Book Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Shiver
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: August 1 2009
My Source: Library

My Rating: 4/5

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human ... until the cold makes him shift back again.
Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

Shiver was exactly what I expected it to be. The two main characters, Grace and Sam, have loved each other forever, it seems. The romance is really nice and refreshing. They've never met in person, but when they do, they're instantly attatched to each other. There's not of that "which boy should i choose?" or anything. It's just the two of them, but it fails to get boring, because of the way they interact. What they have is like a dream relationship. I'll admit- it probably is unrealistic in some ways, but for a story it's good none the less. That was definitely my favorite part about this book.

On the other hand, it was extremely predictable and lacked tension. I felt like I knew what was going to happen and there was really nothing there to keep me reading. The only reason I kept reading was because of the romance between the two main characters- they kept it interesting. But when I got done with the book, I looked back at it and thought what a great read it was, it just left me with a happy satisfaction when I was finished, so I gave it four stars. The only thing I wish this book could've done for me is leave me eager to read the next one. I still will read Linger, but it seemed like Shiver wrapped up most of the loose ends, so I'm not dying to read the next one. Maybe Linger will top Shiver with some kind of new plot to keep it going. I sure hope so.
*content warning: some mild language and suggestive content

Book Review: Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

Title: Blue Bloods
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Series: Blue Bloods #1
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: May 1 2006
My Source: Bought


My Rating: 3/5


When the Mayflower set sail in 1620, it carried on board the men and women who would shape America: Miles Standish; John Alden; Constance Hopkins. But some among the Pilgrims were not pure of heart; they were not escaping religious persecution. Indeed, they were not even human. They were vampires.The vampires assimilated quickly into the New World. Rising to levels of enormous power, wealth, and influence, they were the celebrated blue bloods of American society. The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries.
But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Alen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think.
Could those vampire legends really be true? Steeped in vampire lore and set against the heady backdrop of the rich, young, and powerful in the heart of New York City, Blue Bloods will be devoured by Melissa de la Cruz's legion fans.


This book is a combination of vampires meets rich new yorkers, which in the premise sounded really intriging to me, and that's why I picked it up. I really wanted to like this book, and it was entertaining, even if it wasn't best book I've ever read. Schuyler Van Alen, along with many other teens her age, found out she was a vampire when she turned fifteen, but not only that, they learned that they had lived many past lives and were reincarnated over and over again. I'm sorry, but every time I read a book with the whole reincarnation thing it usually drags the book down for me (...like Evermore, a book I really didn't enjoy). I'm not sure why, but it's like if they'd had so many past lives I hardly care about this one. Fortunately, without giving away any spoilers, I'll just say that this book had enough differences, twists in the whole reincarnation thing that I was able to deal with it. It was definitely interesting enough, a new take on the vampire thing by having them be immortal angels, you'd have to read it to really understand it.
One thing I did like about this book was that it was told in third person, and not just focused on romance where there's one perfect mysterious guy. Actually, I didn't really like any of the guys in this book, which was a little bit of a let down, but it was okay.
I have to say the writing in this book was pretty horrible. I absolutely do not get the point of having the Schulyer/Bliss photoshoot, it completely didn't relate to the plot and totally got me confused about Schuyler's character. The books started out like this: Mimi is the fashion obsessed, rich girl, Schuyler is the goth girl who don't care about that, and then suddenly she's this vampire and model. What? No character development. I'm so confused! That wasn't exactly the only thing in this book that totally didn't make sense. It was really unrealistic, but I still kept reading because even though it was lame at times, it certainly wasn't boring. You might be dragged down by all the designer labels, clothing descriptions, etc, but I was reading it fast enough that I didn't care, though there was a point where it started to get ridiculous.

I'm going to continue reading the next one, but if it starts getting worse (more ridiculous and unbelievable characters) than I don't know if I'll stick with the series.
*content warning: some completely uneccesary (in my opinion) sexual content!

Book Review: Burned by P.C. and Kristin Cast

My Rating: 3/5

Zoey Redbird is the youngest High Priestess in House of Night history and is the only person – vamp or fledgling – that can stop the evil Neferet from raising all kinds of immortal trouble. And she might just have a chance if she wasn’t so busy being dead.

Well, dead is too strong a word. Stevie Rae knows she can bring her BFF back from her unscheduled va-cay in the Otherworld. But it’s going to take a lot more than hoping to bring Zoey back. Stevie Rae will have to give up a few secrets of her own . . .

This is the seventh book in the House of Night series. I've heard there's plans for 9, but also for 12, so I guess we'll just have to see how many there will be total. Like the previous book Tempted, this one is told from multiple character POVs. It was similar to the other books though, and that's one thing I've started to get sick of with this series. There's alwasy something new in each book, but in the end, not really much has changed. They're usually not much closer to getting rid of the antagonist.The end of Tempted was a huge shock for me, but that was about the only shock provided in this series. This book was entertaining and kept me reading because it changed views and storylines, and moved quickly, even if in the end, we weren't much further from where we were 2 books ago plot wise. One thing that has stayed consistent through the series is the narration, whether told from 1st or 3rd person, is written like a voice talking. It adds a lot of character, but gets extremely annoying after a while, and sometimes I wish they could be written better. I really liked the different perspectives though, getting out Zoey's head and into other people provided a lot more stories.

The more of these books come out, the more complex the mytholgy and religion of the vampyres get. 90% of it I can track with, but there were a few times I got mixed up because there was so much going on, and there's still some questions I have that hopefully will get answered in future books, or maybe I need to reread the series because I just forgot (Such as, how can Kalona be killed, isn't he immortal...?).

Regardless of my complaints, if you liked the whole series, you'll like this one. I enjoyed reading it, and I might recommend it, depending on who you are. It was a pretty quick read for me, even though there were a lot of complex stuff. Start with Marked, read through them all in a row. No time takes place between books and it's easier to do it that way and it's a lot simpler to follow.

*content warning: A lot of strong language, some sexual content