my love for him even more. But one of my most favorite parts in the book is a scene between Charlotte and Henry, and, yes!, I cried like a little baby! OK...that wasn't my FAVORITE part, there is also a super HOT part on a balcony during a masquerade ball...THAT was my favorite part. OK, OK...I have A LOT of favorite parts!

Here is "A" fave quote:

"Let me see if I have this quite correct," said Tessa after a pause. "Jessamine found you with the invitation in your hand, so you struck her over the head with a mirror and tied her to her bed?"

I had THE major giggles at that part. Cute little Sophie!


Clockwork Prince brings nonstop action, humor, heartbreak and heart-melting moments…all with an amazing, fabulous story. And in about 500 pages, not a single page dragged. Each and EVERY page was compelling! If you haven’t yet read a book written by Cassandra Clare and you love fantasy and anything magical, then you are TOTALLY missing out!

Amy from The YA-Sisterhood loaned me her ARC & purchased a finished copy.

Severed by Megg Jensen

Author Summary: Reychel knows her gift of prophecy will lead to madness and now she is at her most vulnerable. The enemy army will attempt to sever her from everything she's ever known: her homeland, her friends, Mark, and her gift. Even at her weakest, she refuses to give up on her desire to end the war between the Malborn and the Serenians. Reychel would do anything, even come back from the dead, to conquer the enemy and reunite with Mark.

My Take: OMG! Severed is insanely, amazingly good! I can hardly express how fabulous this book is! I got less than 4 hours of sleep last night because of this book! Yep, as soon as I started reading Severed, I ignored all obligations and was sucked back into the world of the Cloud Prophet Trilogy. And from the moment I finished Oubliette, I’ve been impatiently waiting for my review copy of Severed, wondering what additional craziness Megg had up her sleeve, and she didn’t disappoint ONE BIT!

Megg Jensen’s books are more unique than any other books I’ve ever read. She’s created a very magical (but twisted!) world, and she always throws in these crazy plots and character twists. From start to finish there is ALWAYS something intense happening. Megg’s an amazing writer, and I’m still in awe that she’s able to write such great stories in books way smaller than I normally read . . . short books where I get as much out of, if not WAY more out of, than I do with any other books that I read. The best part of her books, particularly this one, is that I literally have to brace myself while reading because I feel if I haven’t correctly anticipated that something crazy is about to happen (and then it does!) that I will not be able to handle it. And I was STILL completely caught off guard in several parts throughout Severed.

As I was coming close to the end of this book, I started to get really worried because a NEW bunch of craziness had arisen, and I was worried that it wouldn’t all be resolved by the end of the book! Because who could pull that off? Well Megg totally pulled it off, and she created the BEST ending imaginable to her Cloud Prophet Trilogy! The ending was soooo good that I was sobbing and, to calm myself down, I actually read all of her acknowledgments!! I almost never do that, and I’m pretty sure I read her acknowledgments in Oubliette as well!

This is a series I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone!

Received review copy from author for my honest review.

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

Summary:  Sophie Mercer thought she was a witch.

That was the whole reason she was sent to Hex Hall, a reform school for delinquent Prodigium (aka witches, shapeshifters, and fairies). But that was before she discovered the family secret, and that her hot crush, Archer Cross, is an agent for The Eye, a group bent on wiping Prodigium off the face of the earth.

Turns out, Sophie’s a demon, one of only two in the world—the other being her father. What’s worse, she has powers that threaten the lives of everyone she loves. Which is precisely why Sophie decides she must go to London for the Removal, a dangerous procedure that will destroy her powers.

But once Sophie arrives she makes a shocking discovery. Her new friends? They’re demons too. Meaning someone is raising them in secret with creepy plans to use their powers, and probably not for good. Meanwhile, The Eye is set on hunting Sophie down, and they’re using Archer to do it. But it’s not like she has feelings for him anymore. Does she?


My Take: Whoa! That was one big bang of an ending. It was also an awfully amazing cliffhanger and I am SERIOUSLY craving for more. I can't even go to bed right now because my mind is still reeling. The ending pretty much felt like a major explosion of fireworks! You know, when you are watching the finale at the end of a firework show and it is so crazy that you almost feel like you can't handle it? Yeah, that is how it made me feel! I can still feel the high.

If you haven't read Hex Hall, then I want to warn you that there will be some spoilers of Hex Hall in this review.

Literally, right after I finished Hex Hall I picked up Demonglass. I was determined to find out if she was really going to have her powers stripped and what the heck happened with Archer! What a twist! Were Archer's feelings for Sophie real or was it an assignment?

Sophie's father takes Sophie, Jenna and Cal with him back to London. Ahhhh Cal...I ♥ him! And I am thrilled he is featured more in this book. But even though he is a hunk and I have the major hots for him, I found that one particular part in the book made him a little bit of a wuss. Seriously? He has this amazing power to heal and his obsession is to heal plants? There is a part in the book where he is holding a plant gingerly in his hands after trying to teach Sophie how to heal it and after the pot holding the plant broke. I'm sitting here thinking, "If you’ve got this amazing gift, wouldn't you be hanging out in some Prodigium hospital to cure some magical creatures? Why the heck are you so freakin' obsessed with plants? " But other than that, Cal is totally hot!

I loved in this book how truly powerful Sophie is and can be. I don't want to give up too much, but it was fabulous and the ending had some more freakin' crazy twists! I was thinking, "Where the heck is this heading?!?" And I am still thinking that!

I have only had this happen with one other book, but right before the crazy ending, I was thinking about how I would rate Demonglass. At that point I thought I would be giving it only 4 stars . . . but after THAT ending...I HAD to give it 5 stars! I highly recommend this series.