Book Review: Spirit by Brigid Kemmerer

Goodreads summary:

With power comes enemies. Lots of them.

Hunter Garrity just wants to be left alone. He’s learned the hard way that his unusual abilities come at a price. And he can’t seem to afford any allies.

He’s up to his neck in hostiles. His grandfather, spoiling for a fight. The Merrick brothers, who think he ratted them out. Calla, the scheming psycho who wants to use him as bait.

Then there’s Kate Sullivan, the new girl at school. She’s not hostile. She’s bold. Funny. Hot. But she’s got an agenda, too.

With supposedly secret powers rippling to the surface everywhere around him, Hunter knows something ugly is about to go down. But finding out what means he’ll have to find someone he can trust…

My review:

My word, these books are so amazingly good.  Brigid Kemmerer never fails to disappoint, and Spirit is every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped it would be.  From the fast-paced plots, stellar writing, hilarious dialogue, and great character development, this series really sticks out from other paranormal books.

Hunter is such a great main character.  I mean, wow.  I never liked him in the previous books, but with Spirit, Brigid has managed to turn him into a sympathetic character that I grew to love.  I'm just blown away by her amazing talent to make you feel for these characters and root for them.  Hunter suffers a lot in this book, and I can't even count the number of times my heart broke for him. 

Of course, the rest of the characters are every bit as good.  It's interesting getting to see the Merrick brothers through Hunter's eyes.  I ended up loving Michael Merrick, in particular, even more in this book.  He's just such a support and a real friend for Hunter when he needs one.  And Kate?  She was awesome!  I didn't love her as much as, say, Becca or Layne, but she was still great.  I love how she and Hunter would text each other so much.  I know it sounds like it'd be annoying, but it was actually a quirk that made their relationship so cute and real.

I suppose the romance could be considered insta-love, but just like in the previous book Spark, it's written in such a way that it seems realistic rather than cheesy.  I'm so impressed with the way Brigid writes romance, she's seriously good at writing relationships.  And then there's the plot, which has so many surprising twists that I could barely keep up!  There was always something big happening, be it an action scene or character development.  I loved it.

Needless to say, I adored Spirit and can't wait to read more books in this series!  (Why does Michael's story have to be the last?  I need it nowww!)  If you haven't read this series yet, I highly recommend it!  There's so many great characters and exciting plots.  Amazing!

My rating:  9 out of 10, or 4.5 stars

~ The Bookworm

Stacking the Shelves (1)

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. 

Here's my haul!  I know the picture is like, majorly crappy, but oh well:

Books I bought:
- Of Triton by Anna Banks
- Asunder by Jodi Meadows
- Spirit by Brigid Kemmerer

Books I got from the library:
- Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza
- The Archived by Victoria Schwab
- Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
- Doomed by Tracy Deebs
- Chasing Jupiter by Rachel Coker
- Just One Day by Gayle Forman

I've actually already read the top three, all of which are ones I bought.  I can't wait to dive into all my new library books, though.  They're all books I've been dying to read for ages!

What new books have you gotten?  Leave a link to your stacks in the comments!

~ The Bookworm

Book Review: Of Triton by Anna Banks

Goodreads summary:

In this sequel to OF POSEIDON, Emma has just learned that her mother is a long-lost Poseidon princess, and now struggles with an identity crisis: As a Half-Breed, she’s a freak in the human world and an abomination in the Syrena realm below. Syrena law states that all Half- Breeds should be put to death.

As if that’s not bad enough, her mother’s reappearance among the Syrena turns the two kingdoms—Poseidon and Triton—against one another. Which leaves Emma with a decision to make: Should she comply with Galen’s request to keep herself safe and just hope for the best? Or should she risk it all and reveal herself—and her Gift—to save a people she’s never known?

My review:

I just love this series.  These books are all-around adorable and so ridiculously fun to read.  Although I liked the first book, Of Poseidon, just slightly better than this one, Of Triton is still a well-written sequel!  It's like a cuteness overload.  These books make me want to dance and squeal with happiness like this:



Eep, I love all the characters!  From Emma and Galen, to Rayna and Toraf, to Nalia and Grom, these are well-rounded characters that I loved and came to care about - I could not stop reading until I knew what was going to happen to them!  Anna Banks is really talented at making all these characters unique and giving them each their own vibrant personality.  Love 'em!

It's too bad that this is so short, though - only 250 pages.  Still, the plot held my attention throughout, and I appreciated the fact that Emma is a clever heroine who knows what she's doing.  I love her sass, and I always enjoy her narration.  I also really liked how there was a great balance of action between the two separate narrations, Galen and Emma.  It made this book so hard to put down!

Of Triton is an amazing sequel that does a great job of continuing the story of the Syrena realm and bringing forth lots of new revelations and character development.  If I had to pinpoint exactly why it wasn't *quite* as good as the first, I guess it would be that it wasn't as hilarious as Of Poseidon.  I did miss some of the hysterical one-liners, but there was still some humor spread throughout the story!

This is definitely worth reading if you loved the first book, and even if you didn't care for the first book much, I'd still recommend this because the plot is so fast-paced and well-developed.  I can't wait to read Of Neptune!  I need more of this adorableness in my life.  Like, now.

My rating:  8 out of 10 (4 stars)

~ The Bookworm

YAGB Baltimore Workshop

Last night I got to meet five of my favorite authors!  Somehow, I convinced my dad to drive me two hours to Baltimore to go to a writing workshop and book signing by authors Kat Zhang, Sarah Maas, Susan Dennard, Erin Bowman, and Jodi Meadows.

It was pretty epic.  Allow me to explain my feelings in gifs.  There was a lot of this going on:




Suffice it to say, it was a pretty awesome evening.  All the authors were SO sweet and amazing, and I got lots of great advice, ideas, and inspiration from the two-hour writing workshop.  And the book signing afterwards was so much fun!  These authors are so genuinely sweet and just all-around wonderful, inspirational people.  Of course, I collected tons of swag. :) Here's a couple pictures from after the signing:

Jodi Meadows, me, and Kat Zhang!

Jodi Meadows, Kat Zhang, me, Erin Bowman, Sarah Maas, and Susan Dennard!

I had an awesome time.  Thanks so much to these amazing authors for taking time out of their busy schedules to come talk to us about writing.  I learned a lot from the workshop and had a great experience!

~ The Bookworm

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that Feature Travel in Some Way

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Broke and Bookish.  Each week a new list topic is posted, and book bloggers fill in their choices.  This week's topic is "Books that Feature Travel in Some Way."

My list is a jumble of all sorts of travel: road trips, time travel, travel in space, traveling to foreign countries, etc.  Here it is:

1. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.

2. Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard.

3. Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill.

4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

5. There You'll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones.

6. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson.

7. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith.

8. Across the Universe by Beth Revis.

9. River of Time series by Lisa T. Bergren.

10. Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins.

What's on your TTT this week?  What kind of books about traveling do you enjoy?

~ The Bookworm

Book Review: The Lazarus Machine by Paul Crilley

Goodreads summary:

An alternate 1895... a world where Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace perfected the Difference engine. Where steam and tesla-powered computers are everywhere. Where automatons powered by human souls venture out into the sprawling London streets. Where the Ministry, a secretive government agency, seeks to control everything in the name of the Queen.

It is in this claustrophobic, paranoid city that seventeen-year-old Sebastian Tweed and his conman father struggle to eke out a living.

But all is not well...

A murderous, masked gang has moved into London, spreading terror through the criminal ranks as they take over the underworld. as the gang carves up more and more of the city, a single name comes to be uttered in fearful whispers.

Professor Moriarty.

When Tweed’s father is kidnapped by Moriarty, he is forced to team up with information broker Octavia Nightingale to track him down. But he soon realizes that his father’s disappearance is just a tiny piece of a political conspiracy that could destroy the British Empire and plunge the world into a horrific war.

My review:

When I saw this book on Goodreads, everything about it screamed, "Read me!"  From the Doctor Who-ish cover (gas masks and overcoats, anyone?) to the awesome premise (an alternate London with steampunk machinery in 1895) this book sounded like my dream come true.  Not to mention the awesome references to Sherlock Holmes!  But in the end, while this was definitely a good book, it simply wasn't great.

As much as I love steampunk novels, I hate it when the machinery is confusing and difficult to understand.  Perhaps other readers didn't have this problem, but I sometimes had trouble trying to understand the descriptions and imagine what was happening.  Also, I could've used some more clear backstory, rather than the jumbled explanations that were thrown into the story.

I had a bit of a problem with the writing style, too.  It just didn't pull me in right away, and seemed bogged down with too many descriptions.  It took a while for me to really get into the story.  I'd have preferred more of the witty dialogue, which I greatly enjoyed, rather than the long rambling paragraphs.  And sadly, I saw a plot twist at the end coming.  It was rather obvious to me from the very beginning.

Aside from these problems, however, The Lazarus Machine is very fun.  I love how quirky the main character Tweed is.  He's kind of like a mash-up of Sherlock and the Doctor - he's both clever and curious, and very socially awkward, which I loved.  The other narrator, Octavia, was spunky and funny, and the rest of the minor characters added charm to the story.

And the dialogue - hilarious!  I loved the sarcastic banter going back and forth between Tweed and Octavia.  Again, this was very reminiscent of TV shows like Sherlock and Doctor Who.  I chuckled
numerous times while reading it.

So while I loved the characters and witty dialogue, I found the pacing to be slow and the descriptions a bit confusing at times.  The Lazarus Machine isn't for everyone, but I would recommend giving it a try if you like BBC shows or historical steampunk novels.

My rating:  3 stars

~ The Bookworm

My Top 5 Books of May 2013

At the beginning of each month, I post a list of the books I read in the previous month and what my favorite books were.  Here's all the books I read in May:

- Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins
- Ink by Amanda Sun
- Shadows in the Silence by Courtney Allison Moulton
- Destined by Jessie Harrell
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
- Taken by Erin Bowman
- The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller
- Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard
- Embrace by Jessica Shirvington
- So Close to You by Rachel Carter
- The Diviners by Libba Bray
- Dark Triumph by R. L. LaFevers
- The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd
- Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
- Spies and Prejudice by Talia Vance
- Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff that Made Me Famous by Kathryn Williams
- When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle
- Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
- Sirens by Janet Fox
- How to Take the Ex out of Ex-Boyfriend by Janette Rallison
- Love Story by Jennifer Echols
- Woman of Honor by Nicole Zoltack
- Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman
- Private by Kate Brian
- The Lazarus Machine by Paul Crilley
- Of Triton by Anna Banks

Thank goodness school is finally out - I've had lots more time to read in the past couple weeks.  My top 5 favorite books:

1. Dark Triumph by R. L. LaFevers.  My word, this woman can write.  I think this is even better than her first book, Grave Mercy.  All the historical detail...it's just amazing.  Not to mention the wonderful characters.  Like Beast. *dreamy sigh*

2. The Diviners by Libba Bray.  After going through post-Downton Abbey depression, I decided to read this and totally loved it.  I'm just in awe at how brilliant it is.  I felt like I was in the 1920's - that's how good her writing is.

3. Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard.  This book has it all.  It's an awesome historical/steampunk mash-up that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I mean, zombies + parasols = perfection.  Charming and delightful.  Can't wait for the sequel!

4. When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle.  I wasn't expecting to love this modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet so much, but it was amazing!  A great twist on the classic tale, and all the characters were so real and well-developed.  Amazing contemporary book.

5. The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller.  Yay for books that are unashamedly, wholeheartedly, wonderfully nerdy.  I was grinning and nodding my head the whole time while reading this.  Nerdfighters for the win!

What books have you read recently?  What were some of your favorite reads from last month?  I'd love to know, so feel free to drop a comment. :)

~ The Bookworm