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!"

Katie's Hellion (Rhyn Trilogy #1)- Lizzy Ford

Katie is having a terrible day. First she gets pulled over for driving two miles over the speed limit, and then she gets in trouble for not taking care of a son that she knows she doesn't have. According to everyone around her, she has amnesia due to a rape, but Katie knows that this can't possibly be the case. Her suspicions are confirmed when it turns out her "son", Toby is actually an eons old angel and a mysterious man named Gabriel shows up at her house claiming to be something called a 'Death Dealer'. Apparently, Katie's blood is special and it has something in it that makes her immune to immortals and therefore an immortal's mate. However, she isn't just an immortal's mate, she's an ancient's mate (which is like a step above an immortal's mate). By all rights, she should go to the eldest Ancient, but instead she is claimed by the outcast half-breed, Rhyn who rescues her from the depths of Hell.

Overall Merit: The problem with this book was that there were way too many things going on at the same time. Since the books were short, I read the whole trilogy, but the problem was consistent throughout. There were a million things going on and it was difficult to keep a firm grasp on the storyline. The characters were strong, which is always a plus, but I felt like the story was going in like twenty different directions at the same time and I found myself confused by what was going on and where the plot was going. I think that the other book by Ford that I scored (Damian's Oracle) was a much stronger book. Score- 6

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Characters: Rhyn is interesting. He is definitely a typical bad boy stereotype, but centuries in Hell have made him bitter and at times cruel. He was my favorite character if only because Katie wasn't nearly as solid. Her character tended to waver at times and I didn't get a good sense of who she really was. I do rather detest the annoying sister. I feel like this is an oft used character who is remarkably irritating. True, she can act as a foil for the heroine, but more often than not, she overstays her welcome and starts to get in the way of an enjoyable reading experience. There is a good reason everyone hates their siblings at one point or another. I already hate my siblings, I don't need to hate someone else's too. Score- 6

Blush Factor: To be honest, there wasn't a ton of romance in this book, that didn't come until the later books in the trilogy. I mean you know who's going to end up together from the start and I was a bit disappointed that Rhyn and Katie never really resolved their feelings for each other until later on. Even the end result of their romance was disappointing (by the third book). Not my favorite part, I liked the romance much better in Damian's Oracle. It wasn't horrible, it was kind of just nonexistent. Score- 6

Structure: Nothing new here in terms of writing style. I think Ford's problem is that she tried to cram a ton of information into a small amount of pages without giving the reader a chance to let it all sink in. She could have made the book a lot longer and structured it better so that all the plot lines had a chance to naturally converge. Instead, the writing seemed hurried as if she wanted to get a crazy amount of story down without developing the world or the conflict well enough. Score- 5

Plot: As I've said several times--way too much going on at once. I was incredibly confused. Ford needed to pick one or two subplots max instead of having twenty going on all at once. Also, I kept reading and reading waiting for Katie and Rhyn to get together, but she dragged it out horribly so that by the time I got to the end of the book I basically didn't even care anymore. This book had potential, but I wasn't seeing the necessary execution. Damian's Oracle takes place under a similar premise, in a similar world so go for that instead of this one. Score- 6

Vervain says: "There are seven Ancients, but most of them are dead."

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."

Hazy Shade of Winter (Unbound Series #1)- Jessica Bradshaw

Jude can see ghosts, which is okay by her for the most part, but it puts her guardian angel Samuel in a tizzy. Her main concern is the incessant bullying she faces at the hands of her peers in school--it it so bad that she is forced to transfer at the end of the year. Samuel is with her all the way; not that he has a choice. Usually, a guardian angel, or sentinel has access to their charge's 'book' and through that they can keep tabs. However, in Jude's case, Samuel isn't allowed to see her book, which drives him crazy and makes it so that he has to spend every waking moment watching her in person. As luck would have it, Samuel is falling in love with Jude in spite of himself, and more than ever he wants permission to fall so he can be with her, but it seems his supervisors have other plans.

Overall Merit: I didn't like the story so much as I really liked the afterlife structure. I'm a huge fan of all things afterlife (the more twisted the better), but seldom do I find anything unique. This book relied heavily on the concepts of reincarnation and made Heaven seem very bureaucratic, which again was something I hadn't seen before. Bradshaw's writing is skilled and captivating--another plus for the book. However, both Jude and Samuel were moderately annoying characters and I didn't really care about them all that much. Score-7.5

Characters: I didn't find the supporting characters realistic--they were too 'cliched high school sitcom' I felt like I was in a scene from Mean Girls while Jude was still in the U.S. Jude annoyed me also because her character wasn't consistent. She's portrayed as this geeky, socially awkward girl, but then once she gets to the U.K. she's cool all of a sudden? I think in trying to make Jude unique, Bradshaw went overboard and made her kind of obnoxious and pathetic. Samuel is consistently self-described as a 'cad', but I didn't get that impression at all from him. This is a risk that writer run too often. If a character describes him/herself as being something they should be that something unless it is obvious that they are delusional about their self-image. Not the case for Samuel. I mean she sort of tried to throw it in in his flashbacks, but I really wasn't convinced. The characters weren't awful, but neither were they people who I would love to meet in real life. Score- 7

Blush Factor: Eh. That's all I can really say. Eh. I mean I guess it was sort of romantic with Samuel running around whining that he wanted to be with Jude. And I mean it was a decent attempt when Jude temporarily dated one of her friends, but to be honest the romance was weak--especially since you knew what was coming due to a poorly placed prologue. (I am not a fan of prologues at the best of times, but especially not when they're Twilight-esque and give away the ending before the damned story even starts.) I'm not going to lie I was bored and read the second book...Bradshaw needs to work on her romance. It's as if the characters go through the motions, but I DON'T FEEL THEIR BURNING, FIERY PASSION!!!! Score- 5

Structure: As stated earlier, I had gripes with the prologue, but then again also the ending. I felt like Bradshaw wrote the ending first and then manipulated the story so that it would culminate where she wanted it to. I don't like this approach for several reasons, the main one being that it locks the story in and doesn't allow nearly as much wiggle room as if it were left to flow to a more natural close. The technical writing was very good however, so I have to give some kudos for that. Score-7

Plot: Like I said, it was kind of like a bad high school rom-com with angels. The plot wasn't anything so innovative, and I know Bradshaw was hinting at some demonic activity, but I didn't see nearly enough of it to really consider it part of the plot. I felt like she made too much of an understatement with it and either she should have brought it to the forefront more or excluded it completely, rather than weakly hinting at it every now and then. Score-7

Vervain says: "Sentinels can petition to fall--meaning they gain a human body and get to spend that lifetime in mortal form."

Bonded (Law of the Lycans #0.5)- Nicky Charles

Brandi is a recruit at Lycan Link Academy with hopes of becoming a member of the Disaster Control Unit (DC). She couldn't really do anything else of course because she only passed her physical defense class out of pity. However, Brandi thought she could ignore this fact until one day she is volunteered to help Reno, an Enforcer (a werewolf equipped to use physical confrontation to break up dangerous situations) , do a demonstration for some of the newer recruits. True, she is pummeled, but she also discovers an unexplainable attraction to this near-rogue were. Enforcers and DCs are notorious in their inability to get along, but under the circumstances, Reno and Brandi may not have a choice. 

Overall Merit: Nicky Charles is officially up there with some of my favorite paranormal/fantasy romance novelists (Anne Bishop, C.L. Wilson, Jacqueline Carey). She earns a spot because Charles knows how to tell a story. There are sex scenes, yes, but that's a characteristic of the genre--what sets writers apart is their ability to hook me with the story. Sex scene after sex scene gets boring as hell. (I haven't read Fifty Shades of Gray, but people keep telling me I should). I've read her entire Law of the Lycans series and another thing that struck me was how different she managed to make all her characters. Major kudos to her for that! It is definitely difficult to make alpha males different people and too often authors will botch it and the male leads seem exactly the same. The only thing I didn't like about this book was the twist at the end. It was so out of left field that it wasn't believable at all, Charles needed to plant more indicators earlier on in the story for it to work properly. Either way, Charles is a powerhouse. Read her stuff! Score- 9.5

Characters: Brandi is great, she's a definite alpha female and the only type of personality that could counter the over-macho Reno. I liked Reno too, he was a stereotypic powerful male, but there were moments when you could see that a lot of his manliness was bluster, but it wasn't in your face so as to be obnoxious. Little things, like him playing with children were enough to show this facet of his personality. I also enjoyed 'cult leader' Victor, he was creepy and underhanded, a very good villain in my opinion. Strong characters, strong category. Score-10

Blush Factor: This was pretty standard Charles, but there wasn't as much explicit sex in this book as in the others in the series. It was fine, I needed a break from all that and it seems like she did too. The romance was there and the tension was great, but if you're looking for more heart-pounding sex scenes you'd be better off with books 2 or 3 of the series. Score-9

Structure: Same style as her other novels, it switches perspective in third person between Brandi and Reno for the most part. Solid narrative, but nothing new was done here. The only thing about this book that threw me was the ending (more the resolution, really) where blame is placed somewhere that doesn't make any sense. Score-7

Plot: Like I said, this was mainly a plot driven book and for the vast majority of the novel I was quite pleased with the fast-paced action and the subtle build up to the climax, but the resolution to the main problem was definitely disappointing. I was kind of upset that Charles copped out the way she did because usually her solutions are much tighter and more believable. Score-8

In summation: Read this book for the paranormal thriller aspect, not for the sex.

Vervain Says: "Lycan Link usually has a problem with purist Alphas weeding out any half-bloods from their pack and either killing or forcing them into servitude." 

Inexpensive Book Slush Pile

If you haven't noticed my recent trend, I've been trying to scour the free (or very inexpensive) book section of online book sources to see if I can find anything good. Mostly because if I'm somewhat broke and still need something to read without going to the library. Sifting through that mess can be a ridiculous hassle, so I'll try and point you in the right direction if you find yourself library-less and semi-broke like me. The ones I post on here are the palatable ones I find, meaning the ones I actually finish because there is some saving grace in the work.

*Not every single book I post will be discount

Energy- M.J. Schutte

Brighton and Lilian live together in their peaceful mountain town, but it is not long before Lilian's past catches up with her and she is snatched away. Brighton devotes his life to searching for her and hoping that she will return, even after he is told she is dead. At the same time, he must develop the enormous and unique power he has been given--the power to manipulate energy. The world is governed by people gifted with the ability to steal energy from other things, but Brighton's gift is different and this makes him a threat. Brighton is the only one who can save the kingdom from the tyranny of the energy-thieves, but first he must learn how to harness his unwieldy and terrifying abilities.

Overall Merit: When I saw this book online for $ 0.99, I figured it would probably be cliched and stupid, but I was bored so I decided to read it anyway. I was pleasantly surprised. I should warn you that it's very long and the beginning is kind of slow, but once you get into the story the action keeps you on the edge of your seat. Obviously there were still some things that bothered me (aren't there always?). One thing that annoys me in books is when people get resurrected a million times (sorry if this is a spoiler, actually I'm not, I don't really care if I spoil things for you). Once I'll buy, but more than that it's kind of like "Ok, really?" Anyway, it's a good read and definitely worth it if you have a bunch of time on your hands. Be patient though, it takes a while to get into. If it's any indicator, I have plans to read the sequel. Score-9

Characters: Strong characters definitely. They had distinct personalities and I definitely sympathized with them, which doesn't happen very often since usually I want to clock the whining female protagonist on the head with a sledgehammer. Brighton and Lilian were both complex and Schutte did a good job with the supporting characters as well, which is also unusual. This part of the book was very strong and for that Schutte has my commendation. Score-10

Blush Factor: This was sweet, I was a little skeptical at the beginning when Brighton (16) had the hots for Lilian (13), but it was pretty innocent so I didn't mind all that much. Their relationship is sweet, once they finally get back together, although I thought their whole "I've been waiting for you, love at first sight" was a bit much. Schutte should have given them a chance to get acquainted again after a few years of separation before they fell head-over-heels. They had a solid relationship though and it wasn't overly gushy or an overpowering factor in the novel, so I was pleased enough. Score-7.5

Structure: The perspective is third person close, following  Brighton and Lilian for the most part. Nothing unique was done here with perspective or narrative, but it was a solid quick-paced read. My main gripe, as I said earlier, was the slow beginning. Also, the concept of "death" was not as concrete as I would have liked. Score- 7.5

Plot: I loved the world that Schutte created and the magical abilities, while not entirely original, were refreshing. I enjoyed following the characters on their journey, I mean it was a pretty standard fantasy journey, but the fact that there was such conflict on the matter of good vs. evil was a new thing for me. Definitely worth reading if you have the time. Support self-publishing authors! Score-9

In summation: Read this book, please.

Vervain says: "Brighton can take energy from living things and channel it for his own purposes."