Angel Burn

Summary: Willow knows she’s different from other girls, and not just because she loves tinkering with cars. Willow has a gift. She can look into the future and know people’s dreams and hopes, their sorrows and regrets, just by touching them. She has no idea where this power comes from. But the assassin, Alex, does. Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows more about Willow than Willow herself. He knows that her powers link to dark and dangerous forces, and that he’s one of the few humans left who can fight them. When Alex finds himself falling in love with his sworn enemy, he discovers that nothing is as it seems, least of all good and evil. In the first book in an action-packed, romantic trilogy, L..A. Weatherly sends readers on a thrill-ride of a road trip - and depicts the human race at the brink of a future as catastrophic as it is deceptively beautiful.

They’re out for your soul . . . and they don’t have heaven in mind.

Review: Three reviews in a week…what? What is this madness? The madness is I got a nook Tablet and Angel Burn was the first book I bought on it! :] I couldn’t stop reading and the fun part about a e-reader is I couldn’t skip ahead as much as I wanted to so I had to keep reading. I’m hoping that this awesome start to 2012 is a continuous trend. I only had five reviews last year…it was pitiful. I hope to keep this up. Anyway, onto the actual review!

Angel Burn is pure unadulterated brain candy. Enter Alex Kylar: gorgeous, sexy, kick-ass, tough, and on top of it an angel assassin. Now enter stage left, Willow Fields: blonde, slim, smart, a mechanic, a psychic, and…a half-angel (unbeknownst to her). Alex is told that this monstrosity must be killed and when he is ordered to kill an angel he does it. No questions asked. Well, upon arriving he realizes that Willow isn’t really an angel, but human and angel at the same time. It baffles him and he can’t help but notice just how pretty she is. He’s attracted to her, surprise surprise. I don’t want to give away everything, but let’s just say they end up on the road together on the run from the Angels.

For the first half of the book, Alex acts like an ass. He has watched his entire family die one-by-one and refuses to get close to anyone else. Yet he cannot deny the growing attraction he feels towards Willow and the urge to touch her at times is over-powering. Well, since he acts like an ass Willow hates him, but she also cannot help but notice how gorgeous he is. On a random tangent: why is it the guy is always the one abstaining? Why can’t a girl decide that “I’m really attracted to this person, but they’re bad for me! I need to push them away” it’s always the guy…why? Girls can deny their feelings too, ya know. Anyway, at some point they realize they love each other and Alex is transformed into every girl’s dream guy for about two chapters until the big showdown must go down.

See? Brain candy. That being said, it was good brain candy. Aside from the whole romance, the plot for the book was rather fascinating. Angels are not the heavenly beings we know them as, but instead almost demon like creatures that feed off the life energy of humans leaving them inflicted with Angel Burn. A condition that leaves them sick and dying (often with a disease like MS, cancer, Parkinson’s, and such), but believing that the Angels are beautiful and good. Only there to help them. The only way they can be killed is by being shot through their halo (their heart). These angels want to basically invade the human world and feed off humans, which of course would mean the eventual destruction of the human race. That’s a rather original concept and it’s fun to read about it. It makes for an action-packed story.

The writing alternates from first person in Willow’s POV to third person in Alex’s and occasionally Jonah’s and Raziel’s. I understand why Weatherly did this, but sort of wish that Alex’s was in first person as well and that the point of views would not change mid-chapter. Overall, the book was fun to read and I honestly can’t wait to the sequel to come out in America. It was exactly what I needed after Mockingjay.

Rating: 4/5 Brain Candy, but well-written and thought out brain candy
Reviews from the pros:

Because this book was originally published in the UK I didn’t want to grab reviews from their in case it may have confused people or spoiled anything. So no reviews for this right now! Just bask in mine :]

Happy Reading Everyone!

-She Who Reads A Lot

Mockingjay

Summary: Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss’s family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. Distrcit 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and It is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. Distrcit 13 has come out of the plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels’ Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.

Review: Like most fans who read this book by the time I was done I had mixed feelings. There were certain moments in this book where I was struck by the utter talent of Suzanne Collins. Obviously, I knew she was an amazing writer to tackle this subject matter in the way she did, but there were moments that just had me honestly impressed because the scene was so haunting. Oddly enough, though, these moments were not the ones with the fighting or the death (of which there were plenty gruesome ones), but the moments in thirteen. For instance, the scene where Katniss sings the Hanging Tree in the forest outside of District 12. The other big moment that sticks out in my mind is Finnick and Katniss walking up to the hologram of the Capitol and together saying, “Let the Seventy-Sixth Hunger Games begin!” I can’t even describe what it was about these moments and several others, but it stuck with me because it felt true and real.

The reality of it all is another great aspect of the book. PTSD. It’s fairly obvious that both Katniss and Finnick are suffering from this when they begin, even after. Katniss has nightmares, breakdowns, and is deemed for a time mentally unstable. I love Collins for this. I know a lot of people hated that Katniss seemed to become weak, but Katniss was only a seventeen/eighteen year old girl. She is strong, but she is breakable. She was still strong and her determination never wavered, but she was human. That is Collins single best achievement through these series is the utter truth she captures of humanity. The good and bad sides of it all and the murky gray areas in between.

There is so much I could talk about in this book. I will get to what I didn’t like, though. The deaths and such did not have the affect on me the first two books did. I’m a fairly sensitive person who actively avoids upsetting books and movies and the some of the deaths in the Hunger Games series have really rattled me, but none did in Mockingjay. [SPOILER!] I was upset when Finnick died and down right appalled with the way Prim died, but aside from that not very emotional through the entire book. [END SPOILER]

The writing is amazing, but it lacks in some points and I didn’t really connect with the characters all that much. I liked certain ones, but I saw them all very objectively. I understood Gale’s lust for the death of anyone having to do with the Capitol, but did not sympathize with it. I understood Katniss’s feelings towards Peeta, but again didn’t necessarily support her decisions throughout the book. I truly felt like an outsider, I didn’t really connect with anyone. And that may be the book’s greatest fault. The writing it fantastic, but it only does so much if you are not emotionally connected to the story.

Before I wrap this up, just gotta touch on the ending that upset a lot of people. If you have not reaqd Mockingjay and do not wish to be spoiled, do not read after this point. Got it? STOP! All right…only people who have read now? Good. Peeta and Katniss were meant to be together. Gale was too extreme for her. Katniss always needed someone steady and strong, and Peeta had always been that someone to calm her down. Katniss had enough fire for the both of them. It was meant to be and they were as happily ever after as they could be. OKAY PEOPLE WHO STOPPED READING CAN READ AGAIN!

Basically, the writing was great, but I didn’t connect with the characters and the plot was only so-so. Still a must read simply because it’s the conclusion to one of greatest series that has gripped a lot of the nation. It certainly has made me even more excited for the film to come out in March.

Rating: 3.5/5

Reviews from the Pros:

"Collins does several things brilliantly, not the least of which is to provide heart-stopping chapter endings that turn events on their heads and then twist them once more. But more ambitious is the way she brings readers to questions and conclusions about war throughout the story. There’s nothing didactic here, and sometimes the rush of events even obscures what message there is. Yet readers will instinctively understand what Katniss knows in her soul, that war mixes all the slogans and justifications, the deceptions and plans, the causes and ideals into an unsavory stew whose taste brings madness. That there is still a human spirit that yearns for good is the book’s primrose of hope."
--Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

"This dystopic-fantasy series, which began in 2008, has had such tremendous crossover appeal that teens and parents may discover themselves vying for -- and talking about -- the family copy of "Mockingjay." And there's much to talk about because this powerful novel pierces cheery complacency like a Katniss-launched arrow. Look skeptically at computer and television images, it suggests, be aware of spin, gaze upon the young faces of the world's soldiers. Children forced to kill children? It's not just in the pages of a novel."
--The Washington Post

"The indelible conclusion to Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy proves once more that the greatest fantasy novels hold an incandescent mirror up to reality."
--Parade, Parade Picks

"The final installment, the grimmest yet, is a riveting meditation on the costs of war...Clear your schedule before you start: This is a powerful, emotionally exhausting final volume."
--People Magazine,4 OUT OF 4 STARS

"This concluding volume in Collins's Hunger Games trilogy accomplishes a rare feat, the last installment being the best yet, a beautifully orchestrated and intelligent novel that succeeds on every level... In short, there's something here for nearly every reader, all of it completely engrossing."
--Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

That’s only some of them! If you want to read more, here is the link to the page I got these from. http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/mockingjay_102797.htm Happy Reading Everyone! A review for Angel Burn will be coming soon.

-She Who Reads A Lot