The Edge of Never

    So, I was on a reading kick. I can read a book in a day when I'm on one. Sometimes I can read 2 or 3 if I've really nothing to do. I was on one, and then I started reading The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski. Sloooow down. It took me forever to finish. I started reading this on August 5th and I finished it today. I actually have two days late fine on this book because I couldn't finish it in time. Shall we get on with the rating?

Rating: 3/5 stars

Overview:
    Camryn is 20 years old. Apparently she is very mature for her age. However, the past year or so for her has sucked. She lost her boyfriend in a car accident, her brother lands in jail, her parents are divorced, she hates her job, yadda yadda. After a shitty night at a local club with her best friend Natalie, she basically decides to give up and run away from life. That's right, she (poorly) packs a bag and hops a bus to nowhere, telling no one, leaving all her responsibilities behind.Woo mature 20 year old.
    Andrew happens to be riding the same bus as Camryn. He's heading home to see his sick father before he dies. Like Camryn, he's also essentially running away from life at the moment. Naturally, these two hit it off, and of course it starts off reluctantly. Andrew spends his time watching over her because there is a creeper on the bus and he already feels very protective of her. Eventually they part ways and Camryn is left in the bus stop trying to decide where to go next. A heroic scene follows and, reunited, they decide to stay together for an "epic" road trip.
     Over the course of this road trip, they help each other overcome fears and emotions. Andrew challenges Camryn to live more "freely" than she had been and to realize internalized thoughts over her idealized dead boyfriend. Naturally, love happens even though neither of them can fall in love with the other. Of course, Andrew is hiding a massive game changing secret that can ruin absolutely everything.

Thoughts:
    The first half to almost three-fourths of this book is boring. It's like reading the boring bus trip you just took, which is even more boring than the actual trip. Yes, there were some cute moments. Some moments that were supposed to be rather emotional. There were typos and lines that made me say "seriously?". Such as, "in the eyes of men, he'd probably see her as my 'territory' now, my property." That is from a section where Andrew is the narrator, having to do with McCreeper. Overall, it was hard to keep reading.
    Once they've been on the road a bit, the book starts to pick up some. They have some fun, "give into their hearts" and learn new things about themselves. The sex scenes are better than some I've read, but not the best. On the plus side, they aren't on every single page once you get to them. The ending of the book does give your heartstrings a little tug, however while I wasn't 100% positive, I did kind of see it coming. This was one of the few times I think that a book should have ended differently, though the ending isn't horrible. The book isn't horrible. It simply wasn't my cup of tea and I'm glad I got it from the library instead of paying for it. In the back of this book, it actually states that it is a stand alone book. I think I have an older copy from the library because I have learned a sequel was published. It is not one I will add to my list, so my number gets to go down! This book is perfectly fine as a stand alone. This book gets better reviews than I gave it on Goodreads, so clearly it is liked. Just not by me, not completely.

Guess I better get reading,
Cho

The Butterfly Clues

Three books reviewed in 8 days! Can you tell I'm in a reading mood? I did go back and start the other Kate Ellison book, The Butterfly Clues, the day I finished the first. I think this is an author I will continue to enjoy reading.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Overview:
    "Lo" has issues. Legitimate psycho-social issues. Apparently, she's had them the majority of her life, but they've gotten worse since the death of her only sibling; a brother named Oren. Now, in addition to an obsession with numbers and patterns that have to be completed, she finds herself stealing things. Or saving them, if you want to think like her. The urge comes and she can't resist it.
    Not resisting the urge lands Lo in trouble. While searching for a new treasure she ends up outside the home of a girl, Sapphire, who ends up dead. She makes it home and, trying to forget the gunshots fired around her head, goes for her weekly trip to the flea market. There she comes across new treasures, which belong to the newly dead girl. It isn't long before she is obsessing over her death and finding herself back on the wrong side of town to find out more about her.
    Someone take notice of her snooping though, and the threat on her life becomes real. While trying to avoid death and discover what really happened to Sapphire, she befriends an artist, Flynt, who lives on the streets. He becomes her guide to "the wrong side of the tracks".  The threats on her life become more serious. Her trust in Flynt starts to waver. Family issues at home start to come to a head. What does Sapphire's death have to do with her dead brother? Read and find out!

Thoughts:
    I liked this book. This is the second book I've read by this author and I think I will continue to read things she puts out. She keeps me interested. That's clearly obvious since I read each book in one day. (I may not have put the reviews up immediately, but each only took a day to read.) My only complaints would have to be that there is a very clear repeating theme with her sex scenes(same thing in both books), which will get annoying quickly if it continues, and the ending of this book and the psycho-social issue. That's simply not how it works. However, that's the nurse in me being picky.
    The characters were interesting. I wanted more of a backstory for Flynt, and to know more about Oren. I think that there is another, mini book, about Sapphire that may give more information about Oren. I haven't actually looked into it. Lo is awkward, but not so much that she's annoying and pathetic. The scenery makes you think inner city, as it's supposed  to. This book is a standalone! Woo! You know I hate when books end up as series. (Not that all series are bad! However, all books do not need to be series.)

That's one more off the list! A lot more to go.

Better get to reading,
Cho

Notes from Ghost Town

While going through the library, Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison was actually the first book on my list that I picked up. This book is also not something I normally grab. It's a mystery with a bit of a ghost story. I'm trying to read things that are more outside of my fairytale and paranormal romance range, and I remembered that it looked good when I added it to my list. I was right!


Stars: 5/5
Overview:
    Olivia is an art student with a brilliant pianist best friend, Stern. Our story starts out with her preparing to return to art school with Stern's help. The two are realizing their feelings for each other have been evolving over the many years they've been friends. Before they can do anything about it, Stern is gone. Murdered. The suspect, Olivia's mother who is schizophrenic. Olivia's family and world are being torn apart. In addition to her now broken home, Olivia has stopped being able to see color. How can an artist who can't see color continue to paint and draw?
    The heartache doesn't stop there. Her father is already remarrying. She's moved from her family home, built by her father. And, to top it off, Olivia starts seeing Stern's ghost. Or does she? Schizophrenia is hereditary. Is she starting to lose her mind? The apparition of Stern tells her that her mother is innocent, but can't tell her anything other than that.
    Olivia is forced to fight with herself, the fear that she is "going crazy", just like her mother, and the possibility that she might be sane. She's falling in love all over again with a possible figment of her imagination. At the same time, a local private school hottie with close ties to her family is trying to catch her attention. With her paranoia growing, everyone telling her to let her mom and Stern go and the grief piling up inside her, what's a girl to do? Who can she trust? Is she really losing it?

Thoughts:
    I loved this book. So far, I've loved it more than anything I've read on the list. It kept me tied to it. I was walking into the hospital Belle style, not looking at anything but the pages as I made my way from my car to the floor I work on the night I started reading it. I finished it in two days, but only because I was working both nights and I do 12 hour shifts. Had I not been working and not needing to do homework/write a paper, I'd have finished this in hours. My co-workers were laughing at me.
    This book isn't perfect. I noticed continuation errors. The author would forget a character had done something and either re-do it or comment on how it hadn't been done. Things like that stick out in my head. It wasn't a huge issue. They were little things that I believe most people would over look. I actually came to like all the characters and I wasn't at all expecting the twist. While I knew it was coming, I didn't guess THAT would be it.
    I have another book by this author sitting in the pile at home and I think it will be the next one I start. Happily, this was a stand alone book! Score! The number on the list clicks down.

Still...

Guess I better get to reading,
Cho

Froggy Style

    Fairy tales. I love my fairy tales and Froggy Style by J.A. Kazimer is a retelling I happen to like. I'm on a roll with picking books I like! The cover makes me laugh.  The subtitle reads "A F***ed-Up Fairy Tale", and that's what it is. This is definitely a more adult telling of The Frog Prince.

Rating: 4/5 

Overview:

    Jean-Michel (puke to the name?) is our leading male. The Frog Prince. If you've read the story this book is based on, you have the frog who returns a golden ball to a spoiled princess and depending on the version of the story either gets a kiss or thrown against a wall. At this time, he returns to being a man! Woo! In this story, Jean-Michel is a boy, yes child, stuck in froggy doomdom. That is, until a blonde toddler shoves him in her mouth in an attempt to eat him, as toddlers are prone to doing with anything they can get their hands on. Poof! Frog becomes boy! He'd been saved by THE ONE. Happily ever after is ready to begin! Or so you'd think.

    For some reason unbeknownst to me, the royal family decides not to keep track of this girl who broke the curse. There is no story about losing her. It just fast forwards to our Froggie's approaching 30th birthday and he's on the search for her. Why? Because if he doesn't marry the slobbering child, he turns back into a frog. Ribbit! We learn some background, our frog has grown into a playboy prince. A selfish one at that. He's more than made up for all those beginning years as a frog. He has a drunk ass fairy godmother, a cousin who is a villain and days to secure an engagement and marry the princess he believes broke the curse. Enter Beauty.

    Beauty is a fricken wreck. She's narcoleptic. She's gross. She stays in pjs all day. She's annoying. She's THE ONE. He's sure of it. Lucky him. After a drunken night of self pity on the town, he learns he may have accidentally put a hit on his new bride-to-be. He also finds himself with a new tattoo from a beautiful tattoo artist. Enter the second love interest! (We discussed last time that there was always two, right?)

    Lollie is the opposite of beauty. She's smart, sexy, inked and fairly kick ass. She also is the probably girlfriend of the assassin for hire. Dun Dun DUN. So naturally, Froggie-boy starts to fall in love with her while racing to save his bride-to-be. Will he save her? Who will he choose? Why the fuck does he keep Karl around? Read it and find out?

Thoughts:

    There were characters I both loved and hated in this book. I never really came to love our frog prince, even though I loved the story and how it turned out. I hated Karl, the manservant. Seriously. I just wanted him to be fired or hit by a car. Beauty actually became my favorite character, pre-big ending. Toward the middle of the book. I still liked her at the end too, of course.

    There are some twists I didn't see coming in this book. There are a few I kind of saw but wasn't sure of and when they happened, it wasn't quite what I expected.  Naturally, I can't tell you. That would ruin the book. This book was hard for me to get into at first, but once I did, I finished it quickly. This is not a kid appropriate retelling. There is lots of sex talk. It's pretty much always on Froggie's mind. There are strippers and street walkers. The story is set in the fairy tale version of Las Vegas if that helps. It really is a fucked up fairy tale. I've learned this is actually the sequel to another book on my list, however I am positive they can be read as standalones.They follow different sets of characters, with cameos from the first book. Check back later to see a post on the first book when I'm done with it!

Guess I better get reading,

Cho

Splintered

    When I was searching through the list for books that were available at my library, I didn't refresh myself on what they were about. They were on my list, that meant I had wanted to read them at some point. Right? I'm never going to look at what they are about. I'm simply going to keep typing in titles until one pops up that says "available".
    Splintered, by A.G. Howard, was one of those books whose plot I had no idea about when I picked it up. I added it to my stack, checked it out and didn't read the synopsis until just before I started the first page. When I did, I was excited. I have a huge love of fairy tales.I will pick up all the retellings I find and read them because I love them so much. They are the top of my list, above paranormal romance. When the book jacket informed me that this would be an Alice in Wonderland spinoff? Squee?

Review: 4/5

Overview:
    Alyssa is the descendant of Alice. The Alice who fell down the rabbit hole into wonderland. Ever since that fateful day all the women in her family have gone insane. They talk to plants and bugs. They generally end up committed or dead after having a female heir. Alyssa is heading down the same road, she believes. Naturally, it isn't something she wants. What teenage girl wants that? Her life is already a mess. She visits her mother routinely in the asylum. She's in love with her hot best friend. She has the bully who is out to ruin her life and date said hot best friend. It can't get any worse, right?
      Enter second hot guy. There is always a second hot guy. We wouldn't have a story if there wasn't a second guy, right? Of course not. Ooh, and this second guy holds the key to proving she's not insane? Proving none of the women in he family are insane? Also, add in an accent, because who can resist a man with fricken accent calling you "luv" and telling you to fall down the rabbit hole? (I can't. Ask my boyfriend. Just the accent part though?) Alyssa listens to him, because, hello? Accent? And she wants proof she's not insane. Really, the proof part may be the biggest reason. It is her last chance to save her mom from the asylum, after all.
    Without giving too much more away, what follow is a journey into the heart of Wonderland to reverse a curse, the meeting of strange and beautiful creatures and the choosing of who to love when the heart is split in two. There are surprise twists, twists you saw coming and some "really, Alyssa? Are you that stupid?" moments. How will she make it through a world that is nothing like the children's book we grew up on?

Thoughts:
    In general, I like the characters. I grew to like Alyssa. Like any female lead, she's beautiful and doesn't see it. I enjoy that she's a bit morbid and weird, being weird myself. Taelor is your typical mean girl whose been hurt deep down. Your male leads are Jeb the skater boy best friend and Morpheus, the Wonderland magical creature.
    Jeb is a down to earth good guy with a troubled past. He's incredibly protective over Alyssa and always there for her. I honestly like Jeb. I probably wouldn't pick him for myself because he reminds me too much of my best friend, who I happen not to be in love with, but hey. He's just that all around great guy. Except Alyssa IS in love with him, so there is all that tension there.
    Morpheus is the accent toting magical creature boy. This would be my pick. I usually pick the magical creatures though. He's confident (bordering on cocky, actually), secretive and beautiful. He's loved Alyssa her whole life and has been with her that long.
    Like any story, it lulls in a few spots and has some moments that were confusing. For the most part, it kept my attention. It was a nice spin off from a childhood story I happen to love. I like the new take. The story is unique. The scenery of Wonderland is different and sometimes beautiful. The creatures you know from the original story change into things you may not want to encounter in real life. Many spinoffs just spout the same story. (Not that I won't read them anyway.) Once again, I managed to pick a book that is NOT a standalone! That means I have to find more books in this series. This list is never going down.

Guess I better get reading,
Cho

Anna Dressed in Blood

    The first book I picked off my list was the first one that came up as available at my library. Anna Dressed in Blood is by Kendare Blake. I liked this book! It is not as scary as the cover may lead you to believe. Honestly, I wouldn't say it is scary at all, and I'm someone who has to watch cartoons after  horror movies so I don't have nightmares. I still watch them though.

Rating: 4/5
Overview:
    The basic story follows Theseus Cassio Lowood (Cas) on his unusual job of killing ghosts. It's a family job he inherited from his father. The ghost he's tasked with in this book is that of a girl his own age, Anna, who has killed every person who has stepped into her house since her murder 60 years ago. However, when he ends up in her house before he plans to, she lets him live.
    Throughout the story we learn about Anna's death and why she has stuck around. Every ghost has a reason for sticking around, even if they don't know it. We also learn that she is very unlike other ghosts Cas has fought. (Of course? We wouldn't have a story otherwise!) In addition to Anna's background, information about Cas' father and how he died is gradually fed to the reader, building a back story that comes forward toward the end of the book. Cas has to decide if he's going to kill a murderous ghost he's become very fond of or let her "live" to kill more people!

Thoughts:
    At first, I didn't think I was going to like Cas. He was a little arrogant in my mind. I found myself thinking "cocky little prick" in the first few chapters. He grew on me though. I liked his supporting cast. I think I grew to like Thomas the most. I enjoyed that the "Queen Bee", Caramel, had a BIT more to her than most high-school prom queens.
    The book isn't long. I was able to read it in one sitting and stay interested. It was an easy read. There were a few lulls, but what book doesn't have those? Death scenes weren't too graphic, so people with queasy stomachs are probably safe. Unless you're just a total lightweight.
    As I mentioned before, this book is not scary. Not once was I half closing my eyes, barely able to read the words as I made myself press on like I would be with something truly scary. I won't need to put on the latest episode of My Little Ponies to get to sleep tonight. I'll still watch it, but I won't need it to sleep.  I believe this book is the first in a series. Usually, I'm annoyed that every book has to be part of a series now. However, I find myself thinking that I may like to pick the next book up. That doesn't help me lower my Goodreads counter, now does it?

I guess I better get to reading!
Cho