List of 2012 debuts I have read-
Cinder by Marissa Meyer (I already did a review for it)
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges
Ditched: A Love Story by Robin Mellom
Now, let's get started with Under the Never Sky!!!!!
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11594257-under-the-never-sky
Aria is a teenager in the enclosed city of Reverie. Like all Dwellers, she spends her time with friends in virtual environments, called Realms, accessed through an eyepiece called a Smarteye. Aria enjoys the Realms and the easy life in Reverie. When she is forced out of the pod for a crime she did not commit, she believes her death is imminent. The outside world is known as The Death Shop, with danger in every direction.
As an Outsider, Perry has always known hunger, vicious predators, and violent energy storms from the swirling electrified atmosphere called the Aether. A bit of an outcast even among his hunting tribe, Perry withstands these daily tests with his exceptional abilities, as he is gifted with powerful senses that enable him to scent danger, food and even human emotions.
They come together reluctantly, for Aria must depend on Perry, whom she considers a barbarian, to help her get back to Reverie, while Perry needs Aria to help unravel the mystery of his beloved nephew’s abduction by the Dwellers. Together they embark on a journey challenged as much by their prejudices as by encounters with cannibals and wolves. But to their surprise, Aria and Perry forge an unlikely love - one that will forever change the fate of all who live UNDER THE NEVER SKY.
I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5! Get it, stars and the title involves the sky, I crack myself up sometimes!
I love the world Rossi created in this book, a world you haven't seen before and it's definitely entertaining. The very air can kill you, that is a scary thought! I could understand the technology quite well in this book, it was simple enough for me to grasp this new idea. The Aether wasn't truly explained, but I'm guessing the author didn't want to bore us with a scientific explanation that would make me throw the book across the room. Some things can't be explained and people don't want to bother with it, even I get bored sometimes (all the time). Also, I love the title! It was mentioned how the title played a role in the book by Aria talking about how the world was full of nevers, like never being able to fly, never being able to breathe. A world full of nevers under a never sky. Works, huh?
The book was in two perspectives, Aria and Peregrine (Perry) so you could understand the world they live in, in two separate views. A spoiled, rich girl from inside the safe, technological world and Perry, a guy who has to fight for his life in the Death Shop and has never understood technology. It doesn't sound like these two are at all related, but opposites attract in the weirdest cases. I loved the romance in the book though! Perry made me squeal inside and made me want him to be real. At first, they hated each other instead of immediately jumping into an instant love at first sight kind of relationship that's "all the rage" right now. It was a gradual change that I appreciated and made me love Perry even more.
This was definitely a fun read and the ending was a cliffhanger! I can't wait for the next book, I want to know what happened!!!
The only bad thing about this book was that some things weren't explained well and I hope they elaborate on them a little bit more in the next book.
Sequel comes out 2013, see you there!!!!
Next up!!
The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11378402-the-alchemy-of-forever
After spending six hundred years on Earth, Seraphina Ames has seen it all. Eternal life provides her with the world's riches but at a very high price: innocent lives. Centuries ago, her boyfriend, Cyrus, discovered a method of alchemy that allows them to take the bodies of other humans from jumping from one vessel to the next, ending the human's life in the process. No longer able to bear the guilt of what she's done, Sera escapes from Cyrus and vows to never kill again.
Then sixteen-year old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrific car accident right in front of her, and Sera accidentally takes over her body while trying to save her. For the first time, Sera finds herself enjoying the life of the person she's inhabiting--and falling in love with the boy who lives next door. But Cyrus will stop at nothing until she's his again, and every moment she stays, she's putting herself and the people she's grown to care about in danger. Will Sera have to give up the one thing that's eluded her for centuries: true love?
I give this book 5 potions out of 5 (don't let it confuse you, this is definitely no Harry Potter book)
This is an original story about alchemy and reincarnation that will appeal to readers who are tired of those everyday vampire books. Alchemy hasn't been used in many books, but I find the subject to be awesome and I want to see more books published like it! It's not just coal turning into gold, but the prospect of living forever. It's something that can actually happen if some scientific experiments are proven correct. Though, I'm sure many people wouldn't want to live forever, killing many people just so you could live. This book explores the consequences that happen if such a situation became true.
First off, I love the cover! It's a shiny covers that gives off that kind of 3-D look and it's awesome! It symbolizes the many changes Seraphina (Sera) has had to face during every single lifetime she hasn't wanted to live. Cyrus is what many ex-girlfriends don't want, he can come up to you in any appearance and you wouldn't even know! He could come as a police officer and arrest you for a crime you didn't commit. He can come as a serial killer, kill you, and escape from the body without ever being a suspect. It's a terrifying idea that the one you want to avoid at all costs is right there in front of you and you didn't even know.
The book is filled with a wonderful array of emotions, making me love the voice of Sera and her relationship with a human boy who is in love with the wrong person, literally! The ending was totally unexpected! It left me on a cliffhanger making me think, "WTF!!!!". I want to read more! it's absolutely killing me! This book can either be a trilogy kind of book, with Sera in the one body, or it could be a large series with Sera swapping bodies in every book and exploring the lives of those people. It's the suspense that kills me, this book could become anything!
The only regret is that I wish this book was longer! I can't wait for the sequel!
Third book!
The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11164732-the-katerina-trilogy-vol-i
St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.
An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.
The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?
I give this book 3 pills out of 5 (Katerina wants to be a doctor)!!!!
Okay, here are some bad things.
1. All the historical mentionings were really confusing because half the time, I had no idea what they were talking about. All the Russian words, vampires, it made my head hurt. There were also too many characters with too many things going on. I could barely remember Katerina's cousin's name, no less all of the minor character's names that kept popping up.
2. All of the politics made no sense to me, I never lived in this time period, and all this forcing marriage makes me never want to travel to Russia. All the counts and dukes of so many places, vying for Katerina's attention. Okay, how rich is Katerina? It's not like she's a princess, why does everyone want her?
3. Apparently, if you have the faerie sight, you can see black clouds in Katerina's aura and that's how people discovered she was a necromancer. How did they not discover that before? She lived her whole life as a necromancer and finally one guy told her he thought she was evil. Did no one ever notice before? How did it suddenly pop out of thin air like that?
4. Her mother kept telling her (more like, her hysterical mother who freaks out over a little spot of dust) that she had better marry a rich man, stay in the kitchen all day, and make a ton of male children. Okay, that disgusts me! Katerina wants to be a doctor, why can't her mother let Katerina be happy and accomplish her dreams? Her mother needs to realize that Katerina's growing up and she doesn't need to be freaking out half the time.
The good things!!
1. George sounded so cute, he hated Katerina at first because he thought she had black magic, but he couldn't help his love for her in the end. He respected her wishes and supported Katerina in any way he could even if he didn't like it. I thoroughly enjoyed his character, and I can't wait to see more of him!
2. Being a necromancer isn't used many times in book, especially historical fiction books, but in this book setting, it actually worked. I want to see more necromancers because they're so rare in books and how people would deal with waking up with a dead person in their bed. Yeah, not pretty. Imagine the smell!
3. Katerina fought for her dreams of being a doctor, she never gave them up even with her parents forcing marriage down her throat. She kept reading medical papers and trying to help the sick people all around her. I found her admirable for the way she never gave up on her dreams, no matter how hard they were.
Well, I will read the sequel! The sequel comes out October 12, 2012. I want to read it! I want to see more of George, mmm.
4th and last!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ditched: A Love Story by Robine Mellom
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10194548-ditched
High school senior Justina Griffith was never the girl who dreamed of going to prom. Designer dresses and strappy heels? Not her thing. So she never expected her best friend, Ian Clark, to ask her.
Ian, who always passed her the baseball bat handle first.
Ian, who knew exactly when she needed red licorice.
Ian, who promised her the most amazing night at prom.
And then ditched her.
Now, as the sun rises over her small town, and with only the help of some opinionated ladies at the 7-Eleven, Justina must piece together — stain by stain on her thrift-store dress — exactly how she ended up dateless. A three-legged Chihuahua was involved. Along with a demolition derby-ready Cadillac. And there was that incident at the tattoo parlor. Plus the flying leap from Brian Sontag's moving car...
But to get the whole story, Justina will have to face the boy who ditched her. And discover if losing out at prom can ultimately lead to true love.
Filled with humor, charm, and romance, Ditched: A Love Story by debut novelist Robin Mellom will have readers dreaming of love on their own prom nights.
I give this book 4 dresses out of 5!!!!!
This book was laugh out loud hilarious! I loved every word of it! There were even pictures of all the stains on her dress that made me wonder what was going on. This book has a ton of emotions going crazy, including two high (and not on adrenaline) girls, a three legged Chihuahua, and old ladies listening to a hysterical teenage girl. There were definitely some weird parts in the book that I didn't understand, but it was definitely funny.
The characters ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, and it seemed like this book was rushed in a couple of places, but it still had a general sweet feeling about it. The ending made you "aw" at the obvious happy ending and she, of course, got the guy in the end which you could predict from the beginning, of course.
It seemed ditsy in a weird way, but it was definitely enjoyable. This one hit wonder book, even if it doesn't have a sequel, made me want to read it again (even if it was just to make sense of some parts).
That's all for my debuts! Did you read any debuts yet? I hope they were awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
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