Mini Review: The Flame Never Dies

Wells of Souls: The Flame Never Dies | Rachel Vincent

Published by: Mira Ink, August 16th 2016

Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy, Demons

Pages: 368

Format: Ebook

Source: Purchased (before release at YALC, heck yes!)

ONE SPARK WILL RISE

Nina Kane was born to be an exorcist. And since uncovering the horrifying truth―that the war against demons is far from over―seventeen-year-old Nina and her pregnant sister, Mellie, have been on the run, incinerating the remains of the demon horde as they go.

In the badlands, Nina, Mellie, and Finn, the fugitive and rogue exorcist who saved her life, find allies in a group of freedom fighters. They also face a new threat: Pandemonia, a city full of demons. But this fresh new hell is the least of Nina’s worries. The well of souls ran dry more than a century ago, drained by the demons secretly living among humans, and without a donor soul, Mellie’s child will die within hours of its birth.

Nina isn’t about to let that happen . . . even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Everything I've come to expect from a Rachel Vincent book - emotional, angsty and romantic, and dangerous. I just didn't enjoy it as much as The Stars Never Rise.

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting/world ★★★★☆

Writing ★★★★☆

ARC Review: This Savage Song

Monsters of Verity: This Savage Song | Victoria Schwab

Published by: Greenwillow, July 5th 2016

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Demons/Monsters

Pages: 464

Format: Ebook

Source: Greenwillow, via Edelweiss

There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books.

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings, but I'll try to say them in an orderly fashion.

- I either want to BE Kate or be WITH her. I love her so, so, so much.

- August is precious, but with the addition of being shivery-scary. I've never read a character like him before and I want to keep him.

- I REALLY like the world. I don't usually like post-America fantasy worlds, in fact they really grate on me, but this was done well - not overdone, mostly detached from the present. Thought I don't typically enjoy fantasy-as-future, I did really like the split city of Verity.

- One of my favourite things was the different types of monsters, and how different they are from each other, and how they have their own brutality and way of being.

- It's a magical, dark, glittering story with an atmosphere I fell in love with. It's rich and dense and full of secrets I'm dying to know. I just love the world and story so much.

- Schwab has firmly put herself in my top 5 authors - I know now I'll love everything she writes.


- If you've yet to read This Savage Song, get yourself a copy - you'll fall in love with its shadows, its dangerous friendships, its monsters - most human - and its bright world of dark crime. 

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world ★★★★★
Writing ★★★★★

Review: Darkness Brutal

The Dark Cycle: Darkness Brutal | Rachel A. Marks

Published by: Skyscape, July 1st 2015

Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy, Demons

Pages: 425

Format: Ebook

Source: Skyscape, via Netgalley

Aidan O’Linn’s childhood ended the night he saw a demon kill his mother and mark his sister, Ava, with Darkness. Since then, every three years the demons have returned to try to claim her. Living in the gritty, forgotten corners of Los Angeles, Aidan has managed to protect his sister, but he knows that even his powers to fight demons and speak dead languages won’t keep her safe for much longer.

In desperation, Aidan seeks out the help of Sid, the enigmatic leader of a group of teens who run LA Paranormal, an Internet reality show that fights demons and ghosts. In their company, Aidan believes he’s finally found a haven for Ava. But when he meets Kara, a broken girl who can spin a hypnotic web of passionate energy, he awakens powers he didn’t know he had―and unleashes a new era of war between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness.

With the fate of humanity in his hands, can Aidan keep the Darkness at bay and accept his brilliant, terrifying destiny?

I really enjoyed Darkness Brutal. Here's what I thought:

- Interesting cast of characters, though I did confuse Lester and Jax a few times.

- I thought I'd like Rebecca the most, but I actually adore Kara. She's flawed and brave and has a tortured past, which is my type. Plus I really connect with her. 

- I loved the sibling relationship, and how they were both determined to protect each other.

- A really interesting, unique plot, with dream flashbacks and a time travel element I didn't see coming. It shouldn't have worked at all, but with it tied into the main character and their dad, it really did. I loved it!

- Bible-based religion-inspired fantasy that didn't put me off the book. It wasn't preachy or OTT, it didn't overwhelm the main story or the characters, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed those parts of the book. It made Darkness Brutal stand out and memorable.

- I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a fresh take on demons and YA urban fantasy.

Characters ★★★★☆
Setting/world ★★★★☆
Writing ★★★★☆

Dark Days Club (ARC Review)

Lady Helen: Dark Days Club | Alison Goodman

Published by: Walker Books, January 21st 2015

Genre: YA, Historical, Paranormal, Demons

Pages: 496

Format: Ebook

Source: Walker Books

London, April 1812. Eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall is on the eve of her debut presentation to the Queen. Her life should be about gowns and dancing, and securing a suitable marriage. Instead, when one of her family's housemaids goes missing, Lady Helen is drawn to the shadows of Regency London.

There, she finds William, the Earl of Carlston. He has noticed the disappearance, too, and is one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of powerful demons that has infiltrated every level of society. But Lady Helen’s curiosity is the last thing Carlston wants—especially when he sees the searching intelligence behind her fluttering fan. Should Helen trust a man whose reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her headstrong sense of justice lead them both into a death trap?

In The Dark Days Club, internationally best-selling author Alison Goodman introduces readers to a heroine who is just as remarkable as Eona—and yet again reinvents an establlished literary genre, making it her own. 

Dark Days Club is one of the best books I read in 2015. The writing is so detailed and brings the Regency Era to life, and the characters are compelling and interesting. I was hooked from the beginning.

Lady Helen was a surprising character. She's an active, intelligent woman in a time that only wants passive, vapid women, but she's realistic. She knows there are things she can get away with and others she can't. More than other Regency ladies I've read, I really felt like she could have been a real girl from that time. I liked her relationships with her friends and with Lord Carlston, and I especially loved their interactions and slow romance. Carlston is seriously swoon-worthy but he does make more than a few mistakes - he keeps far too many secrets and uses those to manipulate Helen (which was a dick move even if it was to save the world...)

The fantasy element of this book was really good - the demons are unique and imaginative and seriously disgusting. There was a weird, bizarre part involving soul sight energy or something but the rest of it isn't nearly as strange. I don't really have anything bad to say about this book, other than Helen's uncle made me inclined to murder, but the sexism is to be expected from a Regency man.

Exciting plot full of Regency detail, tension, and a secret demon fighting society. Loved it so much.

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world ★★★★☆

Writing ★★★★☆

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The Stars Never Rise (ARC Review)

The Stars Never Rise: The Stars Never Rise | Rachel Vincent

Published by: Mira Ink, June 18th 2015

Genre: YA, Paranormal, Dystopia, Demons

Pages: 368

Format: Ebook

Source: Harlequin UK, via Netgalley

There’s no turning back…

In the town of New Temperance, souls are in short supply and Nina should be worrying about protecting hers. Yet she’s too busy trying to keep her sister Mellie safe.

When Nina discovers that Mellie is keeping a secret that threatens their existence, she’ll do anything to protect her. Because in New Temperance, sins are prosecuted as crimes by the brutal church.
To keep them both alive, Nina will need to trust Finn, a mysterious fugitive who has already saved her life once. Wanted by the church and hunted by dark forces, Nina knows she needs Finn and his group of rogue friends.


But what do they need from her in return?

The Stars Never Rise was so not what I was expecting. It was a lot more terrifying dystopia than dark fantasy, and it was so tense. I was on edge for a good portion of this book, expecting things to go wrong. Usually, they did.

The Stars Never Rise starts off pretty heavy. We're in a new nightmare world where souls are sparse and have been consumed by demons during a war, and to save humanity the Church has risen and not controls literally every aspect of everyone's lives. Which would be scary enough without factoring in the women must be pure specimens and if you have the tiniest thing wrong with you (bad eyesight, for example) we're going to make it so you can never conceive thing. That's just one example of how this new world utterly sucks for women. But what's new with women getting the worse end when it comes to rules of religion?

There's a few plot twists in this book, and I saw literally none of them coming. One of them should have been obvious from the get-go. And THE OTHER. I don't wanna spoil anything but the love interest is ... weird. And that situation is only going to get weirder through the series. I kind of can't wait for the next book, because I love the world Rachel Vincent has built, and I like the characters, and I realllly do like the romance, but ... I'm a little nervous of where the love is going to go. Like how can you fix that? Spoiler: How is she not going to keep kissing strangers, and even worse people she knows. One minute you're joking with a friend and the next you're kissing your soul-bf in your friend's body. LIKE WTF??? It makes me want to shudder with every kiss.

I really, really liked this book. It wasn't what I expected but it was amazing and exciting and totally different. I'm dying to read the next book - this series is going to be awesome.

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting/world-building ★★★★☆

Writing ★★★★☆

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Smoulder (Review)

Smoulder | Brenna Yovanoff
Also published as The Space Between

Published by: Simon & Schuster UK, January 5th 2012

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Mythology (sorta - it's Biblical lore)

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback

Source: Gift

Everything is made of steel, even the flowers. How can you love anything in a place like this?

Daphne is the half-demon, half-fallen angel daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. Life for her is an endless expanse of time, until her brother Obie is kidnapped - and Daphne realizes she may be partially responsible. Determined to find him, Daphne travels from her home in Pandemonium to the vast streets of Earth, where everything is colder and more terrifying. With the help of the human boy she believes was the last person to see her brother alive, Daphne glimpses into his dreams, discovering clues to Obie's whereabouts. As she delves deeper into her demonic powers, she must navigate the jealousies and alliances of the violent archangels who stand in her way. But she also discovers, unexpectedly, what it means to love and be human in a world where human is the hardest thing to be. 

I started this book hoping that Brenna Yovanoff wasn't one of those authors where I only love one of their books. I hoped I loved all of her books as much as The Replacement but feared I wouldn't. I shouldn't have worried.

Smoulder - or The Space Between - is a dark and gritty story of recovery and self-discovery. It explores the lengths people will go to for those they love, even if they don't really know what love is. I loved this book. It had a definite spark of the magic that I found in The Replacement, even if I didn't fall as hard for this book as I did that.

I loved the characters the most - Daphne was naive but brave, and I found her obliviousness and ignorance of earth things pretty cute. But Truman - he reminded me so much of Cole St Clair, one of my favourite characters ever. Truman is self destructive, careless with his life, and utterly broken. He's not quite as sharp around the edges as Cole, and has a definite gentleness, but that only made me love him more. The ending almost killed me. The supporting characters were great too - even Moloch (I naturally hate and suspect Molochs but he managed to gain my trust and affection) and a demon child.

This book is a great mix of contemporary issues and paranormal danger. The magic felt so natural, like it belonged in this world, and the threats were pretty horrifying (poor Obie!) but I was much more invested in Truman's recovery. My precious sunshine child. And don't even get me started on the romance, which was just perfect for these characters. Basically I loved everything about this, and it's only not an absolute favourite because I didn't entirely fall in love with it. It's purely an emotional rating.

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world building ★★★★☆

Writing ★★★★☆