Review: Lips Touch: Three Times

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor with illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo

Pages: 272, hardcover

ISBN: 9780545055857

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books

Date Released: October 1st, 2009

Genre: YA / fantasy / romance / anthology

Source: library

Premise:

A girl who’s always been in the shadows finds herself pursued by the unbelievably attractive new boy at school, who may or may not be the death of her. Another girl grows up mute because of a curse placed on her by a vindictive spirit, and later must decide whether to utter her first words to the boy she loves and risk killing everyone who hears her if the curse is real. And a third girl discovers that the real reason for her transient life with her mother has to do with belonging — literally belonging — to another world entirely, full of dreaded creatures who can transform into animals, and whose queen keeps little girls as personal pets until they grow to childbearing age.
From a writer of unparalleled imagination and emotional insight, three stories about the deliciousness of wanting and waiting for that moment when lips touch. 
(Taken from Goodreads)

Buy it From: Book Depository / Amazon

It's really hard to properly say how I feel about this book without saying something like "OMG THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER" or something along those lines. It would make for a very short, very awkward review.
I'd been hearing excellent things about this book and Laini Taylor's writing, so I had very high expectations. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

Right off the bat, we are shown such beautiful images, which were done by Taylor's husband, Jim Di Bartolo. They don't really add anything to the story themselves, instead, they bring to life their own stories, like a prequel. As they say, a picture's worth a thousand words.

The writing is beautiful. It's the kind of writing that made me sigh and reread the last several pages. Laini Taylor has a way with words. She is extremely talented. There's no way to accurately describe how wonderful her words are, but I'll try. It feels as if she'd spent hours picking at each sentence, making sure that it could make a person weep, making sure that it packed punch, making sure that it flowed with magic. Each sentence is a work of art, something to be savoured.

Now, onto the stories themselves. As the title suggests, these stories are about kisses. First kisses to be exact, though not all of them are romantic. Each was better than the one before it. It started off small, with the first story being a stretched retelling of The Goblin Market. It was not a romance story. In fact, it was the complete opposite. It showed the perils of the drug that is first love. But even when you read it, knowing that the main character--Kizzy-- is being stupid, the words used, the magical, lyrical feel of them, it still grabs at your chest, making you feel as breathless and as in love as Kizzy. It doesn't matter if something bad will happen, you think that it's worth it, all for that one kiss.

The second story is a frightfully exotic and delicious tale set in a sort of Hell and India. Usually, tales set in India--or any other foreign place, for that matter--the setting is something of a novelty. As if the author is proclaiming, "Hey! Look at me! I'm writing a story in a place that isn't America/England! I'm unique!" and most of the time, they seem to get details frightfully wrong. But that wasn't the case here. Here, I could feel the hot, humid air of India, smell the lush flowers that littered the gardens, and taste the sweet juice of exotic fruits, feeling the sticky liquid run down my chin. It was so detailed, I might as well have been there. The story itself was stellar, with numerous breathless moments, and a plot that is gripping and enchanting.

Finally, there's the third story, that is something out of this world. I don't know where Taylor got her ideas from, but whatever the secret is, I want it! The final story is based on Zoroastrian folklore, and just touches on so much. The shock factor is high, the twists are as bendy as the roads in Ice Road Truckers.

This book is magic. All I can say is go read it now. Your life depends on it.
By the way, this book earns a place on the favourites shelf, so you know it's a big deal.

Cover & Art: 5
Plot: 5
Characters: 5
Writing: 4
Level of Interest: 5


Total Rating: 5/5 stars
 

Review: The Dark Divine

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

Pages: 372, hardcover

ISBN: 9781606840573

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Release Date: December 22nd, 2009

Genre: YA / romance / paranormal / werewolves / bad romance

Source: library

Premise:

A Prodigal Son

A Dangerous Love

A Deadly Secret

Grace Divine—daughter of the local pastor—always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared and her brother Jude came home covered in his own blood.

Now that Daniel's returned, Grace must choose between her growing attraction to him and her loyalty to her brother.

As Grace gets closer to Daniel, she learns the truth about that mysterious night and how to save the ones she loves, but it might cost her the one thing she cherishes most: her soul.

(Taken from Goodreads)

Buy it from: The Book Depository / Amazon

Warning: this is a very long and rant-filled review.

Let me just start off with this: I hate the cover. But that's because I hate feet (they make me feel queasy). Especially the ones on the cover. Now I'm not normally one to nitpick on someone's looks, but those feet look particularly yucky. Sorry, I'll stop now.
Otherwise, the cover is pretty, with the purple fabric and the all around foreshadowing of doom and blackness.

The book starts off slow, and right from the beginning, I could tell that I was not going enjoy it that much. For starters there are some very deep Christian themes, and whilst I'm not against any religions, I'm not too much a fan of books that are heavily based on a certain religion, especially if the characters are stereotypical cut-outs. Example, Jude. He was so portrayed as such a good Christian, as such a gentle, sensitive and caring person (choosing not to play hockey because he doesn't want to hurt any of the opposing players. PUH-LEASE!) that he no longer seems like a guy. He acts like a middle aged woman's idealised version of the perfect gentleman. I was so glad to finally see him loosen up during the end of the book. He fights, he threatens and he no longer holds car doors open for ladies!! Hurrah, he's finally manning up!
Even the rest of Grace's family were incredibly annoying, and I just couldn't stand them and the way they preached their Christian values. I think that was my main issue with the book and the characters and the themes: it was so preachy. It's like Despain wanted me to convert. Ugh.
The only character I can find remotely interesting is Don, and that's probably because, despite being insane, he's the most well-crafted character. He actually acts like a real person. But it doesn't make the book that much better.
Grace's character, I didn't really mind because she despite being incredibly annoying with her morals and with her goody-goody ways, she showed times of weakness. That provided some relief.
And, now for the character I hated the most: April, Grace's supposed best friend. She seemed to have no purpose except to be the unsupportive friend, who spends the first half of the book pining over Jude, and the second half snogging him. As far as I could tell, she played no real part in the story, so I wonder why she was kept at all. She did nothing to further the plot, she was a bad best friend who ditched Grace the moment Jude showed any interest in her, and then she does nothing to improve Jude's character growth, except by showing us that Jude loves kissing. Wow!
Another thing, the blurb on the back of my particular copy, written by Becca Fitzpatrick (author of Hush, Hush), described Daniel as a 'bad boy'. I'm starting to question if Fitzpatrick actually knows anything about stereotypes, because she certainly does not know what a bad boy is. Daniel certainly isn't a bad boy (and neither is Patch from her own novel). Daniel is instead overly confident, arrogant, smug, and suffers from horrible mood swings that make him agressive one minute, and cry whilst declaring his love for Grace (this actually happened) the next. He was more annoying than bad, and was incredibly hard to deciper. I found it difficult to feel sympathy for him and his past because of the way he portrayed himself.

Okay, that's my character rant over and done with. Now, what was up with the font?!?I probably should have mentioned this earlier in the review, but it was completely bolded. Has anyone else who's read this book noticed this or is it just my copy?
It was incredibly distracting, and made my eyes hurt a bit if I read it for too long. It was just frustrating having to take breaks every few minutes because of the headaches that the unnecessary boldness. Why not just have normal, unbolded font?

I really couldn't stand the structure of the book, with all the subheadings that said things like (and I'm not lying here, this is taken right out of the book) "An hour and a half later" and "after lunch", or simply, "later". NO. JUST NO. One simply does not put that in books. Readers aren't that dumb that they need that sort of indication to know that the next scene is occurring 'later'. Instead of having a heading that states "The next morning", Despain could have simply written: The next morning, Grace woke up. See? Simple and effective. The subheadings were a big indication of the poor writing skills. Not only that, but the sentence structure was off, nothing flowed well, the writing was not unlike that of a twelve year old girl who suddenly decides that she wants to write (nothing wrong with that, but such a girl would essentially improve with her writing as time progressed.)
Despain failed to properly engage me, her reader, and I felt bored and found myself skimming through the pages at some points. Her foreshadowing was poorly used, and the hints she dropped were far too obvious to be called hints. It took all the mystery from the novel.

Now, onto the main thing: the plot.
The paranormalcy happening in the book was confusing, tedious and obvious. It turned out that Daniel was a werewolf, but I guessed that in the first chapter, although, it felt as if Despain was trying to decide between creatures: angels, demons, werewolves (oh my!). It felt as if she couldn't make up her mind about which creepy creature would work best for her novel, so she would constantly switch ideas, and when she finally decided on a combination of the three, and called it werewolves. It made her story look poor, unstructured, unorganised and as if no thought had gone into it.
There even came a part when she tried to infuse all these creatures to make one super-creature. That's when I totally lost it and decided that I hated this book.

So, to sum this book up in one word: ATROCIOUS. Don't read it, it's of worse quality that Twilight. Even the romance in this book is worse than Twilight. It was a painful read. When I finally finished the book, I rejoiced and vowed not to read the next books in the series.

Cover Art: 2 (feet, UGH. This is just a personal issue, though)
Plot: 0 (what plot?)
Characters: 1
Writing: 0
Level of Interest: 1

Total Rating: 1/5

Review: Nightshade

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Pages: 454, paperback

ISBN: 9781907410277

Publisher: ATOM

Date Released: January 20th, 2011 (first published October 19th, 2010)

Genre: Young Adult / paranormal / romance / werewolves

Source: library

Premise:

Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything--including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice? (

Buy it from: The Book Depository / Amazon


First things first: LOOK AT THAT COVER. It is beyond gorgeous, with those colours, and the flower and the font of the title. It just instantly drew me into it.

Now, the book started out confusing. I was introduced to characters and settings and rules that were hardly explained, leaving me feeling rather lost and confused for the most part. After a few chapters, I had to give up trying to act like I knew what was happening, and wait for everything to slowly be revealed (such as who the Hell the Keepers were and why they were held in such high regards and whatnot). That said, I did quite love Cremer's world-building, and the myths that she wove into the story. They were very well developed and believable, but I nly wish that they weren't so slowly revealed, because for most of the book, I had very little idea of what was going on.

The characterisation is weird at times. Calla sometimes acts bipolar in her decision making. She'll be totally against an idea, and will do anything to stand her ground, and then half a page later, she'll give in and act like she was all for that idea in the first place. It was so annoying. It's poor and awkward, and it hardly made her character more likeable, and believe me, I had a hard time liking her in the first place.

The love triangle is also something that needs work. Calla is drawn to Shay because he is mysterious (doesn't that remind you of a certain sparkly vampire?) even though her relationship with Ren seems to be stronger. Ren is a bit of a dick sometimes (man, what is with all these bipolar personalities?) but they've shared moments where you can see a nice romance blossoming. In fact, it sometimes felt as if Shay was imposing on their relationship, and I often wanted him to fuck off because he's useless.

The plot is slow and steady, and really only becomes intriguing after the first 150 pages. After that, there really is mystery. Shit hits the fan, and it's hard to put the book down. By the end, all hell breaks loose, and you just need to know what happens.

Though, the ending kind of made me roll my eyes, when Calla chooses Shay on a whim, and runs off with him, and almost gets herself killed for his sake. Good work, Calla, you don't look like Bella Swan at all.

The strongest part of this book was the world-building, but I feel that this book would have stood better if it hadn't been a romance (sadly, pretty much all YA books have romance in them. ICK!).

Cover Art: 4
Plot: 3
Characters: 2
Writing: 4
Level of Interest: 3

Total Rating: 3/5 stars