ARC Review: The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

Release Date: April 30th, 2013
Hardcover: 446 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Teen

In Allison Sekemoto's world, there is one one rule left: Blood Calls to blood.
Cast out of Eden and separated from the boy she dared to love, Allie will follow the call of blood to save her creator, Kanin, from the psychotic vampire, Sarren. But when the trail leads to Allie's birthplace in New Covington, what she finds there will the change the world forever - and possibly end human and vampire existence.

There's a new plague on the rise, a strain of the Red Lung virus that wiped out most of humanity generations ago - deadly to humans and vampires alike. The only hope for a cure lies in the secrets Kanin carries. If Allie can get to him in time...

I'm a huge fan of Kagawa's writing and her novels are always on my favorite's list. The Eternity Cure is no exception to the rule. While I really loved The Immortal Rules, in my opinion the sequel was even better, which I thought it would be hard to accomplish! With more action, humor and a still complicated romance, The Eternity Cure is a sequel you won't be disappointed with.

Allison left Eden and is after her creator, Kanin and in the beginning she meets up with Jackal and starts travelling with him. Kagawa's writing is really something special, because while I found myself hating Jackal in the prequel, in The Eternity Cure I actually liked him! He is one of the main source of humor and I had to laugh out loud several times because of many of his remarks. But I still don't like Sarren, obviously, and I detested Stick. He was so annoying and selfish that I really wished sometimes that I could go inside the novel and hit him. Nevertheless I praise Kagawa's detailed and versatile writing.

The characters are, as usual, multifaceted. Allison has so many different characteristics and she is not the only one. Jackal could also very difficult to describe in a single word. Surprisingly Zeke was the character I least enjoyed but he was more enjoyable than in the first one, I just don't think he is such a swoon-material. But mostly of all, I enjoyed the scenes with Karin, he is such an interesting character and I'm happy that we got to know more about him and hopefully he will also be a big part of the next one.

As mentioned, this novel has many actions scenes and no boring moments. I enjoyed reading all 446 pages and I would have enjoyed if the novel had had more pages. But of course, we have to wait for the next one and I'm überexcited to read the conclusion to this amazing series. The Eternity Cure had a different feel to it compared to the prequel but was just as wonderful to read.

 Huge thanks to Harlequin Australia for providing me with a copy for review!

ARC Review: Taken by Erin Bowman

Release Date: April 16th, 2013
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen

There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone.
They call it the Heist.
Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive.
Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side?

Taken was one of my most-awaited novels this year. I had it in my mind ever since I heard the summary and maybe, that's the reason that it didn't quite meet my expectations. Furthermore I'm not that used to male narrators but with time I even started to like reading from the boy's point of view.
Although it wasn't what I was expecting, Taken still was a great read.

The plot goes pretty much as expected. Gray's brother is expected to be heisted within the next 24 hours and that's what happens. From this moment on, I could almost always foresay what it was going to happen. And that was the thing that bothered me so much in this novel. And also I really disliked the love triangle and that's not usually a problem for me. Gray started to get closer to a new girl while Emma was in trouble and that was what upset me somehow. But while these things could have been better, Bowman does bring a lot of action to the novel and the story itself is actually really interesting and original.

I had a hate/love relationship to each character. All characters have nice and bad characteristics. And yes, I know this is usually a good thing, but it was too much sometimes and they just started to get on my nerves. Gray was sometimes too grumpy and Emma too weird. By far my favorite character was Bree, even though she acted a bit too manly sometimes, she was an interesting character. And I would have liked to get to know more about Blaine (Gray's brother), since he almost didn't appear in this novel.

Taken is a novel that I certainly expected more of, but I'm still happy that I got to read it and review it. The plot was captivating yet I felt that the whole thing was backwards. The beginning was the best part of the novel while towards the ending, the pace slowed down. Mostly I like books that end with a bang, and that was not the case. I'm still going to read the next one, though. I would recommend reading Taken, maybe you will have another opinion about it!

Thanks to HarperTeen and Edelweiss for providing me with a copy for review!

Review: Wicked Kiss by Michelle Rowen

Release Date: February 26th, 2013
Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Teen

My kiss can kill.

I used to be ordinary Samantha Day, but that's changed. Now, after one dark kiss from a dangerous boy, I can steal someone's soul…or their life. If I give in to the constant hunger inside me, I hurt anyone I kiss. If I don't…I hurt myself.
Bishop is the one whose kiss I crave most, but if I kiss him, I'll kill him. Then there's another boy, one I can't hurt. One whose kiss seems to miraculously quell my hunger. They're both part of a team of angels and demons that's joined forces in my city to fight a mysterious rising darkness, an evil that threatens everyone I know and love. I just wonder if I'll be able to help Bishop—or if I'm just another part of the darkness he's sworn to destroy….
NIGHTWATCHERS: When angels and demons must work together, something beyond evil is rising…

I didn't think that this series could continue to be as good, but I was wrong! Samantha is still struggling to get her soul back but unfortunately that's just one of her many, many problems: a new angel shows up and threatens to take Bishop's attention away from Samantha but worse still, the Grays are evolving and they either become super bad...or they die.

And that's the main situation in the novel. The great thing about Wicked Kiss is that the novel gives no time to breathe, one enthralling chapter after another. You will be held captive by this novel since you surely won't be able to put this one down. I loved that the story evolved as well. It didn't only stuck with the getting-her-soul-back problematic, the Grays and the new angel gave this sequel a new spin. Furthermore I love the relationship between Kraven and Bishop, they are the perfect mix of good and bad. And I really enjoyed getting to know more about Bishop's and Kraven's story.

Samantha certainly grew as a character and it is obvious while reading this novel. She is not that ingenuous girl in the prequel anymore. And because Samantha can get into Bishop's mind, we get to see a whole new side to his character. Kraven is somehow my favorite character in this series. He is sarcastic (which I really like since his sarcastic remarks make me laugh!) and I like to think that he can be a good demon, or at least, a better one. The new angel was actually a bit surprising, I didn't see her character's development coming.

Overall, Wicked Kiss was a worthy sequel to Dark Kiss. There were many twists and turns that were really unexpected and unlike its prequel, I really can say that I really wasn't expecting this ending. Rowen refined a series that was already great to begin with.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for providing me with a copy for review!