Review: Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton 3/5 (liked)

I have to say that in general I'm not a big fan of the paranormal genre and because of this, paranormal books generally have to work a little bit harder to get me to like them. With Darkness Becomes Her, I started out only lukewarm but by the end I was really into it.

Here's what Goodreads says it's about:

Ari can’t help feeling lost and alone. With teal eyes and freakish silver hair that can’t be changed or destroyed, Ari has always stood out. And after growing up in foster care, she longs for some understanding of where she came from and who she is.
Her search for answers uncovers just one message from her long dead mother: Run. Ari can sense that someone, or something, is getting closer than they should. But it’s impossible to protect herself when she doesn’t know what she’s running from or why she is being pursued.


She knows only one thing: she must return to her birthplace of New 2, the lush rebuilt city of New Orleans. Upon arriving, she discovers that New 2 is very...different. Here, Ari is seemingly normal. But every creature she encounters, no matter how deadly or horrifying, is afraid of her.


Ari won’t stop until she knows why. But some truths are too haunting, too terrifying, to ever be revealed.

-Goodreads

I think what really made me like Darkness Becomes Her is the setting. I've loved New Orleans since reading Anne Rice's vampire books. Kelly Keaton made me fall in love with it all over again. I love the idea of New 2 being a hub for outsiders and so naturally that's where Ari feels at home.

Ari herself is both a strong character, but has moments of vulnerability which make her more believable as a character. Sure she's been trained as a bail bondsman so can take care of herself but when she gets locked up in a prison cell, she breaks down and cries like anyone would.

Supporting characters are fairly well done, though her love interest Sebastian starts out all broody and stand-offish and then seemingly does a 180 and is suddenly friendly and helpful. I would have liked that to have been more of a gradual process. I like both Sebastians, I just felt like they were two different characters.

The mythology aspect of it was cool. I hope we see more mythological monsters in future books since I love that kind of stuff (see my love for Percy Jackson). Overall Darkness Becomes Her felt a bit like Percy Jackson for 16 year old girls. (And I should mention that while the f-word sprinkled throughout felt in character, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this one to the same Percy Jackson audience).

This is just the beginning of a trilogy and I'm looking forward to more.

(reviewed from an e-galley - thanks S&S!)

Review: Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul. 

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once. 

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember.


-Goodreads


Angelfire is a bit of a tricky book to write a review for because there were things that I liked a lot and then there were things that I wish had been edited out.

For instance: empowered female who can literally kick ass but then dresses up as a 'sexy' nurse for Hallowe'en.
For instance: cool fight sequences but with villains who monologue cheesily through them.
For instance: cool, funny, smart BFF who all but disappears by the end of the book.
For instance: hunky Guardian (think Watcher a la Giles, only younger & hotter) but... no wait, there is no bad there. Will was all good. *grin*

Overall it was a bit hit and miss with me. I do think it will have enormous teen appeal and I almost wish it didn't have so much underage drinking/swearing so I could recommend it to younger kids but as it is, it's true to the highschool experience (well, as true as Ellie's experience can be).

With all the fight scenes and that, it would make a good videogame or film, I thought. With the way Hollywood is picking up rights to YA books lately, that may be a reality soon.

Angelfire is the first book in a trilogy.

(reviewed from ARC provided by publisher - Thanks, HarperTeen!)

Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

- from Goodreads.com

So, time to write an actual review of this instead of mindlessly saying how much I like it (and I have said I liked it to lots of people).

I feel like the main complaint people are going to have with this book is that it's been done. The whole cryogenically frozen space ship where things go wrong thing does seem like a common sci-fi trope. Thankfully I don't read tons of sci-fi so Across the Universe felt really new to me. I was intrigued by chapter one which I read a little while ago. By the time I finished page 111 (which Beth Revis released on the release day), I was on the phone to my local bookstore to have them set aside a copy for me. I picked it up on the way home, devoured it all night and neglected all laundry, groceries, etc.

I liked this book. I really liked this book.

It's one part science fiction, one part mystery and one part coming-of-age. While I guessed correctly who was behind the murders almost immediately, that didn't stop me from enjoying the story. There were lots of plot twists and lots of dark secrets to uncover and I really enjoyed learning that what I had suspected was actually the awful truth - and discovering new awful truths. It reminded me of reading mysteries when I was younger - you had all the clues to figure out what was going on and if you did figure out before the 'sleuth', you could sit back and enjoy watching them figure it out. Never did it feel like either of the protagonists was slow, however. I felt that both characters were fairly well developed and their uncovering of the mystery followed a natural progression that kept the suspense high.

I have to say that I did really like these characters even when they were doing unlikeable things. I think the switching points of view worked really well, especially at moments of high-tension. Poor Amy's parents aren't unfrozen when she is and so she misses them terribly and feels really alone. I felt that came clear really well. Elder's (for some reason almost typed Ender - must have another science fiction boy on my mind!) frustration and fear at being expected to govern a ship were all very real and understandable.

I would recommend this one to both guys and girls. There's a lot of suspense and science fiction-y goodness that I think will appeal to lots of teens. I think this is going to be (or maybe HOPE it is going to be) super popular. Can't wait to read more from Beth Revis.

reviewed from purchased copy

2011 Debut Author Challenge

I've signed up for the 2011 Debut Author Challenge hosted by the Story Siren.

Here are the twelve novels that I'm hoping to read this year:

1. Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
2. Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton
3. Wither by Lauren DeStefano
4. Vixen by Lila Fine
5. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
6. Choker by Elizabeth Emma Woods
7. Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton
8. Haven by Kristi Cook
9-12. HELP!

If you have any suggestions, I'm open to them!