Misguided Angel by Melissa de la Cruz

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★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Book CH; First Edition edition (October 26, 2010)
• Language: English

Rating:

After inheriting the dark Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler fled to Florence with her forbidden love, Jack. Now the two of them must embark on the mission Schuyler was destined to complete: to find and protect the five remaining gates that guard the earth from Lucifer, lord of the Silver Bloods. 

Back in New York, Mimi has been elected Regent of a crumbling coven. Struggling with her heartache over the loss of Kingsley and with her overwhelming desire to destroy Jack, she must focus all of her energy on a perilous new threat. Vampires are being abducted and their captors are planning to burn them alive online…for all the world to see. Help arrives in the form of Deming Chen, a Venator from Shanghai, who must untangle the web of deceptions before the killers strike again. 

As the young vampires struggle for the survival of the coven, they uncover a deadly secret, a truth first discovered by Schuyler’s mother during the Renaissance but kept buried for centuries. And as the Blue Blood enclave weakens yet further, fate leads Schuyler to a terrible choice that will ultimately map the destiny of her heart

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

"On the eve of the crescent moon

The vampire burns."

This is hands down my favorite book of the series.

I hate having to wait a year between books b/c normally when the release date rolls around I've already forgotten where the previous book left off. lol 
So, of course I was a little confused at first but after refreshing my memory of The Van Allen Legacy I was ready to go!

I love love love the Jack/Sky storyline. 

They are one of my absolute favorite "couples" in the Paranormal Romance world! I honestly thought Melissa would have squashed their romance a while back b/c they're so unbelievable sweet! lol Normally authors love to carry on a love triangle to the last possible minute but Melissa nipped that in the bud by The Van Allen Legacy so Misguided Angel is full of tender Jack/Sky moments! 
I ate every bit of it up!

And Mimi!

Oh Mimi, she is getting back to her usual cruel self now that Kingsley is gone. I used to hate Mimi Force but I find myself enjoying her more and more as the series goes on. She's complicated, moody, and grade A Bitch but I wouldn't have her any other way. 
Oliver is back as well and my heart hurts for him. He connects with Mimi a bit during the book b/c they're both ailing from broken hearts. In another world I could totally see a Mimi/Oliver hookup lol Non? =P


This book switches back and forth from Sky's POV to Mimi's and to a new character in the series, Shangai.
(She's a pretty badass Venator!)

I was a little skeptical about adding another character to the group but I throughly enjoyed Shangai's POV! Towards the end I kept saying "whoah" and "wow" over and over again but it.was.that.GOOD!
haha I know I'ma dork!

I will admit though that I was kind of  bummed that Cruz decided to flip flop between different characters POV b/c I want a book that's all about Jack and Sky! haha jk jk. The next novel in the series, Lost in Time, is going to be the final novel for this cycle of characters. Insert wail here. Which is (sadly enough) due to hit the bookshelves Fall 2012.
Lucky for me I still have a short novella, Bloody Valentine, to read and from what I'm hearing/reading it is going to be EPIC haha. 


I read in a newsletter that Melissa might be stopping by Charleston, NC this November! I'm crossing my fingers that she does b/c I will so be there! I've never had the opportunity to meet one of my all time favorite authors. (Heck I've never seen any author in person!) So it's safe to say I will be in total fan girl mode if she does grace NC with her awesomeness!  

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

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★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★.

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (October 12, 2010)
• Language: English

Rating:

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★


I loved Beautiful Creatures! It had the beginnings of an awesome story but Beautiful Darkness really got under my skin. I didn't like Lena at all! 
The drama...
..oh the drama...
It's every where in this book. 
Ethan comes off as a love sick puppy and that was a bit of a turn off for this girl (me lol). Amma is awesome as always and I really enjoyed seeing her work a bit of her magic..so to speak! Every time this story would talk about her pies I started craving them! If "Amma" ever made a cook book I'd totally buy it!
Anywho.
Lena went through a pretty tough situation at the end of Beautiful Creatures. Beautiful Darkness picks up with the loss of a very important character and the beginnings of our Caster girl, Lena, having a melt down. It's tough loosing someone you love and when you're still trying to figure out if you're good or evil I think you deserve to have a mini meltdown. Lena has lost herself and ends up shutting out Ethan for 80% of the book while she pals around with her spunky yet bad Dark Caster cousin, Ridley, and a new character that you meet at ____'s funeral, John Breed.
John Breed is bad of course lol I think most people can tell he's trouble just from his name! Add in dark clothes,long hair, supernatural powers, vibrant green eyes, a motorcycle and we've got ourselves a hot new bad boy in this series...with the possibility of a love triangle! Ahh teen angst!
Ethan is an adorable character but he is a total girl in this book! Yes, I know this is fictional story but ugh it frustrated me that not only did his first real girlfriend...the girl of his dreams (literally!).. mentally, verbally, Casterly! abuse him but she also runs off with another guy and after all of that hurt/pain he still takes her back! No way that would happen in the real world! I sooo wanted Amma to smack Lena upside the head with her spatula! Some people think that it's sweet that Ethan is so sure of Lena's love but I found myself hating Lena every time she had an encounter with Ethan. I wanted to strangle her during most of the book! But atlas, She's "claimed" herself. So maybe she'll get back on my good side in the next novel, Beautiful Chaos.
Best Moments of this book (for me) are 
Amma's one liners
Every convo between Link and Ethan.
Ethan seeing his Mother.
The mystery of John Breed.
While I didn't love this book as much as the first I still feel deep down that it was a solid 3. Meaning it was a good read. Garcia and Stohl know how to make you feel like you're right the in Gatlin with Ethan, Link, and the rest of the gang.
I'm looking forward to seeing where Beautiful Chaos will pick up..especially since Lena has finally "claimed" herself.
Oh, and I really really hope they will share what Link was doing in Ethan's basement when he was 9 years old! Every time Amma says that line I always bust out laughing! Being that it's Link, I can only imagine what he was doing!

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

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★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Rating:
• 

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Let me first start out by saying that Ang and I attended a chat awhile back with the two authors of this book. I personally have never heard of the series and after the chat I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book! (I say that a lot huh? lol)

Anyways, the best thing (for me) about this book is that it's from Ethan's point of view. I can't tell you the last time I read a book from a male's prospective. Ethan is a breath of fresh air! 

Like most books there are some people who think the book is over hyped. I will admit at first it was kind of bland but the deeper I got into the book the more invested I became in its characters. 

Ethan Wate is our hero with a tragic past who is ready to bust out of his home town of Gatlin, SC and never look back. Ethan lost his mother a year before the book takes place. So he's still pretty vulnerable in the opening pages of the book. His dad has turned into a recluse since his mothers death and his house keeper, Amma, has a habit of leaving dolls/charms around the house for protection from unseen forces.

FYI, Amma is the shiz. 

Seriously.

I want a nanny/housekeeper as cool as she is...

This book broadened my vocabulary through the love of Amma's crosswords! lol I found myself giggling out loud and re-reading every time she would use a word from her crossword in regards to something Ethan did.

 Any who, Link is Ethan's best friend and he brings most of the comedy to the story. Link is seriously one of the best friends anyone could ever have.  One of my favorite lines in the book is when Ethan explains how Link/himself became friends. (Apparently Link asked Ethan if he wanted the other half of his Twinkie on the bus in 2nd grade. Ethan later found out the reason Link offered it was because he had dropped it on the floor! =P) 

You also find out in the opening pages that Ethan has been haunted by his dreams for a while now. Dreams about a girl who smells of rosemary and lemons. He's alway trying to save her from falling but never finishes the dream.

I'll give you one guess who said girl is...umhmm. =D

Lena Ducchanes is nothing but strange. She's actually what I always wanted to be in high school but never had enough courage or confidence to pull off. She has long black hair and loves to rock the painted black nails and emo/punk/goth inspired wardrobe! I love it! She's not popular. She's moody. Irrational at times and can change the weather with her emotions. I'm pretty much the same way minus the changing the weather when I'm sad part! So I can relate to her in a lot of different ways.

...Oh and she's a Caster...

...Who has to claim herself on her 16th moon...

Kind of like a Good Witch, Bad Witch scenario.

As if being a teenager wasn't hard enough!

In a town where everyone knows everyones business (the mailman reads every letter you get just b/c it's easier to hear bad news from someone who knows you instead of reading it off of a piece of paper lol) and the Civil War is known as The War of Northern Aggression. You can only imagine how bad things are shook up with Lena Ducchanes enrolls at Stonewall Jackson High.

Kami and Margaret do a fantastic job of making the reader feel like they're in South Carolina. I, myself, am a Carolina girl and I can say with 100% certainty they have some of our small town folks here figured out to a "T". I lost myself in their world for 3 whole days and it was ahh-mazin!

This book deserved a solid four (IMO)!

Also, the best line of the book is:

"Mortals. I envy you. You think you can change things. Stop the universe. Undo what was done long before you came along. You are such beautiful creatures." 

Powerful, huh?

This book was an excellent read and I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen next!