About me:

Avid reader, passionately curious.
I like reading all kinds of books, doesn't matter what genre really - although you'll find I'm particularly fond of zombie and vampire books. There's also fantasy, science fiction, young adult books and a bit of romance.
I am not one to give up so if I start reading a book series I usually read all the books in the series no matter how awful they are. I try not to abandon any book, however it happens that sometimes a book is so boring it gives me headaches, so what I do is I put it in my reading postponed shelf and when I have an awful lot of time on my hands I resume its reading. I just have this compelling need to finish everything I start.

 

Interests:
Reading, Writing, Science & Technology, Swimming, Running marathons, Playing violent and/or scary video games

 

Details:

I'm 21, actually 23 now and I still live in Oradea, Romania.

 

Contact Information:

If you wish to contact me for reviews or just for fun, you can write me on:

stefan.alexandra20@gmail.com

Or you can send me a message on Goodreads. 

I received this book for an upcoming Supagurl Blog Tour for an honest review. Thank you!For those that have read the first book in The Vortex Series, Rematch, this is quite a different book. Do not expect much time travel and you will not be disappointed. This book is largely on the newer relationship between Cassie and Trent and the changes in the parallel world they are now living in. No, there's not like crazy things happening, just the changes of people they were close with previously.Trent & his sister, Lorelai, are still in hiding from PI's. Their identities closely hidden from those close to them. Cassie starts thinking about life without tennis, and slowly the story evolves. Honestly, for a good bit of the book I was waiting for something more than romance. I really wouldn't classify this as a paranormal book except for brief instances of the time travel. Finally, things started taking a turn. Trent and his sister have been found and the repercussions have a ripple affect. Bits and pieces of their true identity strung out with further lies come out for the rescue of someone close to them. A life is lost. Heartaches resound. This all climaxing to a point that you want to say, duh, why didn't you think of that before?The end of the story wraps up nicely until a twist is thrown in. This twist will lead into the third book of the series, Deuce. As of this writing the release date is unknown.This book was so different to me than Rematch that I, at first, had a hard time connecting with it. I love paranormal books, and as I said earlier, this book was much more romance than my usual liking. The romance took away from the uniqueness of the original story line. Once the action kicked in, I was along for the ride. I didn't want to put it down.The cover art and the tennis referance for the title, still not my thing. I really won't go into that though because it doesn't affect my review as a whole.Would I recommend this? Yes, for those that want to further the story of Rematch and for those who like a sweat romance. Now, I just wish I knew when Deuce was coming out and what it will be all about!

First I want to thank the author, Janine Caldwell, for providing me a copy of Rematch for an honest review. Second of all, I want to say WOW! That was one amazing read.I have to be honest, I was initially turned off by the title and cover. It just didn't make me want to read it. When I did start to read, I got sucked into the story and didn't think much more of the former. The book centers around a time traveling teen boy, his sister, and the girl he's met before in her past and fallen for in the present. The story really takes you for a turn during the last quarter of the book. You will not want to put it down.There is a uniqueness to the story that caught my attention. Time travel has been done before, on many levels, but this story was fresh, modern and enjoyable. There were times the story seemed to drag on a bit, when I thought that with all I had read that I should have been farther along than I was but it didn't draw out through the entire book. As a reader, there are answers to questions that were at the back of your mind. The end has given me another question though, who's at the door? When you read the book, you'll understand.I recommend this to all who enjoy paranormal, scifi, romance, YA, etc. I am looking forward reading the second book in the series, Double Fault.

If it's one thing that Denning has down, it's the narration of battle scenes. It certainly makes for page-turning reading, even if it's a rather superficial thing. The confrontations in this book are all top-notch with some rather interesting twists on Force abilities that draw on the best traditions of the EU and add some new clever variations on top. But that alone doesn't really deserve three stars. I think what impressed me most was Denning's ability to make sense of an smooth over a lot of the plot elements awkwardly introduced by previous authors in the series (mainly Christie Golden), into a patchwork that actually makes sense and feels like it's going somewhere. The slave uprisings in the Outer Rim Territories have a context now and a direction that doesn't feel like a randomly introduced complication to make Chief of State Daala look bad; with Denning, the uprisings represent a philosophical choice that the Jedi have to make that recasts the purpose and ethos of the Jedi themselves. I think the better novels in the EU all manage to do something along those lines, and this is definitely one of the better ones.

On the downside, it does seem like a lot of Jedi are a little too eager for confrontation instead of mediation, but maybe that's a personal preference and quibble. I just don't see a physical power struggle among longtime Jedi masters and friends of the sort that occurs in this story as "realistic" (cringe). Well, lets just say, it's highly out of character and a little distracting from the overall suspension of disbelief, which is an especially difficult thing to manage in something as melodramatic and geeky as what amounts to Star Wars fan fiction. The many deaths of Abeloth is getting a little old too, and seems less a genuinely shocking plot twist than a cheap gimmick. Part of me feels like everything worth exploring with that particular character and this particular crisis is done and over with, which makes the continuation of that particular plot line seem like beating a dead horse.

The political fallout of Daala and the Jedi butting heads seems like it would be interesting, as does Tahiri's trial, so there's still some hope for this series. Those two subplots offer the opportunity for some real character development if the right author can be found to address those issues. Allston wrote the next one, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.