Book Review: Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

When the Mayflower set sail in 1620, it carried on board the men and women who would shape America: Miles Standish; John Alden; Constance Hopkins. But some among the Pilgrims were not pure of heart; they were not escaping religious persecution. Indeed, they were not even human. They were vampires.The vampires assimilated quickly into the New World. Rising to levels of enormous power, wealth, and influence, they were the celebrated blue bloods of American society.

The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries. But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Alen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapated mansion. Schuyler is a loner...and happy that way. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a popular girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think, but she wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?

This review contains plot spoilers!

My Review: 
Schuyler is an outcast at her posh school who on her 15th birthday starts to experience weird changes and discovers that she is one of a Chosen group of elite vampires called Blue Bloods. They are reborn many times into different mortal bodies when needed and now they are facing a crisis. Somebody is killing the Blue Bloods during their vulnerable young adult years and Schuyler and her friends want to stop it.

The characters in the book really kept me interested. Mimi is such a bitch that you want to hate her totally but even she has her sympathetic moments. I liked Bliss though she makes some stupid decisions just to stay popular and that type of person annoys me. Jack is the one I'm not as keen on for jerking our heroine around and being a complete asshat. One minute he hints that he likes her then he totally ignores her. She's much better off with Oliver though she likes to abandon him every time Jack snaps his fingers. The characters are nicely developed and their inter relationships are interesting.

I found the historical aspects of the book quite interesting although it did slow the book down a lot. The vampires themselves were interesting and I very much enjoyed the murder plot, though at times it seemed to take a backseat to love and fashion.

I didn't like the incest storyline involving the historical lovers being reborn as brother and sister. The way Mimi was trying to seduce Jack all the time was pretty damn creepy and it added nothing to the story. A bit stomach churning really when you get close relatives getting together. I found that personally there was too much about fashion and who was wearing what and I fail to see why we needed the whole modelling shoot thing which was a bit boring.

One little bugbear though. When originally discussing Dylan being arrested for murder, Bliss indicates that she was with him the whole time during the murder and is his alibi. Yet we find out later that Dylan did commit the murder and everyone accepts that without questioning the whole alibi thing. Hmmm! That was a bit weird.

The plot may have been slower than the books that I usually enjoy but I did find myself caught up in the story and the characters and I'll be reading the rest of the series if it keeps up a decent standard.

2014 update: I started reading book two but didn't really enjoy it much so I haven't read the rest of the series.
 

Book Review: Strange Angels by Lili St.Crow

In Strange Angels, Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called “the touch.” (Comes in handy when you’re traveling from town to town with your dad, hunting ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional zombie.) Then her dad turns up dead—but still walking—and Dru knows she’s next. Even worse, she’s got two guys hungry for her affections, and they’re not about to let the fiercely independent Dru go it alone. Will Dru discover just how special she really is before coming face-to-fang with whatever—or whoever— is hunting her?

My Review: 
Dru and her father hunt evil paranormal beasts but Dru is about to face up to killing her dad when he is turned into a zombie after a mission goes wrong. Left alone in the world with something stalking her, Dru has to rely on herself and a school friend called Graves to survive.

Can I just point out that I liked the idea of the book and the basic plot. I liked the idea of a father and daughter fighting monsters together to keep their town safe. The thought that this teenage girl would have to fight the monsters alone after the tragedy sounded good. The writing style of the author was decent enough and the story was well put together. I liked the idea of the monster fighting. It sounded like this book had a lot of potential. But I did NOT like the way the characters were written, especially Dru.

Dru was a snotty, condescending cow that got on my nerves from the start with her attitude. She has the ability to see omens of death and in this she is NEVER wrong. So Dru, explain to me why the hell you did not warn your dad about the omen before he went monster hunting and got turned into a zombie??? You could have saved him by telling him what you saw. What does that say about Dru that she wouldn't try to save the person she loves most in the world? SURPRISE he ends up a zombie and yes Dru, it IS your fault!

She seems to feel superior to all the 'normal' girls who do normal things like look after their appearance and having fun, regarding them as deserving to be monster-nosh for those crimes. Dru cares little about her appearance which is her choice and you can understand that she feels she has more important things to worry about, but there is no need to say that girls deserve to die because they like shopping or brushing theur hair! Sounds like what you hear from people saying that girls who wear short skirts deserve to get raped. Nice Dru, you really are nasty. These girls are just living a life where they don't know about the monsters so it is pretty nasty to blame THEM for your crap life!

Then there is the way she continually puts Graves down. She says he'll be cute when he grows up, indicating that she thinks he is ugly now. This guy tries to be your friend and look out for you despite your attitude. He tries to help you fight the monsters and gives you a safe place to go. The guy has done everything to help you and you are such an ungrateful snot! Why the hell would he want to be her friend? Dru at one point comments that asians are half breeds and I found this very offensive.

I got so tired of her attitude that I didn't want to even see what happened next. Dru is a trully nasty character that I could not relate to in any way and I didn't care if she lived or died. This is not what I look for in my book heroines. This book had great potential to be a decent YA read but sadly I could not get past Dru's attitude.

Revamping my blog

Yes I've decided on a summer revamp for my blogging. I'm happy enough with the style of it so nothing will change on that front. It is the content which I feel needs a bit of a change. There is not enough of interest on there and it needs a bit more. I'll still be doing my blog tour events, book reviews and re-start my film reviews which I have neglected over the summer and my promotion of Indie authors. I'll be adding a few new features as well which I hope to do weekly.

-What's on Chuckle TV? This feature will include things I've watched, news items that made me happy or mad or a new show that I'm really keen to watch at some point.

-My Latest Musings will become Reading with Chuckles which will have a report on what I have read or abandoned this week.

-Chuckles hates...this will be my rants about things that have bugged me. It could be authors behaving badly, rude people on book sites, bad drivers, idiots with supermarket trolleys etc 

Hope you can join me!

Book Review: Death's Daughter by Amber Benson

DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL

For the last few years I'd been in a state of bliss--living under a self-imposed Forgetting Charm, because I so did not want to go into the family business. What I wanted was a glamorous career in New York City and the opportunity for a normal life--buying designer shoes on sale, dating guys from craigslist, Web surfing for organic dim sum for my boss. And then my father's Executive Assistant, a faun named Jarvis, showed up to tell me that my dad has been kidnapped.

Good-bye Forgetting Charm. Hell, (unwanted) responsibility. Not only am I expected to step into the CEO slot on the company Board, but I have to "prove my worth" by competing against the Devil's protégé--who so hot in more ways than one. The contest involves finding three (why is it always three?) objects of power. In Hell.

One of them is this adorable puppy--who happens to be a hellhound. The others are turning out to be not much fun. All this so I can take (unwanted) charge of Death, Inc.

My name is Calliope Reaper-Jones, and I'm...Death's Daughter.

My Review: 
 Calliope is the daughter of Death and comes back home from self-imposed exile to take over the family business when her father and sister are kidnapped.

Well Hell is doomed with Calliope in charge of things, that is for sure. She is a whiny, complaining, self obsessed, childish, irritating girl. She is also the steriotype heroine of this genre-fashion obsessed, boy crazy, status seeking, and annoying. Not much going for her really. She is meant to be about 24 but acts as if she is 10. Her 'endearing' list of character flaws is so long that I can't find anything to like about her! Add in mentally unstable and hysterical and you'll get a good picture of Calliope. I think this has to be the worst main character I have ever read in this genre. Yes really.

Now picture the scene. Your dad has been kidnapped! Oh no! Life as you know it is changing forever and you have the serious job of running the family business and you can't cope with the pressure! So what do you do next? Arrange a date with the kitchen boy of course. Then, oh horrors, you find out your sister is missing as well! So you endlessly think about sex with the guy in your mum's library, and then with the investigating cop dealing with your case. Oh come on!!! This was just a terrible plot development. The girl is not only sex obsessed, but she seems to hate people that are fat and I hate any kind of prejudice in my so called heroine. Oh Death must be so proud of his darling daughter. Not.

I didn't like the writing style much either. The author is trying too hard to be funny all the time and it just keeps falling flat, and the dialogue is pretty poor. For example as her blind date is arriving she remembers a dragon hanging around the lift area and runs to save him shouting 'get away foul beastie!'...uh huh. Enough said. Surely the author can think of a bit of appropriate dialogue that doesn't sound like King Arthur is saying it. The over use of the ! button grated on my nerves as well which makes it sound as if it was written by someone very young who has not yet developed the skill for telling an engaging story.

I've read that the author says that Callie grows and develops as the book and series goes along and that's fine. But if your main character is a whiny, rude, unpleasant cow then the readers won't always want to continue on the journey with her. And I was one of them. I was a bit shocked to see sequels to the book which makes me wonder if the books were published because the author was a (very good) actress on Buffy, or because of her writing skill. I know which answer I believe. Harsh review, yes but it really was one of the worst books I've read in this genre.

Book Review: Beg for Mercy by Toni Andrews

I've never been certain I'm human Oh, the X-rays and blood tests are normal, and most people have no reason to suspect I'm more than I appear to be. But if I tell you to do something? You do it--no ifs, ands or buts. My name is Mercy Hollings, and if you think that having the power to control people makes my life easy, you're dead wrong.

Because when I get angry, everyone around me is at risk--Sukey, my friend who has frightening taste in men; my clients, who, ironically, come to me for help; my neighbors, who regard me as a loner; and Sam, a man who wants to know my darkest secret. And I'm afraid my anger is taking over.

My Review:
The blurb for this book made it sound very interesting-the not quite human, trying to hide her secret supernatural power to manipulate minds and suppress her desire to use it to her own advantage. It sounds like a dark urban fantasy book that will be full of ass kicking by our heroine as she faces dark forces around and within her. Great! Lets give this book a try! And doesn't it also have a great cover to entice you to buy it?!!

Sadly this was not what the book was. First we have to endure uber-dumb, useless bimbo from hell best friend Sukey with her conveyer belt of bad choice boyfriends and lack of personality. This girl is such a pathetic weepy whiner that I wanted to give her a damn good slap every time she appeared on a page. I really cannot stand this type of character and she does nothing to enhance the story. I swear I lost half of my front teeth because I kept grinding them together when Sukey was around-and sadly, she was ever present.

Then Mercy herself seems to just spend the first section of the book telling us what a loner she is and how sad her life is. Well ditch the idiot Sukey and that might be a good start. Then she starts to obsess about the new guy in town with endless whining thoughts about whether he could like her or not. She soon develops flaming pants syndrome for her handsome new friend and off we go talking and thinking endlessly about her love and social lives. The plot mostly seemed to care about whether or not Mercy could maybe have a relationship with this guy, while I was sitting thinking 'is anything supernatural or interesting EVER going to happen? Or are we just going to play dating games for the rest of the book? Where is the PLOT???

Personally I got tired of waiting for something interesting to happen. The story idea itself was good and there was nothing wrong with the writing skills of the author for me. But there was too much emphasis on the social life of Mercy and not enough on the paranormal aspects that had attracted me to the book in the first place. This was just a poor imitation paranormal romance dressed up as urban fantasy to make fans of the latter waste their money on it. (For that I blame the publisher more than the author.) I didn't relate to or care about any of the characters and certainly won't be reading the rest of the series.