Twilight

*Spoiler alert*
Twilight is the story of Bella Swan, a 17 year old girl who has just moved to Washington t o live with her father while her mother travels. when she arrives at her new school, she immediately notices a strange group of people sitting together at lunch. she is told that they are the Cullens,adopted teenagers of Dr. and Mrs.Cullen. In biology, Bella is partnered with Edward Cullen. He instantly appears to hate her and she is understandably confused. Later, he saves her life, then just walks away. increasing her fascination for him. then she goes to the beach and after hearing old legends from an Indian friend, she does some research and decides Edward is a vampire. While in town, he again saves her life from rapists this time, and confirms her theory. After a few more cryptic conversations, she agrees to hang out with him that weekend. So they hang out in a meadow and discuss their feelings all day before going back to her house. he stays over (nothing happens) and the next day he decides to take her to meet his family. So they go and while Bella is watching them play baseball, 3 strange vampires show up. they want to eat Bella. One is an extremely skilled tracker and he'll stop at nothing to eat Bella, so she goes into hiding with 2 of Edward's "siblings" Alice and her life partner Jasper. they stay in Arizona for a few days before the tracker tricks Bella and captures her, then tortures her a bit and is about to kill her when the Cullens show up and kill him. He bit Bella's hand and she could turn into a vampire, but Edward doesn't want her to, so he sucks out the venom and takes her to the prom (after she got out of the hospital) Then she tells him she wants to be a vampire, he says no, they agree to disagree, the end. unfortunately there's more books after this one.
while i thought that the whole idea behind this series was very creative and a great start,it was ruined by several things: THE CHARACTERS-
Bella is the worst. she whines during the entire book from page one, is spineless, seriously lacking in self confidence, self absorbed, needy, and has a weird complex where she doesn't want anyone to die for her and would rather die herself, but keeps putting herself in situations where others have to put themselves in the position to die in an attempt to save her life. Edward is constantly going on about how horrible he is and how many people he killed, and he doesn't deserve to live, it goes on and on. He just cant seem to accept that hes a vampire, done deal.
THE PLOT-
Ok the entire plot seems to revolve around whether Edward loves her or not. she obsesses about it for weeks, analyzing his every move, whining inside her head (does he like me? probably not. its cold, i want to go home, oh ya, i sent myself here so i need to stop complaining before the reader burns this book) Once we finally figure out he loves her, the author throws in the whole little thing with the evil vampire intent on killing Bella in the final few chapters. This seems like more of a main plot thing to me......
THE ROMANCE-
It was sickeningly sweet. they pretty much sat around, staring at each other and debating who was more beautiful, making long, drawn out speeches of their great love and refraining from any intense making out in case Edward looses control and sucks the life out of Bella. Lovely. They seemed more obsessed with each other than in love, they were both extremely jealous and wanted to know what the other was doing all the time.
This book is good for anyone looking for something to read while in a hospital and only other choice is a cookbook. I do not suggest it at all. The only way the movies are better is that they take less time than reading a book, so there's less suffering.

Dead To The World

I have read all the Sookie Stackhouse books except Dead in the Family (im on the county library waiting list) and this is my favorite so far! The plot is really good, the whole fighting evil Were witches/Eric loosing his memory/finding Jason thing really tie together well and make for a good mystery/action/romance.
Sookie is still getting over her recent breakup with Bill the vampire when he announces hes going to Peru. Driving home from work the next day, she spots Eric, another vampire she knows, sprinting down the side of the road, wearing pants and nothing else in the middle of the night in January. So she stops to offer him a ride and discovers that he has amnesia. She brings him back to her house and calls his second-in-commands, Pam and Chow. They show up at the same time as Jason, Sookie's brother, who announces there are posters for Eric's return. Pam and chow offer Sookie $50,000 to hide Eric. she agrees and they explain to her that Were witches who drink vampire blood gave Eric amnesia, as punishment for rudely refusing to give them a fifth of his businesses. To make matters worse, Jason disappears a few days after sleeping with a were-panther girl. will sookie be able to help defeat the witches, save her brother, and keep from falling for this new Eric, a lonely, scared, gentle version?
This was a great book with a great plot, characters,mystery, and romance. as a die-hard fan of Sookie/Eric, i was ecstatic by certain developments with them *wink*. I definitely suggest this book for any fan of this series and Eric.

Alpha

Alpha is the finale in the Shifters series. It was intense, with non stop action and all the characters weve come to know throughout the series. Here is my review:
CHARACTERS: A lot of people hate Faythe with a passion, which i can totally understand. but i like a lot of the bad things about her. it makes her more understandable. and yes, she does act like shes 15, not in her 20's at times, but she is truly a good person, she just isnt like many other paranormal/fantasy female leads who are snarky and caring and quiet and matured beyoned their years at the right times. shes different and not afraid to be herself even f people hate herself and i like that. no, i dont agree with all her decisions, but people make mistakes and shes good bout fixing hers. Marc and Jace. Well. SPOILER!!!!! Faythe asks Marc to marry her at the end, which i thought was very appropriate. hes been there for her always, its time for her to express herself to him a little for once. im all for an equal partnership, so go faythe for stepping up to he plate and finally meeting marc halfway! Jace, well ive never really liked him, but thats a personal preference thing, though i believe marc is a better fit for faythe. he iss her equal. with jace, it seems he more wants to worship faythe. also, character death, im not going to say who, but im sure most of you have guessed by now. it was admittedly, necessary, but poor faythes mom! (she didnt die, by the way).
PLOT:similar to earlier plots, faythe is arrested, calvin malone is involved, the whole shebang devolves into an all out war. the thunderbirds make an appearance, calvin malone has to be stopped for once and for all faythe has to choose her partner, all the loose ends have to be tied.....quite a journey!
OVERALL: overall i liked it. i like faythe, i like her decisions and just her in this book. i liked the plot and i liked the ending. i didnt love it, but it is definitely worth reading. 3.5 stars.

Angel's Blood

I thought that this was overall a wonderful book with a creative, original plot, strong characters, and beautiful writing. My only complaint was that is was a little too much sexuality in it for my taste, but that's just me.
THE PLOT:
The plot was one of my favorite parts of this book. Elena is a born vampire hunter in an alternate New York, where vampires are more powerful than humans, angels are more powerful than vampires, and archangels rule all. Elena can track vampires who have escaped their angel masters by using scent and she is the best hunter in the Hunter's Guild. Raphael is the ruthless, 3,000 year old archangel who rules North America. Raphael has a problem. Another archangel has gone rouge, and means to bathe the world in blood. So Raphael calls on the best tracker in New York, Elena.Elena and Raphael set off around the city after Uram, the rouge archangel. They find many bloody, horrifying scenes and hints are given at a horror in Elena's past. As Elena and Raphael draw closer to finding and destroying Uram, they also find themselves growing closer to each other.
THE CHARACTERS:
The characters were very well developed and you find yourself instantly caring about them. Elena is a strong female lead who can take care of herself, but isn't perfect, either. She has a terrible experience in her past and is deeply scarred by it. Overall, she is a very relate able, likable character. Raphael is an ancient, extremely powerful archangel. He is used to everyone instantly obeying him, until he meets Elena.Raphael is a bit off-putting at first, but he slowly grows on both the reader and Elena as his "humanness" is revealed.There are several great secondary characters as well.
Overall, I thought this was a great book and worth reading. However, I would not recommend it to younger or faint hearted readers, as there is very graphic violence, gore, torture, and sex. The author is extremely talented and writes beautifully, making this book flow very well. I recommend it.

Destiny Kills

I really liked this book. I found myself rereading my favorite scenes over and over. ****SPOILER ALERT****
PLOT:
Destiny, a sea dragon, wakes up naked on a beach next to a dead man. But she has a problem. she has no idea who she is, who the man is, or where she is. I was led to believe from description blurbs that this was a major plot point, but Destiny remembers everything within the first couple of chapters. This was okay with me, because the actual plot was much better. Destiny teams up with her dead lover's brother, Trae, to free her mother and a group of children from a lab in Scotland, on Loch Ness. (And yes, Destiny is one of many "Loch Ness Monsters")
CHARACTERS:
Destiny was thankfully not annoying. She is strong and brave and cares about her family. Trae was the typical yummy male lead. There was a little too much sexual tension to be believable, but it didnt distract from the story. The secondary characters werent very present in the story, so they weren't fleshed out.
OVERALL:
I enjoyed the element of water and air dragons and the different elements they control. This was very well done.the writing was very beautiful, but had just enough humor mixed in.
This was very good overall and I recommend it.

Entice

Entice is the third book in Carrie Jone's Need series. I would definitely suggest reading the earlier books first, otherwise you may be confused.
THE PLOT:
Entice starts literally about 10 minutes after Captivate ends. Zara and her friends go to the school dance, and Zara receives a clue about the location of Valhalla, where her werewolf boyfriend, Nick, has been taken. Since, you know, he happens to be dead. Also, he doesn't know Zara has turned into a pixie, and he despises pixies. But you can't say Zara isn't stubborn. the girl is bent on saving him. so much that nearly the whole book is spent trying to find Valhalla and chasing various dead ends. Meanwhile, Frank the Extra Evil Pixie King, is trying to take over Astley's territory. (Astley is the Good Pixie King...and Zara happens to be his queen.) Frank's pixie minions wreak havoc on Bedford and have kidnapped about 20 teens. This all makes for some excitement and danger in Zara's life.Warning: Entice does end on a mild cliffhanger. Basically, you will be left thinking, "OMG, Whats he going to do?!?!?!" I will say no more :)
THE CHARACTERS:
This was really what made the book worth it for me. I have always been a little iffy about Zara, but with her new pixie skills, she is becoming quite the kicka$$. But while she is becoming stronger when it comes to standing up for herself and confrontations, she still can't see past her wants(saving nick) to the bigger picture(saving the world.) I am hoping she will mature a little more in that sense in the fourth installment. Going over Nick would be a spoiler, so I wont include him, but Zara's other friends haven't changed much. They were not as involved in this book as in others, but it was understandable. Betty was her same old tigerish self, but we were shown a deeper, more human part of Betty at a particularly sad scene, which I thought added to her character. Zara's parents were the worst written characters. We finally meet Zara's mom, who appears to be bipolar. As for her dad....you just have to read it. And then there was Astley. Hot, rich, pixie king, loves Zara, nice guy, spends all his time and energy helping her find Nick, just to make her happy. AND SHE DOESN'T GO FOR HIM?!?!?!?!?!?! luckily, she does eventually learn to trust him, and there are a couple of scenes where things heat up between them. He was by far, the best character.
OVERALL:
This book was not nearly as strong as its predecessors, but it had its moments. The writing has also dramatically improved. The childishness has all but disappeared, and the detail was far more, well, detailed. Overall, I would recommend it to fans as part of the series, but not as a stand alone novel.

The Lost Saint

The Lost Saint is the second book in the Dark Divine (series? trilogy?)and means to set the bar for the third book quite high.
THE PLOT:
The book starts about 10 months after The Dark Divine left off. Grace is a werewolf, Daniel is cured, and Jude is MIA. Daniel is training Grace, and they are happier than ever. But this doesn't last. Soon, Grace is receiving cryptic messages from what appears to be Jude and Daniel is keeping secrets and pulling away from Grace. But Grace has a few secrets of her own...Such as she's been training with bad boy Talbot and looking for Jude. But soon, Grace is losing control and Daniel is hiding something huge. Will the wolf consume Grace? Will Daniel's secret destroy him?
THE CHARACTERS:
One thing I really liked about this book was that, essentially, the characters were still themselves. Yes, Grace was a little wilder and angrier, and Daniel slightly less tortured (note the slightly), but they were still true to who they really are, which I was happy about. Jude, however, is another story. That boy is the weakest, most spineless idiot in the book. Isn't there any glimmer of the old Jude left? I'm beginning to be unsure. Another character I would like to make note of is April. I don't know if I want to shake that girl or buy her a neon traffic safety vest. Probably both. Her bubbly girlishness has a tendency to border more on annoying 6 year old than cute at times, but she does provide comic relief,(bedazzled stake, LOL) which is needed in such an emotionally packed book.
OVERALL:
Overall, I would say that this book is a great addition to the Dark Divine books. The writer continues with her lovely writing in this book, fans of the first book will not be disappointed. The scenes were well planned, the characters fully fleshed out, and the emotions were charged. Beautiful! 4.5 stars.