When I finished this book, I had no idea how to rate it. I have no idea whether it was amazing, or meh or just plain old likeable and I think the reason for that is because while it deals with so many interesting things in such interesting ways, it also seems a little flat at times. Not as intense as one would imagine a book like this to be. But let me define what I mean when I say ‘a book like this’.

This is a book that deals with the idea of handing out justice. It deals with things like bullying and the affects it may have on a person. This book isn’t some silly little fluffy book, as it’s size might suggest. It’s actually pretty fricking serious and the problem I think was that even though it’s a serious book, I never took it as seriously as I should have. I was horrified but not in the way I *should* have been given the seriousness of the issues at hand.

Mara is an interesting character and I liked her. I predicted her role in this before hand and wasn’t surprised given the few details we got about her. Once my doubts were confirmed at the end of the novel, they definitely made some aspects of the story incredibly interesting.

Mara could be a little annoying when she refused to see the Messenger’s side of things but it was understandable. On top of that, I liked how even though she spend some time telling herself that this was all a dream, when it became evident that it actually wasn’t, she accepted the truth no matter how much it frightened her.

The Messenger was perhaps my favorite character. I am not sure what role he will play in the future instalments besides being a mentor figure but I liked getting glimpses into his character. We know he’s been doing this for a long time and at the same time, despite all the cruelty he dishes out or has to observe, he retains his humanity. He has a reason to hope. He has a reason to believe in himself and for that reason I cannot help but like him.

Before you all get excited or disappointed, so far, there is not even a hint of a romance and I am not sure I want that to change. I mean, the Messenger, at the moment, seems to be dedicated to someone else and I don’t know how one could possibly change that. Having said that, I definitely think they could be a great couple. So really, it’s all up to the author at this point and we can just stay here and wait for stuff to happen.

I adore the world Grant has built. I absolutely love some of the mythological aspects that were added but at the same time, we’re only teased with certain details of the world. The world building is very basic with us finding out very little aside from what we need to know for the story to make sense. It upsets me that we didn’t find out more but at the same time, I think Grant is saving the best for the next books considering how this book was about Mara adjusting to the world.

The plot wasn’t rah-rah amahzing but at the same time, I liked the moral ambiguity of what they were dealing with. What is justice really? Who should be avenged? Who should have to pay? Is there a way to separate ‘good’ people from the assholes? It explores all these kinds of ideas. One of the main stories dealt with a girl who killed herself as a result of excessive bullying and while the storyline wasn't perfect, I think Grant did a great job of dealing with certain issues.

I guess my main complain would be that in spite of everything that this book has going for it, it’s lacking some sort of ‘oomph’ factor, something that makes this book memorable instead of ‘just another book’ I read this year and I guess that’s why it’s so hard to rate the book.

If you’re wondering if this book was worth the hype or if you’re just curious, I’d say give it a shot even if you have doubts. It’s short and quick and you won’t regret it.

[This review was originally posted on Nick's Book Blog]

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

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Cut Me Free was quite honestly not what I expected it to be. I went into the book looking for something more along the lines of mind fuck and got something different.  But it was a good different. This book may not have been what I wanted it to be but what it was was something that was enjoyable. I do use that term loosely though because this is a book that deals with serious issues such as abuse and human trafficking.

When I first started this book, I felt as though some of the details were unrealistic but my discomfort with some of the descriptions were made up by the (mostly) great characters and Johansson’s story telling skills.

Piper is an amazing female lead. Considering everything she has gone through, it’s easy to sympathize with her but what more, the way she deals with everything, and the way she is characterized makes her come to life in a realistic way and you cannot help but admire her for still continuing to march on. One of my favorite things about her characterization is that she wasn’t a complete badass. She continues to be frightened and can be overly paranoid (although that definitely paid off). What I also liked was how she made smart decisions. She got new locks installed when she was worried, she took self-defence classes, she got a job. She didn’t wait around for someone to come around and help her, she helped herself. What made me really admire her though was that she was never submissive, she understood what had been done to her was wrong and she was angry. Her anger was real and profound to the point where she has to reassure herself she wasn’t ‘like them’, she wasn’t a despicable human being.

She was also compassionate and that was evident from her relationship with Sanda. She decided to save Sanda and one might say that was reckless of her but given the way that the authorities never helped her, it’s understandable why she went down that route, plus she thought about her consequences and attempted to form a well developed plan. Going back to their relationship though, both of them need someone who can understand them. Someone they don’t have to hide from, someone they don’t feel ashamed around. And watching Piper deal with Sanda, with so much care, is beautiful.

The character I had a problem with was Cam. He always seemed fishy to me. I hated how even though he must have had some sort of idea about what she had gone through, he didn’t give Piper the space she needed. He forced her to tell him about herself instead of letting her get to the point where she would be comfortable doing so (not that Piper seemed to mind after the initial push).  On top of that, I never understood his infatuation with Piper. I felt like after everything she had been through, he would have given her some room to finally explore things but he seemed to cling on to her and I didn’t like that.

That obviously made the romance uncomfortable for me to read about but my problem also lay in the fact that their romance came out of nowhere. The transition between friendship and romance wasn’t clean enough for me to really believe in their romance. Their friendship actually worked for me. Despite me not really liking Cam, I was glad he worried about her and tried to help her out but considering how they never really got to know one another, I felt thrown off by the romance and the three magical words.

My uneasiness with the romance aside, this book keeps you on your toes. It might not have had the mind-fuck element I had expected but it definitely had a good mystery element that got me worked up and had me flipping through the pages. My only problem was that not everything that was mentioned was tied up.

This book is definitely worth giving a shot. It may have been a tad unrealistic at times but the mystery was good and the book evenly paced and lead by a great female lead.I’d recommend it to anyone who is looking for something a little serious but not something as long or as hard to get through.

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

Compulsion is a hard book to review just because I felt so many different things for it. At times, it was definitely a one star read, but at other times, it blew my mind and was exciting enough to be  5 star read.  Which leaves me confused as to whether I enjoyed the book or not.However, the fact that I want to read the sequel may be an indicator that I did enjoy it enough to want to know what happens to these characters.

The book has its pros and cons, obviously, but they are almost extremes so they kind of cancel each other out. What works in favor of the book is the atmosphere and the setting and just the general set up of things, the characters on the other hand make the book a lot harder to read.

I personally saw Barrie as a silly girl. She is going through a hard time in her life and that is understandable. Her pain is clear and the author doesn’t undermine it. The problem is that she is so SILLY. For starters, she already likes a guy she just met. She  also decides that even though all these people are warning her against hanging out with her dad’s side of the family, they must clearly be wrong because they aren’t willing to give people a chance. That had me rolling my eyes. She was in this completely new place yet she was already taking the side of people she didn’t know. I liked that she wouldn’t let anything stop her from trying to get what she wanted but there is a certain line between stupidity and doing things your way and she crossed it.

Eight, her love interest, on the other hand confused me. I was never really his biggest fan. He was too pushy for my tastes and while he seemed to have Barrie’s best interests at heart, the fact that he was never really straight forward with Barrie bothered me. If he had been more straight forward with her, perhaps she might have made better decisions since she would have had more information at hand. I mean telling someone to stay away won’t really help, you got to give more reasons! And really, he just seemed to be there to move the plot along and play love interest rather than for any other ‘real’ reason.

What also bothered me was the relationship between the two but what also bothered me specifically about their relationship was the fact that I wasn’t too bothered by the insta love. Have I confused you yet? That’s how I feel. I am so confused about their romance and my ability to not be too annoyed by it. I mean there was the L word floating around a couple days after their first meeting so yeah, their romance has insta-love written over it. Their romance definitely has cheesy moments and made me roll my eyes plenty of times yet at the same time, the weird thing was that I kept forgetting they had only met a couple days ago since it seemed like they had known each other for a while.There was a certain chemistry between the two characters that made the romance seem a little more real.

What I liked best about this book was the idea it was built around. I liked the world building and I loved the interesting elements the author weaved in to make her world more interesting to the readers. The characters may not have blown my mind and there was definitely some stereotyping in terms of the fact that this book was set in the south but the way the author weaved in these layers of suspsense made me happy. It made the book fly by and I read it a lot quicker than I thought I would.

I mean we’re talking secret curses, pirates, magical abilities and things that have been lost. Of course this book sounds like it’ll be amazing and while all these little bits did make it amazing and fun to read, the characters and the romance definitely brought the book down for me.

On top of that, while there were all these interesting things going on, a lot of them ended up being brushed under a rug when the author kind of had to choose a specific thing to focus on.  I feel like some of these ideas will be better explored in the sequel which is why I am looking forward to reading it.

My advice would be to check this book out if characters aren’t as important to you and you’re up for dealing with a lot of stereotyping and annoyingness for the awesomeness that lays within.

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

When I first saw that this book was being pitched as Sherlock meets Doctor Who, I lost it in the best way possible. My expectations sored and as I saw my friends enjoying it, I started to really look forward to reading it. The sad thing is that while this book was good, it just wasn’t the kind of good you would expect when a book is pitched as Sherlock meets Doctor Who. I only watch one of the two shows and have seen season 1 of the other, but even with that, this novel doesn’t even begin to cover the awesomeness of the two tv shows and that’s what majorly let me down.

Instead of being the mind-blowing, addicting as hell book that I expected, I got brain candy. It was fluffy.FLUFFY. It also read a tad bit like Sherlock fanfiction. That I didn’t mind too much considering how the author built her own world and the book was overall fun, but there wasn’t a whole lot originality to this book.

I think my favorite character in this entire book was Jackaby and if you have read the book, it won’t be hard to understand why. He is a fun enigmatic character who is characteristically similar to Sherlock, but unlike Sherlock, he isn’t a sociopath; he can be empathetic when the situation requires him to be, but for the most part, he is lost in his own world. He is a supposedly silly being no one can take seriously and the heart-breaking thing about this whole thing is that we never get to find out more about him. He has no back story; there isn’t much to him aside from endearing characteristics; in fact, we don’t even find out his first name.

The main character, Abigail, on the other hand does have a back story. Not one that really makes me think highly of her, but still, there is more to her than there was to Jackaby at least. She actually seemed to read more like a whiny child at times than she did a young adult. I was never really sure what her age was. I’d put her around 17/18 and maybe teenagers sound whiny at that age, but for all her talk about being an independent young woman, she could be pretty silly at times.

Throw into the mix the fact she may or may not have fallen in love within 2 days. I wouldn’t say there was a romance, not really, but there were feelings… feelings after never having really talked and just seen each other a handful of times. Feelings involved when the two don’t even really know anything about each other. Although admittedly, the author never really said the L word, but I don’t believe I am reading ‘too’ much into this. Abigail did admit to being smitten and that counts in my book!

All those little problems I had with the book aside, it really does make for a good comfort book. It’s the perfect thing to curl up with on a rainy day and it’s just fun.

The mystery admittedly was a little weak. It was done well but it was so glaringly obvious to me who the villain was so the mystery kind of felt flat in some ways. That is not to say I didn’t enjoy it, I did. I wholeheartedly did, I just needed more and the mystery fan in me was somewhat disappointed. Especially considering that it was pitched as SHERLOCK MEETS DOCTOR WHO.

You may be wondering why I keep on repeating that and that’s just because I felt like the book didn’t meet the expectations it set by declaring the book as such.

Even the paranormal aspect was a little disappointing . There was SO much potential and strong emphasis on the so because seriously, this book could have been amazing, mind-blowing and just all around fabulous but it wasn’t.. it was just fun.

This could probably be the result of me setting my expectations incredibly high after seeing the pitch but I just wish this book could have been more.

It could have done way more than just make me laugh, it could have told me to strap in because it was going to take me on a fucking crazy ride but that’s not what happened.

My disappointment with this book aside, I definitely do recommend this book, it may not be the next big thing but it is most definitely worth the read. It is fun; won’t fail to make you laugh and I promise, Jackaby is WORTH IT.

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

Illusions of Fate is a book that would have completely won me over pre-blogging, but now, not so much. I still had a lot of fun reading it but the problem is that I am somewhat of a critique; I now notice things that might have completely escaped my attention before I became a blogger and that’s why I didn’t love this book.

For starters, the characters were all great from a glance but if you dig deeper… there weren't much. Jessamin herself sometimes annoyed me and made me want to shake her but her sense of humor won me over. She wasn’t what I’d call an admirable character, but she worked for the purposes of the story. Finn, the love interest, was similar. He was sweet in spite of the initial misunderstandings, but there wasn’t much else to him. He was pretty flat aside from that. Eleanor was a nice addition to the story and probably the only secondary character that wasn’t almost completely forgotten about afterwards. My favorite character was Sir Bird though. He was a strong, brave bird that defied authority and did what he thought was right and you couldn’t help but want to cuddle with him.

The romance was kind of the similar to the characters. It was pleasant but not much else aside from that. I didn’t think of it as insta-love or slow burn or anything. It was just there and it was nice to read about. The two were all right as a couple, however, I did wish Jessamin have paid more attention to Finn and realized his intentions so that they wouldn't have had to dance around each other for so long.

The plot was pretty meh to be honest. Things were happening and I understood that and it was paced well enough, but there weren't enough to satisfy me. The resolution came out of nowhere, and the twist surprised me and not in a good way. Twists are great when they surprise you and then you can go back and connect the dots, but when you literally cannot even understand how that happened, that’s not a good thing.

This probably has something to do with the lack of world building. There just weren't enough. I mean, it was good enough to keep the book going but not nearly enough to satisfy me as a reader. What it did was make me have more questions than not and the lack of world building also made it harder for me as a reader to connect the dots as the story progressed. In fact, there were a LOT of things just forgotten about after being introduced. Not just secondary characters but other secrets brushed over but never fully explored.

With that said, the little world building we DID get was fascinating. The idea that the nobility possessed magical powers was an interesting one and the whole shadow jumping thing (which kind of reminds me of the whole mating thing in pnr featuring shapeshifters) was intriguing as well. There was definitely a LOT of potential in this world, but the fact that it was a standalone made it harder for it to be explored.

It makes me wonder what this would have been like it weren’t a standalone; if it had been part of a series instead. That said, I am glad that it is one. We DO need more of them because as much as I love a series, I could use a bunch of standalones in my life.

The one thing this book has done though is encourage me to pick up other books by the author. I wasn’t a fan of Paranormalcy(AT ALL) and I had been wary of giving the author another shot, but I think I am ready to read some of the other books by her that I had wanted to read at some point.

I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun read. If you’re not as concerned about details as I was, and just want a nice story to fall into, this would be perfect.