The Shadow Reader (McKenzie Lewis #1)- Sandy Williams

McKenzie Lewis has an ability sought by both the Court Fae (variation spelling on 'fey' used in this book) and the Rebels: she can track fey based on the 'shadows' they leave behind. In the human world, McKenzie is trying to finish her English degree and get on with her life, but the fae have other plans for her. She has been working for the fae king for years and has been in love with his sword master, Kyol, for just as long. However, she is tracked down and kidnapped by the rebel fae who want to unseat the corrupt king and put one of their own on the throne. To do this, they need McKenzie's talents to find and gain control over the hidden portals in their world. McKenzie must decide who she can trust and whether or not her affections for Kyol can be replaced by the rugged rebel leader, Aren. Aren teaches her the forbidden fae language and opens her eyes to the corruption of the Court. The fighting begins to claim lives, both mortal and fae and McKenzie's decision could be the single thing that decides the outcome of the war.

Overall Merit: Let me start by saying, this is the perfect example of a misleading cover. I don't think McKenzie so much as touches a sword in the entire novel, in fact she spends most of her time getting injured and rescued by people who can actually use a weapon properly. This book did not gain points with me because to be honest, I didn't understand McKenzie's powers very well and from what I saw of them, they didn't seem very useful. The story was not that interesting or well thought out. Plus, it was totally predictable. I mean it wasn't an awful book or anything, but there wasn't even any good romance to make it better. Score- 6

Characters: I apologize in advance because this is going to turn into a rant about character names. McKenzie. What the bloody hell? If you must use a horrible spelling of the name, don't put random capitals in the  middle of it, it's distracting. What's wrong with Mckenzie, or Mackenzie? Personally, I prefer the vowel before the 'ck' it looks prettier and makes the name less irritating. McKenzie is a bad name in general, but Williams makes it worse with the pretentious spelling. I mean I've seen much worse names, but that's only because I can't pronounce them. To add to that, I didn't really like McKenzie very much, she didn't have much of a personality. Sure, she kept trying to escape from the Rebels and blah, blah, blah, but she didn't do all that much. She was a space filler, not a character. The two love interests weren't interesting either, Aren was ok, but Kyol was meh. I mean all the characters were just kind of flat. Score- 5

Blush Factor: I don't like love triangles at the best of times, however this one didn't bother me so much. Then again, that might have to do with the fact that the characters were all way too boring for me to care what happened to/with them. Aren was a bad boy, but not really and then Kyol was supposed to be a stoic, deadly swordsman, but again not really. McKenzie eventually chooses Aren, sorry to spoil it, but it was pretty predictable. Score- 6

Structure: This was actually a first person novel, which was somewhat surprising since that doesn't show up often in this genre. Nonetheless, the narrator (McKenzie) was not interesting enough to make me enjoy her perspective. It followed linear story structure and well there were virtually no plot twists. Then there was some weird stuff going on with humans who hunted faeries and I got confused. The weird relationship with technology didn't fly that well for me either. I wasn't convinced that the fae were actually fae, there wasn't anything very faerie-like about them at all. Williams did not ground her mythos well enough for the world. Also, what the hell are the weird electrical impulses that seem to run through fae skin? I was confused and not very pleased with the structure of this world. Score- 4

Plot: In one word: predictable. There wasn't much of a plot and the plot that was there wasn't interesting. I was pretty bored throughout the novel--thank Rhiannon it was short. Seriously though, nothing new happened here. McKenzie was kidnapped a bunch of times, there was a pathetic attempt at a battle at the end. Some sort of convoluted plot was concocted. Even the romantic tension fell flat. This book sort of had potential, but it definitely wasn't worth the money I spent buying it. Score- 4

Vervain says: "Human technology weakens fae magic."

Warbreaker- Brandon Sanderson

This is the story of two princesses, Vivenna and Siri, one of whom is destined to marry the God King of Hallandren. It is also the story of a minor god who hates his job as one of the Returned, and another immortal who is trying to correct his mistakes made centuries ago. In their world, people who die under the right circumstances join the pantheon of the Returned, and live as gods for the rest of eternity. However, the gods need Breath to live, Breath, which is the source of Biochromatic power that every person possesses to a certain extent. A power that will prove to be the undoing of many and the fortune maker of few. Only through the collective efforts of Siri, Vivenna, Lightsong, Susebron the God King, and Vasher the Warbreaker will an inevitable war come to a less than devastating conclusion.

-I apologize for the vague and patchy synopsis. However, given the contents of the story I had little to work with. Here's an interview with Sanderson that might clarify things a bit.

Overall Merit: First off, the cover is gorgeous, but that's through no merit of the author. I think this book disappointed me more than it would someone else because the Mistborn Trilogy was just fantastic. For some reason, Sanderson was able to capture all of his literary prowess in those books, but fell far from the mark in this standalone novel. I do have to give credit where it's due and say that Sanderson is a genius at creating new worlds. The world in Warbreaker was intrinsically fascinating and thrilling, but the rest of the story, plot, characters, etc fell flat. Score- 7

Characters: Often times when there are a lot of perspectives going on at the same time, a reader will favor one perspective over the other perspectives. In fact, I've yet to find a multi-perspective book where this hasn't been the case for me. Then again, this is all relative because I found nearly all the characters to be annoying. Vivenna was bratty and spoiled and Sanderson kept talking about how she was 'so well controlled', but I never really saw it. Okay, I sort of did, but only through a really annoying plot device that he exploited far more than he should have. Vivenna and Siri, as royal princesses of Idris have the ability to change their hair color based on mood. Sanderson used this as a copout because instead of giving us other indicators as to how the girls were feeling it would just be like "her hair flared red", "her hair bleached", etc. Siri was also annoying because for such a 'rebellious' girl, she really didn't do anything all that rebellious. I don't know, Vin and Elend (Mistborn) were more real for me and I actually liked them as people. Score- 5

Blush Factor: This was a presence in the book, somewhat. I mean it's weird, Mistborn was uber chaste and then Sanderson spends a good deal of time talking about just how big Mercystar and Blushweaver's (two of the Returned) breasts are. Then there's the whole weird thing going on with Susebron and Siri (horrible name choice by the way). I don't know, I mean the Siri x Susebron thing wasn't bad, it was kind of sweet actually so kudos for that, but then he tried to do something with Vivenna and Vasher. The whole book was all over the place. This wasn't a terrible aspect, but neither was it that important. Solid, I guess. Score- 7

Structure: There were too many perspectives and I didn't enjoy reading most of them, in fact I kind of skimmed all the chapters that didn't involve Siri and Susebron--the only side story I found moderately entertaining. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that I didn't really care about most of the characters, but Susebron, the God King intrigued me and I actually somewhat wanted to find out what happened with him, even though I could care less about the rest of the story. Score- 6

Plot: Ok, this was really, really contrived. There were way too many things going on and I even though the book was very long, it wasn't nearly long enough to flesh out all the details Sanderson was trying to cram into 600 pages. To be honest, all I got was there was some kind of conspiracy with the God King and a war was on the horizon. There were about 20 different rebel factions and it was nigh impossible to keep track of. Things were going on with Vivenna and some other things with Lightsong. Like I said, the only chapters I actually liked reading were the ones with Siri and Susebron. Score- 5

Vervain says: "Read the Mistborn Trilogy, but avoid this book unless you're absolutely desperate to read something else by Sanderson."

Eternal Eden- Nicole Williams

Bryn is forever alone (pardon my meme). She has no parents and is a social pariah at her obscure college in Oregon. The one day, a new transfer student shows up named William Winters. In spite of her objections and denial, there is an instant spark between Bryn and the new students. Even though every instinct warns her away, Bryn ends up falling in love with William. However, William may not be from the same world as her. Bryn must decide what she will sacrifice in order to spend the rest of her life with the man she loves.


Overall Merit: The only thing that might be worse than Twilight (I don't know why I even italicize; Twilight isn't a real book), is a terrible knockoff of Twilight. This book screams Edward and Bella so loudly that my ears almost shriveled up and fell off. If I listed all the similarities, it would take all night. Maybe the only difference is that Bryn has a bit of a backbone and she's slightly more interesting than Bella. Slightly. The only reason this book doesn't quite get a 0 is because at least Williams made a very minor effort to create something new whereas Meyer took a preexisting idea and threw glitter on it. Also, Williams' writing was a bit tighter in terms of technical skill. Score- 2

Characters: William is overbearing and protective and one day decides to leave because it's "for Bryn's own good". Bryn throws herself into the ocean...jeez where have I heard that before? I'm sorry for the spoilers, but to be honest you shouldn't even be reading this book. Also, of course there's a love rival named Paul who shows up out of nowhere and decides to be madly in love with Bryn. Cough Jacob Cough. The antagonist is predictable and to be honest, stupid. In fact, Bryn is stupid too, since she doesn't catch onto something that is basically stabbing her in the face and screaming at her at the same time. Like it's fine that she's stupid, but apparently she got into Harvard, Stanford, etc. NO. Bryn is an idiot. She should be going to community college. Score- 1

Blush Factor: Don't give me that "I want to wait for marriage bullsh**". Come on. Stop copying Stephenie. PLEASE. The romance in this book is annoying. By the time I got to the middle of the book I was like, "If William uses the word 'temptress' one more time I'm going to go into the book and run him through with a machete". Saying 'temptress' a million times is not sexy. Hell, it's not even sexy the first time. Vixen is a sexier word by far. Or how about minx? I don't know. Something else. I beg you, Nicole. Not to mention: What the BLOODY HELL is with all these guys being like 'I won't have sex until I find the one'? That is crap. Boys like to have sex. Girls like to have sex. No guy is going to wait hundreds of years to have sex, even if the Council orders it. Score- 0 (There is nothing wrong with sex and if you're writing a romance novel about anyone over the age of 17, it's pretty much inevitable.)

Structure: Look at that, another similarity. First person Bryn. Um my bad, first person Bella. The world is horribly structured. I give this book a minor kudo (one kudo, not kudos) because I thought it was interesting that she made the immortals in this book responsible for all the natural disasters in the world. A decent concept. Not great, but decent. Everything else about  the world was crud. Why the Hell would anyone waste so much time making sure that people stayed virgins? I need to do research on this lady, but if she's religious too that would explain a lot. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a sex fiend, and there isn't a place for sex in every book, I accept that, but if you bring up the subject then it needs to be addressed. Score-1

Plot: What plot? Seriously, where is the plot? Oh right, Bryn and William try in desperation to find a way to be together even though the council forbids it. Sound familiar? Then William spirits Bryn away to live with his family, which consists of couples that are eerily reminiscent of Rosalie, Emmet, Jasper, and Alice...wow who would have thought? How creative. And then there's some weird prophecy nonsense that shows up at the end. Yea, maybe Williams should have mentioned that sooner? Maybe then there would be some semblance of a plot. No? Score- 0

Vervain says: "Something very imaginative that Williams does is she gives each immortal a special talent. Just like all of Stephenie Meyer's vampires!"

Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn #1)- Brandon Sanderson

In a world where ash rains from the sky and flowers are an impossibility, the skaa toil in misery and live in fear. The Lord Ruler reigns over this world as a 'sliver of infinity', a piece of God. He is invincible and immortal, at least according to most. Hope is such a foreign concept that it has nearly been forgotten until a heart-broken, half-skaa named Kelsier escapes from the Lord Ruler's prison and decides to use his talents to overthrow the Lord Ruler. He recruits the elite of the underworld to help him in his endeavor, but it isn't until he discovers the half-skaa urchin named Vin that his plan has any real hope of succeeding. Kelsier must teach Vin to harness and master her vast powers and to learn to trust again after years of abuse have left her skittish and afraid.

Overall Merit: READ THIS BOOK. Please. Sanderson is a genius. The world is vibrant and original and I found myself incredibly attached to the characters. I had only one small gripe with the story (the romantic sequence), but that was not nearly enough to deter my enjoyment. If you are a high/epic fantasy fan and you read one book this year, make it this one. Yes, it is long, and yes it is a hefty read, but please take the time; it is well worth it. Score- 12

Characters: The characters are phenomenal. They are fresh and real and have the depth and struggles of real people. Vin is captured masterfully and you watch her grow from scared and paranoid to confident and capable. Kelsier grows too in spite of himself as he teaches Vin what he knows about allomancy and learns to care about someone again. Even the side characters have their own story and they feel real as well as opposed to cardboard cutout space fillers, which seem to be employed in so many novels. Even the villain was refreshing. The Lord Ruler was typically wicked, but I've never seen an entity like him in terms of abilities. Score-13

Blush Factor: My one gripe was this category. The romance wasn't bad per se, it was just minimal and the little I saw didn't ring true for me. The romantic leads spent so little time together and then magically woke up and were like "OMG I'm in love with him/her", which is fine, but I really would have liked to see a more realistic progression of feelings. However, I did like the coupling of personalities so this category won't get a horrible score. Score-7

Structure: Vin's perspective was refreshing. I've never met a character quite like her and I was pleased to make her acquaintance. The beginning plodded a bit, but once the action started it was non-stop and kept me reading for hours on end. My favorite part was his new type of "magic"--allomancy it takes brilliance to create an effective new superpower/form of magic and Sanderson did just that. Bravo to him. Score-11

Plot: Wow, talk about an original world and concept. Sanderson's imagination must be boundless for him to have come up with something like this. The story was incredibly complex and must have required an extensive amount of planning on his part. It was an original take on the battle of Good Vs. Evil in a world where Evil originally won out. The ending came as a surprise to me, which seldom happens so kudos for that. I can't wait to read the Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2). Score- 12

Vervain says: "Allomancy is the ingestion and internal combustion of metals. Each different metal allows the user to access a different power, for example, pewter gives the user advanced strength and agility."

Demons at Deadnight (Divinicus Nex Chronicles #1)- A&E Kirk

Aurora has always seen demons, but it didn't become  a real problem until recently when she moved back to Gossamer Falls. Now her sightings have grown more frequent and far more lethal--something nasty definitely wants her dead. And why do the demons keep calling her 'Nex'?
In walk her old childhood friends: The Hex Boys. They are secretive and notorious for their destructive capabilities. However, they are the only ones strong enough to protect her from the demons. Aurora and the Hex Boys will have to work together to figure out why she is being targeted before it's too late.

Overall Merit: I don't understand why young adult authors always feel the need to harp on how unattractive the female protagonist thinks she is. I mean I get that it's a device to help the reader identify with the character, but I find it annoying. If you must comment, do it once, not a million times. Also, who decided that tall on a girl was unattractive? I've read a lot of books recently where the girl complains, "Oh, I'm so tall, that must mean I'm awkward and ugly." Umm no? Sorry, back to the important stuff. Anyway, so this book was meh, for lack of a better word. I didn't hate it, but the protagonist was annoying and Kirk( A&E are two separate people, but I'm going to refer to them collectively) tried to make the Hex Boys funny, but more often than not I found myself cringing instead of laughing. The plot was not as focused as it could have been and I felt like the characters didn't pick up on things that should have been obvious. Not horrible, but not great either. Score- 7

Check out the trailer:

Characters: Like I said before, Aurora was annoying. She was awkward and whiny and not a character I enjoyed following very much. The Hex Boys were funny at times and I did like them to a certain extent, but sometimes their personalities blended and I had a difficult time telling them apart--that's the danger of having a lot of characters with a similar function. Also, I didn't buy a lot of the drama it was too overblown and some of the boys came off as caricatures more than characters. As a rule of thumb if there are a lot of supporting characters you have to commit to making them just as real and unique as the protagonists or risk confusing the reader. Also, one character who irritated me to high Heaven was Gloria (you'll meet her if you read this book), she was an obnoxious little twit and I thought Kirk would have done better to eliminate her. One thing I did like was that the families were in the picture and Kirk did a good job with this (you know blackmailing siblings, "I'll tell mom", all that good stuff). Score- 6

Blush Factor: This was again nothing that interesting, I did appreciate that it wasn't the wham-bam instantaneous romance that usually happens in YA, but I didn't feel a ton of chemistry between Ayden and Aurora. Sure he was hot, but all the Hex Boys were so that didn't do all that much for me. It was a slow build up and well I don't know if I could even consider romance a legitimate part of this book. Score-7

Structure: Nothing new here. Aurora's perspective throughout with a few side glimpses into the antagonists. The main issue here was that there wasn't a clearly defined villain, which bothered me. I wanted to know exactly who was out to get Aurora, not just a vague idea. Also, there was a group called the Divinicus, but I didn't understand the underlying structure and hierarchy, which is always a problem. Writers tend to forget that while they know everything about their world, a reader does not. Score- 7

Plot: There was a plot, but it was patchy and not well connected. I felt like there were a lot of little things going on at the same time, but the underlying thread to link them together was frayed. Again, there wasn't any major innovation here and to be honest the story was hum drum predictable and somewhat cliched. Also, I'm going out on a limb and saying that it sounded suspiciously like the anime Pretear. Score- 5

In summation: I'm going to suggest that you don't bother with this book, unless you're like me, and need an inexpensive ebook, and have WAY too much time on your hands.

Vervain says: "The Divinicus Nex is supposedly a person with the power to sense and locate demons. Aurora is the first female Divinicus."