Scarlet (Marissa Meyer)

Title: Scarlet

Author: Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)

Length: 452 pages

Rating: 5/5

While Cinder tries to break out of prison and remain invisible to the entire Commonwealth, over in France, Scarlet is trying to find her missing grandmother.  Desperate, Scarlet teams up with Wolf, a mysterious street fighter. Their paths collide as their missions intertwine, and it’ll take both Cinder and Scarlet to stop the evil Lunar Queen Levana from taking over the globe.

I really liked Cinder, but I liked this installment even more. In fact, I’m throwing a small tantrum right now that I have to wait another year for the next book (there will be four all together- the last pair are called Cress and Winter). Such brilliant fairy-tale retelling! I love how the elements of the stories we love are reimagined and interwoven into the great story against the evil (ugh I hate her!) Queen Levana. The story gets deeper, the characters get better, and the world gets put in even more peril. What’s not to love?

Not to mention how much cute guy action we get in these books- a definite plus. Wolf is dangerously dreamy. The guy Cinder teams up with to break out of jail, Captain Carswell Thorne, doesn’t get to romance much, but he’s hilarious as he tries in his attempting-to-be-suave ways. And we could never forget about Prince Kai, who we get to see as he’s left with the mess Cinder leaves.

I’d eat this book up if the ravenous Wolf hadn’t gotten to it first!

Hex Hall (Rachel Hawkins)

Title: Hex Hall

Author: Rachel Hawkins

Publisher: Hyperion Books

Length: 323 pages

Rating: 3.5/5

Sophie recently discovered she’s a witch. Unfortunately, her spells never go right, and after one goes particularly wrong, she’s sent to Hex Hall, a reform school for naughty magical creatures. There, she becomes roommates with a hated vampire, pisses off three popular, pretty witches, and almost gets eaten by a werewolf, only to be saved by the (unavailable) hottest guy in school. Then people start getting attacked on school property, and Sophie learns that it might have something to do with her murky magical past. Surviving high school has nothing on surviving Hex Hall.

(what does this cute cover have to do with anything?)

The typical new school, crush on the hot boy who is dating the mean, popular girl, story but with Magical Twists (I capitalize these because I’m hungry and it would make a great name for a pretzel). So I’d heard parts of this story before. I still couldn’t put this book down. Who is attacking students? Will Sophie’s futile crush on the hottie ever amount to anything? Who is good and who is evil? Nothing is black and white as Sophie tries to keep an ancient society from destroying the magical world. Naturally, there are more books in the series to come. I will read on, with pretzels. 

Shiver (Maggie Stiefvater)

Title: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Publisher: Scholastic

Length: 390 pages

Rating: 4/5

Grace has spent winter after winter watching the wolves in the woods bordering her backyard. One wolf with yellow eyes watches back. Sam is that wolf, but he’s a human in the summer months, never daring to speak to the girl he watches so diligently. Suddenly, the two are given a chance together. But as the weather turns cold, Sam struggles to remain human and Grace refuses to let go.

Everything about this book screams LIFE IS FRAGILE! Grace and Sam hold onto each other so tightly, never knowing when a burst of cold air might take it all away from them, the love which they never thought they could actually have. It’s heart-wrenching, and I loved that cold weather (something I myself hate) was the nemesis. Also getting in the way of their love was prejudice, misunderstanding, and dumb parents. There were no good parents in this book: oblivious parents, awful parents, parents with guns, but no good parents. The kids are on their own to fix things, to find a way to make the dream last.

I liked that his book made me see werewolves in a different (non-Twilight) light. I had the same period of adjustment the characters had in the book, them trying to understand werewolves as real, me trying to understand them as portrayed in this book rather than the ones in my imagination.

This book is told from both Grace and Sam’s perspective which strengthened the bond between them for the reader. However, as much as I loved them together, I wasn’t fully convinced. Maybe it’s because they became obsessed with each other before the book began, they had six years of knowing and accepting the connection, whereas I was only given a few pages. Still, the idea that the person you’re obsessed with is obsessed back is very tantalizing, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and ended up loving the story.

This book is the perfect curl-up-under-a-blanket winter read- check it out!

Hold the phone. It’s part of a trilogy. Why am I not surprised? Despite my protests that this book would have been just fine on its own, I’m totally reading the other books. 

City of Bones (Cassandra Clare)

Title: City of Bones

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: 485 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

On a night like any other, Clary Fray and her best friend Simon go to the Pandemonium Club in New York City for some dancing. But then Clary witnesses a murder by a few tattooed teenagers, and Simon doesn’t see a thing. Next thing you know, Clary’s mom disappears and Clary is attacked by a huge, creepy demon. Modern New York City isn’t all that it seems as Clary is thrown into the world of Shadowhunters, warriors who rid the world of demons, in a search for her mother. Why can Clary see demons and Downworlders all of a sudden- iosn’t she just an ordinary mundane? Where is her mother and who is this evil Valentine everyone keeps talking about? And why is Jace, Shadowhunter extraordinaire, so hot?

I told you in my review of Clockwork Angel (first in the prequel series to this series) that I would do what was necessary to get my hands on this book. I suffered through almost five CDs (not because they were awful but because I’m incapable of actually paying attention to audio books) before finally flying to Michigan to borrow the book from a friend (okay, full disclosure, I was visiting said friend, CD player in tow, and she just happened to have the book). So while the first hundred pages or so are rather blurry on the details, the rest was pretty awesome!

It’s crucial for me to like the main character of a book. I loved Clary. She’s snarky and funny and just the right amount of clueless (much like Tessa…). When the going gets tough, she rises up to it, and never backs away from a challenge, whether it’s breaking into a hotel full of vampires or not sleeping for 48 hours (or more? Does she ever sleep?).

Clary’s world is completely turned inside out and what’s great for the reader, is that everything we know is turned inside out too. It's set in modern New York. Kinda cool to think of other-worlders running around behind our backs (also creepy, but that’s where Shadowhunters come in).

The Shadowhunters in this book are the coolest teens EVER. Jace, Alec and Isabelle are attractive and pretty much run around New York killing demons without parental supervision. Talk about teen empowerment. Jace is the epitome of awesomeness: he’s brooding, mysterious and great at killing demons and making Clary crazy.

And in case Clary’s world didn’t become crazy enough, things get crazier. I can’t wait to dig into City of Ashes, the second book in the Mortal Instruments series.

Also, movie? Yes please. Can't wait!

Spoiler alert!! Don’t go any further if you haven’t read this book.

Stop reading!

Have you read this book?

Okay, you can keep reading.

What, Star Wars, WHAT?

That’s all. Please tell me it’s a lie.

No, I’m kidding- don’t tell me anything!

Nightshade (Andrea Cremer)

Title: Nightshade

Author: Andrea Cremer

Publisher: Philomel Books (Penguin)

Length: 452 pages

Rating: 4/5

Yep- another book in a series. I was at Barnes and Nobel the other day, casing the teen section for new reads and noticed that nearly all the best sellers are part of a series. Made me wonder: is this just a way to sell books, the standard for YA books right now, or something else entirely? Let me know your thoughts below!

Calla is leader of her shape-shifting wolf pack, destined to marry sexy alpha wolf Ren to unite their packs so that they can continue guarding their Keepers’ sacred sites. But then she breaks all the rules and saves Shay, a human boy, who makes her question all that she knows about her history, her pack, and her heart.

Okay, what’s up with all these books where two guys repeatedly throw themselves at the unassuming girl heroine? (Twilight isn’t the only culprit here) Does this ever happen in real life? Not in my real life…This complaint out of the way, the romance in this book is top-notch. Ren’s a total playboy who can’t keep his paws to himself. And hello, double-standard, Calla is supposed to stay pure until their union. Sexual tension ahoy as Ren is pretty impatient. Throw in Shay to the mix, and it’s like the equivalent of having Taylor Lautner with his shirt off all the time:

As with any paranormal story, there’s a lot of complicated history to wade through. But Cremer does a good job of revealing facts slowly, and then making Calla and the reader question all that has been revealed. Calla finally learns to think for herself rather than just accept what she’s always been taught. What is the real story behind the shape-shifters and the Keepers? I still don’t know- that’s why this book is only the first in a series! Overall, a good, thrilling read.