Reviews for the five new stories below. I read the other ones originally on Wattpad, so I went ahead and skipped them in this one.
The Keeper This Reviews for the five new stories below. I read the other ones originally on Wattpad, so I went ahead and skipped them in this one.
The Keeper This story is told mostly from Michelle Benoit's point of view. (There are a few starts that are in Scarlet's POV). It tells the story of the time when Cinder was in her care in the underground in stasis. I enjoy her POV as we barely got to meet her back in 'Scarlet' and everything else we got to learn about her was post mortem. It was nice to see her as an actual character because she's a pretty awesome old lady.
After Sunshine Passes By "And though Cress had never been fond of Sybil-had, in fact, been terrified of her since before she could remember-she still wanted Sybil to be fond of her.
I adore Cress. Which is why I wished that this story was a bit longer. It was still a sweet story. I still admire Cress for the dreamer that she is and reading more about her treatment and the treatment of the other shells made we want to wrap her up in blankets, kiss her on the nose, and then promptly kick Sybil Mira in the shins.
The Princess and the Guard "I will accept this side effect. I will accept any amount of monsters my mind wants to give me, but I will not become a monster myself."
This story provides more insight to Winter than I thought it would. We get to see the events we only heard about in the series. We get to see Winter before she stopped using her Lunar gift. We get to see the reason she decided to stop using it all together. So if you're looking for more about Winter you should at least look into this one.
The Mechanic It's not an entirely new concept. Lots of authors like to do a rewrite from their male protagonist's POV. I'm use to this failing spectacularly. I'm use to reading these and wondering if the author knows anything about males at all. I'm use to thinking 'I'm pretty sure guys don't think or talk like that.'
I didn't get any of those feelings here. This is what a good rewrite from the guy's point of view looks like.
Something Old, Something New It's our epilogue. Our reunion. Our chances to see all these characters together again after the story. Where they aren't fighting for their lives or constantly separate and in danger. In fact, there's a wedding. And it's beautiful. ...more
In the cereal aisle of the grocery store, you have the name brand cereals all sitting up on the shelves. If you look below, you'll find the generic brIn the cereal aisle of the grocery store, you have the name brand cereals all sitting up on the shelves. If you look below, you'll find the generic brand cereals in bags. That's what Banded is. Banded is the 'Marshmallow Mateys' to Divergent's 'Lucky Charms.'
No, that's not fully correct. Banded is more like if someone at the off-brand cereal production company wasn't paying attention when the bags were being filled and some 'Fruity O's' and 'Honey Nut Rings' also got into the bag. Also, this particular bag wasn't sealed correctly and all the pieces inside are stale and tasteless.
This book was an awful and poorly thrown together mess. The writing was all over the place and read like there was no advanced planning. Concepts and plot points were constantly brought up, promptly forgotten about, and then brought up again like they were brand new.
The characters were completely flat and the world building did constant jumps from nonexistent to unbelievable. Our protagonist only furthers this by constantly screaming about how awful the government is how they can't do this to her. When, if we're supposed to buy this world building, they can and she should know this seeing as she's grown up with this system.
Nearly every revelation in this book happens because our main character just knows that she's right. She just knows that the guards are watching her. She just knows that they're after her specifically. She just knows they out to get her. All of this knowledge just gifted to her because the author is lazy.
And don't let the fact that Kalenna is sorted into the 'selfless' zone fool you into thinking maybe this isn't bargain bin Divergent. The narrative still only focuses on fight class and don't worry Kalenna is an awesome fighter and so is her cardboard cut out love interest. He even performs a reach behind you and show you how to hold this weapon thing because of course he does.
I can see why I was able to get this free on Amazon. It's a sloppily put together mess that people should have to be paid to read. ...more
I rated the last few of these books as decent. They were obvious promotions for the upcoming series, but they weren't the same level of 'ugh' I was usI rated the last few of these books as decent. They were obvious promotions for the upcoming series, but they weren't the same level of 'ugh' I was used to. I found myself wondering if they were finally improving to a level of bearable.
Then I picked up this one and realized those last few were probably a fluke. (Also that the co-authors of them probably had a heavier hand in them.)
Ignore the blurb Julian and Emma's ceremony only shows up for about five or ten percent of the book at the end. The majority of the book uses a convoluted way to inform us that Clary and Simon are special. Super special in fact.
Remember that super special parabatai bond introduced in this series? One that we never really see, but apparently we're told the parabatai pairs in the book have it? Well now there is such a thing as true parabatai, and Clary and Simon are it.
You know how one finds this out? A hallucination drink from Lake Lynn water in which the participants in this get no say in taking it or not. Since, you know, if they know they're taking the test that will mess up the results.
Jem, Magnus, and Catrina drug Simon and Clary without their knowledge with water that can kill people if they ingest too much. (At least in the previous books this was established. It isn't mentioned here.)
The no homo jokes are also back. Simon, of course, can't be a judge of male beauty because gay, I guess. Though that won't stop the book from having Jace show up in the hallucination urging Simon to remember something. (view spoiler)[That something being the clue that Emma and Julian are becoming parabatai but are in love with each other it seems. (hide spoiler)]...more
I think I'm being generous because literally anything would feel like salvation in comparison to what I've read lately.
I think of all the 'ShadowhuntI think I'm being generous because literally anything would feel like salvation in comparison to what I've read lately.
I think of all the 'Shadowhunter Academy' novellas so far this one felt like it belonged in the premise of this series. All the other's have been either a story about Herondales or stories within stories about other characters.
I mean it's still an obvious commercial for the upcoming series. And while Simon's sentiments on the treatment of faeries are appreciated it still feels a bit hollow when the person he is talking about is Mark Blackthorn.
I mean seriously can't we portray a good guy fairy who isn't also part Shadowhunter?
Anyway, the plot here is Simon gets captured by faeries during a mission. Turns out one of the faeries there is Mark Blackthorn.
Mark babbles like a drunken Mad Hatter to Simon for a bit to garner sympathy for his plight. (Gotta sell that upcoming series you know.) He aids in Simon's escape and Simon goes with Isabelle to a wedding.
Aline and Helen's wedding. And I'm really just 'meh' about this whole wedding. Like yay a wedding of a same-sex couple that you didn't bother developing at all. Really, other than being told that the two of them love each other so much I know dick all about these girls.
All and all it's just more fishing to attempt to get us interested in the Blackthorn family, so that we'll read the Dark Artifices. But I'll concede that it wasn't the worst one of the bunch. While it might not exactly deserve three stars, I also didn't want to place it on the same level as the other ones I gave two stars to.
I kind of don't want to stick it on the same level as the ones I gave three stars to either, but it is what it is. This one completed my reading challenge for the year for me, so that makes me happy and I'll just leave the rating where it is. ...more
The blurb has nothing to do with what majority of the book and the bits that are in the blurb are a reach at best.
Potential spoilers ahead.
Simon has aThe blurb has nothing to do with what majority of the book and the bits that are in the blurb are a reach at best.
Potential spoilers ahead.
Simon has an encounter with Downworlders and is reprimanded for not following the rules for Academy students interacting with Downworlders.
He doesn't have an 'encounter' with a 'Downworlder' and no one reprimands him. Helen, the half-fey Shadowhunter who makes up half of the lesbian Shadowhunter couple, is forced to speak to Simon's class.
After class, Simon notes to his fellow students that the instructor kind of treats Helen like shit and doesn't think it's right. The text initially states it like this:
But that wasn't Helen's fault. Helen was only half-faerie, and it wasn't the half that counted.
Later the narrative will back peddle this statement a bit, and Simon will say that not all the faeries should be punished just because some were jerks. Though this line here still seems to state that Helen shouldn't be thought of as Faerie because she has half 'superior' Shadowhunter blood.
Simon isn't reprimanded for his thinking either. He ticks off a few of this classmates for defending the faeries. The worst of which questions why he even wants to be a Shadowhunter if he dislikes their rules and mentality so much. Though this is a nonissue as Simon's roommate and closest friend doesn't get angry at him and even states that it will quickly blow over.
Simon didn't do anything other except have an opinion on the matter. This plot point in the novella is Simon thinking 'this is wrong', but not doing anything proactive about it.
A story within a story: Andrew Blackthorn, while a student at the Academy, becomes enthralled by a faerie and has two children with her: Mark and Helen.
Pointless and just a few paragraphs at the end. It was probably to set up the backstory for the upcoming series. If it's intention was to make me feel sympathy for Helen and Mark's mother then fail. If it was to make me think that she was one of the good fairies just because she loved their father for real then, also, fail. She still callously allowed other's to torture his brother all because she had no use for him. All her other actions done out of love don't get a pass with me.
The real bulk of this story, however, was a date between Isabelle and Simon. Which, as per the usual formula, starts out awful. Since we can't have a date go right in this world or else, it isn't real love. It's more the same wangsting and back and forth with them we've seen in the past novellas though this time I think the 'will they won't they' is finally over. Thank God.
All in all this novella is a flimsy rattling off of decent ideals but never acts on them. While Simon holds a good opinion on the whole matter of faerie racism it all kind of flops when he instantly distracted by make out times and his piddly little problems. ...more
A bunch of paper dolls get sent back down to Earth where they spend their time thinking about their past and love lives. A different paper doll stays A bunch of paper dolls get sent back down to Earth where they spend their time thinking about their past and love lives. A different paper doll stays on the space ship and also obsesses about her love life.
That's it. None of the characters had any personality of life to them. I couldn't even put forth the effort to be angry with or hate any of them. Every single one of these characters was a personified version of styrofoam packing peanuts.
The world building is nonexistent. What happened to the Earth? What is the spaceship they're all living on like? How did it come to be? How big is it? How many people are on it? How has it sustained life for three hundred years? We don't know the POV character that is still aboard the ship (and none of the ones who previously lived on it for that matter) deems any of that information worthy of knowing.
Instead, you'll listen to her mope about her boyfriend. Who she shouldn't be with for reasons the book doesn't get into because that would be world building.
What's Earth like now? What's the landscape of where they landed? Are there buildings? Can they see anything? What sort of shelter and supplies do they have? What are their plans for survival? Couldn't tell you. The book would rather focus on 'teehee I'm the first girl to get kissed on Earth in over three hundred years.'
There is no real survival aspect to this book. Give the premise there should be, but the book doesn't want to focus on that. It would rather focus on the bland romances and flashbacks.
A good fifty percent of this book is made up of italicized flashbacks that left me wondering why the book didn't start at these points in the story. Since a majority of the flashbacks weren't set that long ago.
This book was dull and a total waste of what could have been an interesting premise....more
The blurb on this is misleading. There is nothing new about how the Circle came to be. This novella is two alternating stories that I suppose are suppThe blurb on this is misleading. There is nothing new about how the Circle came to be. This novella is two alternating stories that I suppose are suppose to correlate. On the one, we have Simon's POV at the Academy near the end of the year. On the other we have Robert Lightwood's POV centering around an incident when he was in the Circle including that time he was a real dick to his friend who came out to him.
Isabelle Lightwood spends 95% of the novella out of character, but I won't scream too much about that because there does end up being a reason for it.
As I said the only real information we get about the Circle's formation is Valentine was charismatic. And while that can be a reason it fails because Valentine never comes off as charismatic. He isn't even presented as the type who you should fear if you don't follow him either. If anything Valentine continues to come across as a bit of a brat. A brat with no clear motivation or goal.
I ended up giving this one two stars though because I was just happy that, in a Simon novella series, Simon got to show up and do more than just be a warm body to listen to a Herondale flashback. However, this installment is set at the end of the school year and we're just given a hand wave info dump of all the things Simon's learned.
And speaking of Herondales this installment earned the other half of that second star by not focusing on Stephen Herondale in the flashbacks. Of course, he's mentioned and has a few speaking parts, because what book did you think I was reading? Though his parts are minimal which was shocking. ...more
There was so much going on in this book. Sydney got involved in way too many conflicts this time around, and I was worried that the book might drop thThere was so much going on in this book. Sydney got involved in way too many conflicts this time around, and I was worried that the book might drop the ball. That one of the plot lines might be forgotten about and just fizzle out.
That wasn't the case. All the major threads that are brought up in this book come to some satisfying resolution.
And still had time for sweet, romantic flirty bits.
I'm not a huge fan of romance. I don't hate it. I didn't much care for Rose and Dimitri's story line in Vampire Academy but darn it if I'm not a sucker for Adrian.
Whenever Sydney would try to shake off or break away from any feelings she had for Adrian I just wanted to shove her closer to him. I understood where she was coming from, and I understood it was part of who she was too.
But honestly I just wanted to scream. Screw the Alchemists. Screw the rules. Make-out with him now!
The romance plots and complications weren't overpowering or protagonist had her priorities in order. Like looking into Alchemist secrets and stop a youth sucking witch. Which was refreshing to see. Most female protagonists nowadays would let the world burn for the pretty boy.
Sydney's struggles were interesting. Her constant struggle in trying to find where she stood between the group mentality that she had been raised on and her own personal beliefs was well fleshed out. Her growth as a character is evident and I'm glad to see she's still growing. Still figuring herself out and given the cliffhanger this book ended on I'll be excited to see what her next step will be. ...more
A paranormal or supernatural romance that takes up the majority of the book? Check. Bonus points foTwilight.
There I said it. I'll even show my work.
A paranormal or supernatural romance that takes up the majority of the book? Check. Bonus points for obsessive thinking about the love interest after only two really mundane encounters.
References to epic lov-*cracks up half way through* *coughs* epic love stories such as 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Wurthering Heights'? Check. Bonus points for them being defended as if they were the most romantic couples ever.
The female lead character has an obsessive need to be reassured that her pretty boy love interest is still in love with her? Check. Bonus points she promptly forgets all other friends and sense of purpose outside her twu wuv.
Any source of potential conflict is hand waved away and solved as quickly as it is brought up? Check.
The plot shambles in awkwardly in the last twenty or ten percent of the book and goes out with a pathetic whimper? Check and check.
Nothing. Fucking. Happens. Honest to God, this book is just some religiously sheltered girl's fantasy about dating the most prettiest perfectest boy ever. Also angels, sort of.
A good 75% of this book is Bethany falling in "all consuming" love with Xavier. Xavier channeling his powers as the love child of Edward Cullen and Christen Grey and wrapping her in bubble wrap, making sure she eats, and making sure no heathens come near her.
Don't forget to sprinkle in numerous instances of Bethany becoming super insecure that he doesn't want her anymore and him reassuring her she still thinks she's the greatest ever.
Conflict in this book is kept to a minimum. Since that would get in the way of the kissing, gazing soulfully at each other, and describing how pretty Xavier is. (His eyes guys, oh my God his eyes.)
The fact that she's dating him is a conflict for like a chapter. Until Gabriel, yes that Gabriel, talks to the other archangels and it turns out 'a higher power' says it's cool she can date him. Yes, that's right, their relationship is endorsed by God.
But, Amanda, I thought they were supposed to be there stopping the 'Agents of Darkness'. Well, they are. Sort of. At least the book thinks they are by doing charity drives, raising awareness of things, and visiting nursing homes.
Not that Bethany does any of this stuff. She info dumps it to us and admits that she's been far too distracted making out with Xavier to bother with any of it.
Of course when the real villain shows up and is involved in a murder they do something about it right? I mean this is Gabriel the Archangel. The same Gabriel, this book notes, that burned two cities to ash he went forth and smote him, right?
Pfft no. He's going to wait until God tells him what he should do. You know, the same God who sent them to this bumfuck town to make sure the 'Agents of Darkness' didn't muck things up.
Who cares if it doesn't make sense at least this way our intrepid heroine can go needlessly sacrifice herself and then save the day with the power of love and kissing.
I won't even go into detail about how all the side characters were caricatures. Or how this book managed to give off super religious vibes but at the same time be disgustingly blasphemous.
It is a mess. A complete and total mess and I'm shocked that there are two more of these out there somewhere, because, like Twilight, the total lack of plot leaves me wondering where this could possibly go that it would need two more books. ...more
Cinder, my dear I know the circumstances that brought you to Earth were horrible. I know your foster mother was downright cruel to you. I still think Cinder, my dear I know the circumstances that brought you to Earth were horrible. I know your foster mother was downright cruel to you. I still think you might have lucked out, because your mother and aunt.....yikes.
Fairest is a prequel focusing around Levana.
I applaud Meyer for being able to bring out a human aspect to the Lunar queen, but at the same time strengthen my resolve to see her defeated. This prequel does a fantastic job of aiding the reader in understanding Levana without woobiefying her.
It is an interesting read that provides insight into the events leading up to the series. Which can be a hard thing for a prequel to achieve given, for the most part, we know what will become of the characters. I would confidently say that if you're a fan of the series this installment is worth a read. ...more
Five hundred plus pages are entirely too long for nothing to happen.
Okay, I'm not being fair. Five hundred plus pages is entirely too long for the saFive hundred plus pages are entirely too long for nothing to happen.
Okay, I'm not being fair. Five hundred plus pages is entirely too long for the same boring events to play out over and over again on a loop. Hardin and Tessa fight. Hardin and Tessa make up. Either fingering, a hand job, or a blow job occurs. Tessa declares that they're finally doing well together. Hardin and Tessa break into another fighter set off by something stupid. Repeat ad nauseam.
Unlike other books I read that started out as fanfiction, this one doesn't attempt to hide that fact. In fact, it brags about it going as far as putting Wattpad reviews right in there with the title page.
Let me clarify that I have zero problems with fanfiction. I love fanfiction. What I don't love is authors cheaply filing off the numbers on their fanfiction and publishing it. Seriously, this book does it pretty poorly. You know if you have to change the names of the characters you don't have to rename them using the same beginning letter. (Zayn is changed to Zed. Seriously? Seriously?!)
The thing about fanfiction, to me, is it's about playing pretend with familiar characters and worlds. It's the equivalent of running around the yard and pretending your baseball bat is a lightsaber. It's pretending a stick you found in the yard is your wand and you're having an adventure at Hogwarts.
And it's perfectly fine because in the end the only way you profited from it was having fun immersing yourself in something you're a fan of.
When you take that fanfiction and change a few names around and then sell that as your own work, it's crossing into plagiarism and I think this quote from Dr. Malcolm in Jurassic Park sums it up best.
"I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here, it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it."
Changing the names in your work of fiction doesn't make it an original work. There's a reason that we aren't given the typical elaborate description of Hardin that usually accompanies this style of writing. Going into this book we know Hardin is Harry.
And guys, real person fanfiction really squicks me out. I don't really know anything about Harry Styles but I'll say that I feel sorry for him if there are girls who are writing and fantasying about him having this type of personality. This guy is pretty much Christian Grey spawn without the ties and canes. He even has Christian's magical super power of making the virginal love interest come on command.
This book is awful. There's no plot to it. It pads itself by letting the two mains get into the same nothing fight over and over again. And even those don't matter because you know these two turds will just get right back together. And there are THREE MORE of these books. Which can only mean three more of the same garbage over and over again.
The cliffhanger at the end of the book is also garbage. Infuriating garbage. As you know they're just going to end up back together. (view spoiler)[Which is disgusting since at the end it's reveled that Hardin was involved in a bet of who could have sex with Tessa first. And he even went as far as to keep the sheets and the used condom from their first time to prove he won. He beat up one of his friends to make sure he wouldn't tell her the truth. He got her to move in with him so she might be more willing to stay with him when she found out. But he fell in love with her in the course of the bet so sure she'll take him back in the end because THERE ARE THREE MORE BOOKS (hide spoiler)]
How this book got millions of views on Wattpad or is being praised as some kind of sensation is beyond me. It's fanfiction and it's not even particularly good fanfiction at that. ...more
I have no idea if the science in this book is accurate. I mean I'll be honest with you every time Mark Watney explains why and how he's doing somethinI have no idea if the science in this book is accurate. I mean I'll be honest with you every time Mark Watney explains why and how he's doing something and get's into the math of it....
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This isn't even really meant as an insult to the book. I mean I gave it five stars. I seriously enjoyed it. Though my enjoyment didn't really come from the math and chemistry lessons.
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Okay I'm not that lost when it comes to science babbling. Still though after reading through book after book where the author couldn't be assed to research how guns work that, even if I didn't always follow the math, it endeared the book to me. It was nice to see an author care enough to put so much research into his work. Especially since it was math. Icky, horrible, ungodly math.
Again I don't know how accurate it is, but I'm told it's all pretty solid accurate spacey wacey stuff so I'm going to assume that yeah it's right.
It isn't just that the author gave enough of a damn to research the topic that earned five stars from me (because let's be real that should be the default and requirement). If this had just been a book of Mark Watney meticulously writing out what he was doing and why I probably would have put it down. (Because math is icky and boring. God, I would totally die on Mars.)
It was the fact that it was peppered in with just the right amount of snark and personality. Mark Watney was a breath of fresh air in comparison to the angst babies I've had to read through recently.
I mean this guy has every reason to dip into the woe is me everything sucks bucket. He doesn't. He remains focused and determined to survive.
“Me: “This is obviously a clog. How about I take it apart and check the internal tubing?� NASA: (after five hours of deliberation) “No. You’ll fuck it up and die.� So I took it apart.�
All while keeping a healthy sense of humor.
I mean he's fucked. He's truly fucked. He's alone on Mars. He has to survive. I've seen certain characters turn into giant crying piss babies over less. Mark doesn't. It makes me want to hug him instead of see him die out there. You want to root for him.
And even with the humorous aspects of Mark Watney's narrative voice I still felt this sense of fear for him. There were times I was nervously turning pages worried about what would happen to him next.
All and all this one earned a solid five stars from me and I'm glad I picked it up. ...more
While I enjoyed this installment, the book itself felt more like a stall than solid progression forward. It was understandable enough as this is what While I enjoyed this installment, the book itself felt more like a stall than solid progression forward. It was understandable enough as this is what our characters set out to do. While there were struggles going on in their world, it was never the character's original goal to get involved directly.
Their entire plan at the end of the last book and the start of this one was to go to the school and hide and learn there. Now they have an entire year worth of experience and knowledge, and this one ends with the plot finally feeling as if it's going somewhere.
I didn't even mind that this was a bit of a stall book because it was interesting enough. The characters felt real and well developed. The world felt fleshed out. The writing was was extremely enjoyable as well. But five hundred pages is long for a book that is setting up for future plot.
I'm still giving it five stars though because I honestly enjoyed it. ...more
I wasn't really sure what to rate this book. It wasn't awful, but then I also didn't find it that good. It didn't make me as angry as the previous twoI wasn't really sure what to rate this book. It wasn't awful, but then I also didn't find it that good. It didn't make me as angry as the previous two which put points in it's favor, but I still couldn't bring myself to give it more than two stars.
I think the main reason is because this didn't feel like a conclusion to a trilogy. In fact it didn't really feel like the book concluded at all. There's no real closure. We don't know what becomes of everyone. (view spoiler)[And after the whole book continues to harp on how they need to bring Richard back home we never get to see him return. (hide spoiler)]
Majority of the book is Scarlet and Robin trying to one up each other in the 'I'm not good enough' or 'I don't deserve this' department. Their angst off grows tiresome, but not nearly as tiresome as their romance.
If you liked them as a couple and their dynamic in the previous books you'll probably love this one. Majority of the book is them being shoompycakes or pinning for one another while the danger and action weeps in the corner. They're constantly face touching and hand touching and kissing one another. Even during what passes as the climax they're face sucking when priorities should be elsewhere.
And I get it. It's suppose to be romantic. They're suppose to be so in love, but really when your protagonist is faced with bodies or someone else is killed and all she can think is 'what if that were Rob' or 'I don't know what I'd do if that were Rob'. Then I start to view it as less romantic and more she's pretty heartless.
One plus is that the book must have realized how annoying Scarlet's speech and narration was in the previous books so it dialed that back a bit. Though there are still a lot of he were, she were, and they weres to contend with.
The series is over though even if the ending didn't really leave the book feeling like it was. ...more
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