The Pelican Brief by John Grisham

In suburban Georgetown a killer's Reeboks whisper on the front floor of a posh home... In a seedy D.C. porno house a patron is swiftly garroted to death... The next day America learns that two of its Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. And in New Orleans, a young law student prepares a legal brief... To Darby Shaw it was no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant guess. To the Washington establishment it was political dynamite. Suddenly Darby is witness to a murder -- a murder intended for her. Going underground, she finds there is only one person she can trust -- an ambitious reporter after a newsbreak hotter than Watergate -- to help her piece together the deadly puzzle. Somewhere between the bayous of Louisiana and the White House's inner sanctums, a violent cover-up is being engineered. For somone has read Darby's brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime. Goodreads

Review: Nightlife ( Cal Leandros #1) by Rob Thurman

There are monsters among us. There always have been and there always will be. I’ve known that since I can remember, just like I’ve always known I was one . . . 
. . . Well, half of one, anyway. 
Welcome to the Big Apple. There’s a troll under the Brooklyn Bridge, a boggle in Central Park, and a beautiful vampire in a penthouse on the Upper East Side – and that’s only the beginning. Of course, most humans are oblivious to the preternatural nightlife around them, but Cal Leandros is only half human. 
His father’s dark lineage is the stuff of nightmares – and he and his entire otherworldly race are after Cal. Why? Cal hasn’t exactly wanted to stick around long enough to find out. 
He and his half brother, Niko, have managed to stay a step ahead for four years, but now Cal’s dad has found them again. And Cal is about to learn why they want him, why they’ve always wanted him: He is the key to unleashing their hell on earth. The fate of the human world will be decided in the fight of Cal’s life . . .

I started reading this last year then put it aside. That in no way means the book is boring, I suppose if I had a physical copy I would have finished it way earlier. 

Cal is named after a character from the Tempest, Caliban.  Caliban(from The Tempest) is a halfbreed,born of a demon and a witch. Cal is also a halfbreed although nobody knows of what. I like this book. It was funny, action packed and full of monsters. If you're a fan of Supernatural then you'll love this book.

Cal and Niko's relationship is a lot like Sam and Dean's. Niko's the oldest and looks out for Cal.  Cal's the little brother who has issues because he's actually half something evil. He thinks he's a monster and that Niko should acknowledge that fact.  Niko refuses ,to believe that Cal could be evil, by not calling him by his full name "Caliban". 

The story is about how the auphe want to open a gate and return to a much preferred time where they ruled earth. If they succeed then the present time(world /mankind) ends. To open this gate they need a key and the key just happens to be "Cal". The first chapters are funny to read. A lot of banter between the brothers. They suspect something's wrong/going on and are getting ready to run again. In their need of a car they meet Goodfellow (THE Robin Goodfellow), who tells them a lot about the auphe and grendels and sheds light on their predicament. Goodfellow becomes their friend and informant.

The story picks up when Cal gets possessed by the Darkling. The Darkling merges with Cal's body as to open the door.The book is told from Cal's pov but there's no Cal after the merging. There's just a lot of narrative from the very very arrogant Darkling.  I'm talking my-god-shut-up-arrogant!!

After that the story picks up a nice pace. A lot of fighting and  saving the world. 

I guess the resolution is Cal accepting who he is. He's a monster but not necessarily evil.

"I watched Catcher cavort under a scarlet sky and marveled at the beauty of him. He might not be a human,but neither was he a monster. The lack of one didn't necessarily equal the other. There was something so simple about that,yet it had taken me until now to figure it out. Catcher was no monster and neither was I" ~Cailban

Grade: 

E

Review: A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space by S.D Foster

A collection of twenty-three bizarro fables in which you'll meet Nobody, a performing primate who wants to chew your children's lips off; pontificate with the Stork, philosopher and feces-eater; rejoice as Nordin "The Noggin" Nobel, noted socialite, is reconciled to his estranged head; share the existential despair of Slothra the suicidal kaiju; celebrate the love of Violet and her rotting lover; explore the meaning of life with Dr. Ebenezer A.T. Horkenheimer, sociopath, and the geography of heaven and hell with Ted the mangled toy. And so much more...It's Aesop, as imagined by John Waters.

With this book I enter the world of bizzaro. While this book confused and disgusted me, it was really worth  reading. The stories are short, ranging from 4-8 pages a story. Finally a book of short stories that are actually short!. The stories all seem like these very odd, twisted tales somebody would tell a kid to get their attention or give them weird disgusting dreams.

 S.D Foster is a new author and he's writing is great, it has a flow and reads well. I enjoyed reading these bizzar stories. Some of them are amusing  , some disgusting, others confusing, because although I think there's something there, the meaning eludes me. Some are even very sad.

The amusing ones:
The first story is about an orange: The Course of Clementine, an orange who's purpose is to be consumed. I hate oranges! Then there's also the case of the dude who wants to look so good he quiet literally loses his head (The Marvelous Head), the monkey who wants to be famous, a girl who wants to be a "quadriplegic motivational speaker", a very sheltered kid, and a suicidal freeloader. There's also one about a crazy doctor who wants to take over the world by populating it with his own offspring and killing all others.

The Disgusting ones:
Mr Rat is married to Mrs Rat, who eats all her infants, she attempts to civilize Mr Rat. Their favorite food of choice is "aborted baby spread thick with bacon grease". Then there's this chick who gets raped by eh...Frankfurt's,chocolates and other things edible you'd find in a supermarket  and somehow gets impregnated by said food group, there's also incest involved. You have been warned.

There are stories about love even. Odd, sad, disgusting love, but love in some kind of form. There's the story about the woman who carves a tree a heart, the tree then comes to life, and the woman then marries it. But in the end terminates her marriage. A story I enjoyed, "“Please don’t carve me another heart—‘tis easier to photosynthesize than to love”  says the tree in the end before the woman removes his mouth. The story about the woman who marries the guy she ran over, who is literally rotting. Unconditional love or desperate much?. The story about the snowman , who's the ladies man, poor guy loses his "assets". 

The best story is "unbreakable" it reminds me of The Velveteen Rabbit. Other good stories worth mentioning are "Silk Flower" and "War and Peace'. I like the play on Hellen Kellers name , but the meaning of this particular story , if it even has one, escapes me. The story about The (not so quiet) Corpse and The Stork is also a great one.

This was a fun and different book to read and I'm happy I got the chance to read it. Some stories gave me the nostalgic feeling of reading The Brothers Grimm. It also makes for good conversation , that is if you're out to disgust or amuse your friends. Although this is my first book of this genre I have nothing to compare it too. But as a reader of stories. I'd say it's full of damn good stories, so I'm giving it 4stars.

Grade: 

    E

Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceshipGodspeed. She expects to awaken on a new planet, 300 years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, Amy's cryo chamber is unplugged, and she is nearly killed.

Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense.Godspeed's passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, his rebellious and brilliant teenage heir.

Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she? All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.

" If you want to know anything, observe it's beginning and it's development" 

~Aristoteles~

This book is just great!  I fully enjoyed reading it. It's well written . Easy to understand, honest expressions and amusing curse words "frex " and "chutz"  and gives you a lot to think about. This book made me feel. It took me out of the numbness of routine life. It frightened me, it saddened me and it angered me. Any such book should be on your TBR list! 

The 3 causes of discord

1. Differences ~Apparently differences are bad and cause chaos. The people on the spaceship "Godspeed" are "monoethnic". Basically they all freaking look alike. They have no physical differences.

 Then Amy shows up. A girl with red hair and pale skin. She is deference. The people on the ship see her as a freak and are kind of hostile towards her.  Except the people on the  mental ward in the ships hospital. It's all upside down. The people who work and maintain the ship are crazy and the people on the mental ward are in fact the sane ones. It's infuriating as it is frightening. I live among differences. To me it's the epitome of beauty.

2. A lack of a strong leader~ Eldest is the leader of Godspeed. The guy is a crazy, menopausal tyrant. He runs the ship on lies and drugs.The man is insane as he is frightening. Although what he's trying to do is to protect the people on the ship, his means aren't right. He keeps the inhabitants of the ship in a passive state by drugging their water supply. The inhabitants are complacent, they question nothing and blindly follow Eldest's leadership.  Orion, the person who was suppose to take Eldest place . This guy doesn't agree with Eldest's way of doing things but his ways aren't better either. Then there's Elder, who at the end of the book becomes the new leader of Godspeed. He has an understanding of  what it takes to be a good leader. "being a good leader does not mean using your strenght to make people do things but to lend people your strenght so that they can do things"

Fun Fact: Eldest/Elder and Orion are clones. They are technically the same person.This raises the question. If they're the same person, if they're based on the same DNA . Then won't they make the same mistakes? 

3. Individual Thought ~  This is the scariest.  Not being able/allowed to think for yourself. The people on Godspeed are being drugged into a complacent state, this prevents individual thought. They are passive and think everything is alright they question nothing. They are empty. Their passiveness is creepy.  

Everything on Gospeed is fake. It's all artificial. The air,food,animals,water,rain. Not real. The characters feel trapt in a metal box, it's suffocating. It would kill me never to see the sky again. While the book is told from Amy's and Elder's POV you can feel the confinement from their POV"S. Their longing to feel something "real". You can also see the difference between Amy and Elder. Amy is from earth and knows what she's missing, she knows that life on godspeed isn't normal, she sees the lies. In the end she opens elders eyes to them aswell. 

Although I've developed a disinterest in YA books I' have to admit I'm glad I read this one. It wasn't what I had expected. Death, suicide, attempted rape,clones,conspiracy! yeah definitely not what I had expected.

I give this awesome book 4 stars and thank the dude from the blog " Roro Is Reading " for lending it to me.


Grade:   E

Review: Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon

In the Ichidian Universe, The League and their ruthless assassins rule all. Expertly trained and highly valued, the League Assassins are the backbone of the government. But not even the League is immune to corruption . . .

Command Assassin Nykyrian Quikiades once turned his back on the League—and has been hunted by them ever since. Though many have tried, none can kill him or stop him from completing his current mission: to protect Kiara Zamir, a woman whose father’s political alliance has made her a target.  

As her world becomes even deadlier, Kiara must entrust her life to the same kind of beast who once killed her mother and left her for dead. Old enemies and new threaten them both and the only way they can survive is to overcome their suspicions and learn to trust in the very ones who threaten them the most: each other.

After reading the dark-hunter books I needed more Kenyon,so I decided to check out her League series. At first I wasn't really interested because it was science fiction and I was looking for more paranormal and more of the dark-hunters. But people kept talking about how great her other books are so I had to check them out and The League really is worth it. It's action packed, funny and gruesome.

The  first cover I saw of Born of Night was pink and not very attractive but the new one is better and thank god when I bought the book I got the new one and not the pink one.

Nykyrian has had a really rough life. He was abandoned in an orphanage by his grandmother because he was half andarion half human. He grew up hating his mother and his adoptive father who made his life a living hell. But his redemption shows up in the form of a little dancer named Kiara,who shows him that life isn't as ugly as he sees it.


The other characters are just amazing and I love their names. Dancer Hawk and Darling Cruel. You can't but love their never-ending banter, they act as if they hate each other but they're quite loyal friends. Hawk is always threatening to eat Darling. Before I read Born of Night, I thought it was stupid to name a character Darling but after reading this book I realized the guy makes the name work. I eagerly anticipate their stories.

Then there's Syn , best friend and brother of Nykyrian and a drunk. All the guy ever wanted was to have a normal life I think and he had it all. A wife and a son but then his past came back to bite him in the ass and he lost everything he ever loved. So he found his solace in drinking. It was funny how throughout the book Nyk was always trying to get Syn to drink orange juice and how Syn was almost always drunk .

I couldn't help but look for things to link Born of Nigh to the dark-hunter series. I was always reading Kyrian instead of Nykyrian and Thinking of Sin from DH. I'm not saying Dark-Hunter and The League are the same ,they're not obviously. Dark-hunter has more of a fate/destiny theme while the league has a justice kind of theme (my opinion).

The book has a happy ending, yeah Nykyrian almost died and has kind of a limp now. But he also has a little dancer for a wife and a daughter and a son. And he found out he's family didn't really abandon him, they really did love him and never forgot him .

I give this book 4 stars and I'm happy I bought it because it enables me to visit the Ichidian Universe whenever I want.

<- this is the old cover. See it's PINK!

Review: Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen

I love Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli&Isle serie!. A boy from from school lent me one of her books (from the series) that's when I got hooked. I wanted to read them all and  I did cuz the guy had them all. A couple of months ago I found out there was a tv serie!! I havn't seen it yet but really want to. Unfortunatly it doesn't air in my country yet. But that doesn't bother me as much as finding out there were 2 more books out from the serie and I HAD NO CLUE!. Ice Cold and The Silent Girl. So when I found it in a bookstore I had to buy it (I'm broke now btw) and it was worth  the money. and worth being broke now.

Ice cold starts off with Maura Isle going to wyoming for a conference. Father Brophy( Father in the literal sense(guy is a PRIEST)) drops her off at the airport. There affaire has reached the point where it's not about the hot sex anymore and more about Daniel (priest) choosing between Maura and the priesthood. Anyways Maura meets a guy, Dough at the conference  who she went to school with, who invites her to go skiing with him and his friends. Maura, who's always the levelheaded one, agrees and that's how the worst weekend of Maura Isle's life happenes.

I really liked this book and it took me back to why  I love this series. I got to reacquaint myself with my favorite characters Maura Isle and Jane Rizzoli.

What I liked about this book was the horror story kind of feeling it gave. The abandoned houses, the dead animals, the footprints in the snow. And when the owner of the supermarket warns then about a place called  "Kingdom Come" and they end up on an abandoned road and find a sign that says "welcome to kingdom come". and then continue to find strange things. It really made you wonder What DID  happen to the people.
When Jane comes looking for Maura and they end up finding a body that matches a woman of Maura isles height and weight they all think she's dead. I didn't , although while I was reading, I didn't really believe she was dead, so I skimmed through a couple of pages just to make sure she was still alive.

I liked Rats character and old characters like Sansone and Lucy ( the mephisto club) are also in this book.
Daniel and Sansone have  a moment where (when they're returning to Boston with "Maura's" body) they kind of have an argument about who loved her more. Although I think having an affair with a priest is wack (bad) . I like Daniels character. and how Maura is with the guy. And I feel sorry that she breaks up with em, well maybe I feel bad for the priest .  Maura loves him but he is also the cause of her unhappiness.

The book ends with a twist. At first everything kind of led to it being a case of mass murder but it was actually just an accident .

I can't wait to read The Silent Girl .
Ice Cold is another awesome book by Tess Gerritsen ****

Review: The Guardian by Sherrilyn Kenyon

I finally got to read The Guardian by Sherrilyn Kenyon after having to wait for 3 long weeks.
Of course because  I couldn't wait and I was going crazy , I went looking for spiolers and other news and found a sneak preview of the first 4 chapters online ( at heroes and heartbreakers.com) well it made me even more impatient. Then I found the extra scene on the same site which made me even more gaga, because my book was delayed by a whole week!!

But of course the book!
What I expected from The Guardian.
1. What Kenyon was gonna do with the Egyptian mythology
2. Who's Seth
3. Getting to learn more about Solin and Jaden
 4. Just the enjoyment of reading another Dark-Hunter (dream hunter novel)

So the guardian wasn't as great as the other DH novels, it is also not one of my favorites but I do like it. I'd give it 4 stars.

The books is about the key of Olympus. Seth is charged with the task of finding the key for Noir. The only person known to be in possession of the key is Solin. Seth kidnaps Solin and tortures him,  but gets nothing out of him. That's when Lydia comes in. She, a dream/werehunter (jackal), somehow finds a way into Azmodea to save Solin, who of course when he sees Lydia tells her what an idiot she is and to leave. But does she listen "of course not". So she ends up getting caught as well  by the guardian (Seth). Who then uses her as leverage against Solin. Solin has to give Seth the key in exchange for Lydia.

Seth is the son of  the Egyptian god Set which makes him a demigod.  We  also find out later that he's Menyara's nephew. We also meet Maahes another Egyptian god, who has hair like a "lions mane". Kenyon didn't really get into the Egyptian mythology, other then the mention of other Egyptian gods (my opinion at first))
After reading the book again (when I should have been studying for exams). I realized I forgot about the swallow and it's significance in Egyptian mythology and how the author incorporated that into the book.Seth has a tattoo of a swallow on his chest. The swallow (according to Egyptian mythology) is associated with death and sorrow. And if you read the book you'll really like what it is to Seth and how he got it.

Seth has a really tortured character. He's suffered a lot, actually too much . I mean come on?!
Although he's suffered so much and tries to be all bad and evil, he's still retained some goodness in him. A lot of goodness in him. Noir and Azura are indeed assholes and like Lydia I can't wait for them to get theirs.

As for Solin, I've learned a lot. He was in love with a were-hunter, who after she finds out what Solin is. Shuns him. Here's the catch. They have a daughter together. Who's the daughter . LYDIA (the heroin).
I can't say if I like her character or not. I can say I find it annoying all the random endearments she used for Seth, but I generally hate that, so maybe that's not an argument.

And Jaden! Lydia did some of us fans a favor and asked him what he was . To which he answered "fubar".
I read that and was like "whats a fubar". If you've read Acheron and know what "BPD' is, then you won't be disappointed. Since I've come across Jaden's character I've been trying to learn more about him. His mismatched eyes intrigue me. And that's one of the mayor reasons I so desperately wanted to read The Guardian. *somebody betrayed him that's why his a slave to Nior? and he can leave, he can kill Noir and Azura but then somebody he cares for will suffer? who damn it?! who?! and this other guy Verilyn, who has the same eyes as Jaden but in reverse. Whats going on??

Overall impression of the book. I liked it. I don't think there are bad/good books. There are stories. and stories are just stories. You either enjoy them or not.   I enjoyed this story with the new characters and the old ones. When Seth and Lydia found some iota of trust between them at the last 50 so pages that did bug me, was the story going to end so fast?! I guess, I now understand what some readers mean by the "rushed ending" thing. and all this time I was thinking they were "annoying crazy people". My apologies.

* if I spelled anything wrong, or bad grammar My bad

Review: Kiss of a demon king

This is my first real try at a book review.

'Kiss of a Demon King" is the 7th book in the Immortals After Dark series and man is it a page turner, well actually you'll burn your fingers turning the pages as you go or possibly suffer a paper cut because it's so damn steamy and hot. and umph.

This is saying A LOT because I just read the ebook .
Anyways "Kiss of a Demon King' runs parallel with the 6th book "Dark Desires After Dusk".
Rydstorm (hero) gets captured by the Queen of Illusions, Sabin. The sister of his mortal enemy Omort.
All Rydstorm wants is to defeat Omort and get his kingdom back. But then he is being held captive by this "wicked female" who torments him every night. Stoking his desire to a certain point and then leaving him dry.
He vows revenge and eventually gets it and some.

I loved Rydstorm he is just so "royally hot" and when he's pissed and loses control, did I mention the page burns?
And Sabin (heroin) was just a badass chick, she knows what she wants, no inhibitions. She has her own idea of justice and her own standard of measuring things you have to respect.
Trust was a major issue between Rydstorm and Sabin but they eventually got over that hurdle.
In the end the guy gets the girl and the kingdom. Happily ever after.

One of my favorites characters, the crazy one ,Nix the all-knowing.
I just love her. She's awesome and I'm always wondering what her shirts gonna say.
And whose bones she wants to jump next. Nix said something about "going down to Budapest" to "investigate" a group of demons who call themselves "The Lords of the Underworld".
Now seeing as I'm also a fan of Gena Showalter's "Lords of the Underworld" series. It just makes me wonder....

The next book is "Pleasure of a Dark Prince" .
Another thing besides the demons with the sensitive horns to like ,are the Lykae. I just love them . They stoke the READERS desire and leave THEM dry.

On a personal note I should probably stop reading' these books. My mind is turning to mush and my heart just depressed. Because there's no chance of it all being real. I don't mean the Lore but the love.