Here it comes again... Sigh...
by Leza Lowitz and Shogo Oketani
Blurb from Goodreads
Seventeen-year-old Jet Black is a ninja. There's only one problem--she doesn't know it. Others do, however, and they're scheming to capture her and uncover her secrets. When her mother dies, Jet knows only that she must go to Japan to protect a family treasure hidden in her ancestral land. She's terrified, but if Jet won't fight to protect her world, who will? Stalked by bounty hunters and desperately in love with the man who's been sent to kill her, Jet must be strong enough to protect the treasure, preserve an ancient culture, and save a sacred mountain from destruction. In Jet Black and the Ninja Wind, multiple award-winning author, poet, and translator team Leza Lowitz and Shogo Oketani make their first foray into young adult fiction with a compulsively readable tale whose teenage heroine must discover if she can put the blade above the heart--or die trying.
--Thoughts--I have always been absolutely fascinated with ninjas and of course their love stories, but the only good ones I have very luckily stumbled upon so far are only 2. I thought Jet Black was going to join those 2 to make it 3, but no. I mean, it sounds AMAZING and it has a freaking 4.37 average rating on Goodreads. It's getting rave reviews and being recommended left and right. Dude, how can it be so bad.
Choppy paragraphs, awkward dialogues and events, slow pace, a little excessive descriptions at times, INSTANT ATTRACTION OMG, and have I mentioned weird dialogues and glacial pace?
Angelbound #1
by Christina Bauer
Blurb from Goodreads
Eighteen year old Myla Lewis is a girl who loves two things: kicking ass and kicking ass. She’s not your every day quasi-demon, half-demon and half-human, girl. For the past five years, Myla has lived for the days she gets to fight in Purgatory’s arena. When souls want a trial by combat for their right to enter heaven or hell, they go up against her, and she hasn’t lost a battle yet.
But as she starts her senior year at Purgatory High, the arena fights aren’t enough to keep her spirits up anymore. When the demons start to act weird, even for demons, and the King of the Demons, Armageddon, shows up at Myla’s school, she knows that things are changing and it’s not looking good for the quasi-demons. Myla starts to question everything, and doesn’t like the answers she finds. What happened seventeen years ago that turned the quasi-demons into slave labor? Why was her mom always so sad? And why won’t anyone tell her who her father is? Things heat up when Myla meets Lincoln, the High Prince of the Thrax, a super sexy half-human and half-angel demon hunter. But what’s a quasi-demon girl to do when she falls for a demon hunter? It’s a good thing that Myla’s not afraid of breaking a few rules. With a love worth fighting for, Myla’s going to shake up Purgatory.
--Thoughts--4.20 average rating on Goodreads and on some book bloggers' Best of 2013 list. How bad can it be? Well, maybe it's because of my recent reading funk, but I found Angelbound a little boring, too colloquial for my liking, and the protagonist had this really arrogant and...shallow way of thinking and voice. I might revisit it again in the future.
I am also currently putting Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff on hold. NOT that it was bad or anything. Contrary to that, Jay has this really cool way of describing and building his amazing world, but people who've read his books knows his writing style is more poetic (in a way. I can't really describe it), so I need to be in a certain mood to read it. And currently I'm in a Fantasy/Romance-heavy YA mood. Don't judge me k, but I'm also in a love-triangle mood. Haha, yeah so I'm reading Defy by Sara B. Larson. It's also getting great reviews so I'm hopeful. :)
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What are you guys currently reading? Any DNFs recently? Or fantabulous reads that you'd like to recommend?
I feel you girl!! I've been in reading funk since early December last year. And OMG, whatever I read since then, stuck midways. Sometimes, not even middle, few chapters and I'm gone already. Because of this, I failed my 2013 GR reading challenge. ;( It sucked. Luckily, last few days before new year, there were lots of interesting releases that I'm eagerly anticipating (e.g: Taste of Darkness, Broken Dove, The Offering). I read them off in the first week of this year, and I'm happy to say that I started off my reading this year with a BANG! :D Hope this reading funk that been haunting you will soon release you from its grasp. Haha ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah I think mine started nov/dec too! Actually I'm not sure if getting stuck a few chapters in or after three quarters of the book sucks more haha. But yeah I just read Defy by Sara B. Larson and it WAS AMAZING!! I think you'll like it too, Ayana! Is Defy one of those releases you were talking about? It totally lived up to my expectations. :))
DeleteI can't stand to DNF, but I really wanted to throw a book I was reading...gosh, it bogged me down SO much. I was mad every time I put it down. But unfinished books...eh, I can't do it. :/
ReplyDeleteMeeee tooooo. I feel bad and...my money!! *sobs* it sucks sometimes I think of I should stop reading for awhile, and it's because of DNFs that I started not requesting for ARCs. Sigh.. So I decided to just harden my heart and put down a book when I get tired of it. :/ Which book are you referring to?
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