Review: Rift by Andrea Cremer

Rift by Andrea Cremer
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 431 pages
Publisher: Philomel
Series: Nightshade Prequel #1
Source: Borrowed from Danelle!

Description from Goodreads:
Chronicling the rise of the Keepers, this is the stunning prequel to Andrea Cremer's internationally bestselling Nightshade trilogy!

Sixteen-year-old Ember Morrow is promised to a group called Conatus after one of their healers saves her mother's life. Once she arrives, Ember finds joy in wielding swords, learning magic, and fighting the encroaching darkness loose in the world. She also finds herself falling in love with her mentor, the dashing, brooding, and powerful Barrow Hess. When the knights realize Eira, one of their leaders, is dabbling in dark magic, Ember and Barrow must choose whether to follow Eira into the nether realm or to pledge their lives to destroying her and her kind.

With action, adventure, magic, and tantalizing sensuality, this book is as fast-paced and breathtaking as the Nightshade novels.

I was sincerely distraught after finishing the Nightshade trilogy. Honestly, I could rant about that ALL. DAY. LONG. So naturally, after having my heart torn to pieces like that, I was...hesitant going into another book by Andrea, let alone one set in the same world, only hundreds of years earlier. Still, despite the hesitation, this book turned out to be worth it and sucked me in completely.

I will admit, the beginning didn't wow me as much as I thought it would--partly because of the Nightshade trilogy and partly because of the formal way it was written--but once the book got going, I was taken away yet again in a wonderful Andrea Cremer story. Her writing is just as wonderful as before, and she writes the most fantastic action scenes.

Character Rundown:
Ember: I liked Ember more than I liked Calla. Ember knows what she wants and sticks with it. I had little to none of the utter frustration Calla made me feel. Ember was a solid, respectful character. I look forward to reading more of her story.

Barrow: I love this guy. He is my boy in this series, no doubt about it. Jana from The Goddess says in her review that Barrow is very much like Dimitri from Vampire Academy. I agree with this--I did, in fact, find myself reminded of Dimitri a few times. Barrow is strong and mature and pretty much god-like. I adore his character!

Alastair: Alistair. What to say about him? I suppose he's a third point in this love triangle, but I don't feel much of that kind of love for him. He can be a cool guy, though he is a bit delusional at times. Poor guy. He doesn't make the best decisions given his situation, and I didn't like that. I'm a very judgemental reader, you know. And Alistair made me want to slap him a bit. Still, though...por guy. I feel for him.

Other characters: I loved reading them all. They were great in their roles and it was fantastic. That is all.

The plot. As I already said, this book takes a chunk of the beginning to really get into, but after that it's pretty much smooth sailing. I enjoyed this book very much.

Sweet things. This book has loads of sweet things. The only problem is that they're hidden within the time period norms. The romance was undeniably THERE--and so completely heart-warming--but it wasn't as obvious for most of the book as I would have personally liked. It takes a bit for something to truly happen with this. On the bright side, though, I have no doubt that the next book will make up for it tenfold.

The ending. What else would you expect from Andre Cremer than a cliff hanger? It didn't make me want to punch somebody, though, so as always, that is a plus.

Overall, I enjoyed this book more than I expected to going in, as I was hugely skeptical. Needed to protect my poor little heart this time. Nevertheless, this book reeled me in and I'm officially stuck in it. I await the next book with everyone else. Hopefully there won't be as much heartbreak as in Nightshade. *fingers crossed*

♥Jessica(:

I am SHATTERED!

Okay. So. Last night, I finished Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. And now I have nothing to say. I am utterly speechless. The only two words that are popping into my mind are READ THIS. Seriously, read it. It was an amazing book, the first in a trilogy. I have no idea anything about the next two books, but I plan on getting the next book the moment it comes out if I can.

Okay now actually onto the REVIEWING part of this post. This book was stunning. Enchanting. Marvelous. You can pretty much insert any positive adjective in here, and it will be correct. Shatter Me was beautifully written and has the most perfect pacing, like, EVER. It does not take too long to jump into the action, and it doesn't jump into the actual happenings too fast, either. The whole book just runs amazingly smooth. Every little secret or story is told and clicks into place at just the right moment, just when we realize what must have actually happened or how something must truly be for ourselves.

I refuse to spoil anything in this book, but I'll tell you about a few of the characters(the ones that aren't secret-like). First off: Juliette. Juliette is such a wonderful leading character. She is both strong and weak, which is perfect because aren't all humans both strong and weak at some times? She has this lethal power that she has grown to hate, that distances her from humans. She's wistful and that is always a good quality to have in a leading character; it gives them something to fight for. Next, Adam. I will not go into detail because of my no-spoiling rule, but he is such a sweet character. The perfect match for Juliette. (so far.) And Warner, ah Warner. Such a tempermental character with a softspot for the girl he wants to understand, the girl he wants to be like him, perfect for him. He's the character we can all collectively feel bad for that just makes us want to slap somebody at his out-of-nowhere changes. His mind is so hard to follow and it keeps us on our toes. Lastly, I'll say something about Kenji- OH KENJI. Kenji is the funny guy. He's the funny guy with some secrets of his own. Secrets we don't suspect until, BOOM, the truth is thrown in our faces. He is just awesome that way. And that's all I can say about characters without giving things away. . .

In case you cannot tell, I LOVED THIS BOOK. I had to force myself not to read it too fast because I could not bear to finish it. My one, solitary little complaint about this book is that it was not long enough! That's probably not a legit topic to complain about, though, considering there are two more books to come. The wait will be brutal, of this I am certain.

So, all in all, I rate this book a 12.5 out of 10 because it was just that fantastic. It was one of those books that made me want to laugh and cry and go "AWWW!" at just the right moments. I would have rated it a miilion and four point five out of 10, but I thought that would be a wee bit obnoxious. I am not usually an obnoxious person. Well, unless you know me well.Then I am totally obnoxious and you love me for it, but that's not important at this moment. So, I recommend everyone who ever reads my blog to read Shatter Me. I would bet (almost) anything that you will love it.

I bid you all good day and thank you for reading this post! If you haven't already, check out my other posts! I have reviews for The Demon's Lexicon trilogy and the Nightshade trilogy. (Both are great trilogies). Check them out and maybe read those books? They are just wonderful, too! I am currently reading The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, and I'll be writing a review for that. . . I'm not sure when, but I will write a review. After I finish it, obviously. And I usually read books super fast, so. . . yeah.

Alright, now I'm seriously saying goodbye! I will post again soon, friends!

♥Jessica(:

Keepers & Searchers & Wolves, Oh My!

I have finally finished the Nightshade trilogy by Andrea Cremer. This trilogy consists of Nightshade, Wolfsbane, and Bloodrose. Unlike my review for The Demon's Lexicon trilogy, I'm just going to do an overall review instead of breaking it down book by book.

First things first: the characters. Every single character in these books were awesome. Calla, the fierce leader, Ren her male counterpart, Shay the boy who messes things up (well, there's more to it than that, but it's still true), Ansel the little brother, Conner- OH CONNER- Conner. The funny new found friend. Ethan, the mopy(but with good reason) new kind-of-friend. There are way more characters, but those are a few. They are all intertwined together in a way that is so endearing.

These books are not just regular werewolf books. To be totally honest, the idea Andrea Cremer constructed in these books is genius. Pure genius. It is just different enough to set it apart from other books like it, but not too different so that the readers will be put off by it. The way this story is construed throughout the three books is absolutely perfect. The ending of each book leaves the reader (ME) wanting more, more, more! The wait for the next book is wholly torture. The way the wolf instincts are combined with human desires is completely balanced and believable. The humor in these books is fantastic and comes at just the right moments; when things are getting too tense, we can always depend on someone (usually Conner) to crack a joke.

Now on to ROMANCE. All three of the books in this trilogy have just enough romance to get the point of the feelings across, but not so much so that the feelings seem unrealistic. (Note: this is not something that really bothers me specifically; I just feel like I should point out that this is not the case in this trilogy.) It is so often in books that the romance is very overplayed and hard to imagine actually happening. These books, though, have a stunningly appropriate amount. If the romance is not needed, it's not there, and when you're hoping for something emotional to happen, well, it usually does. Of course it is back to the "two boys, one girl, who will she choose?" thing. In this book it has perfect reasoning behind it, everything has perfect reasoning backing it. Shay has his regular reasons to love Calla, and Ren- OH REN- has his absolutely real reasons for loving Calla. It actually makes sense that they love her. You will fall in love with someone in these pages, that's for sure. If it's not Ren, it's Shay. If it's not one of them, it's Conner. If it's not Conner, it's Ethan. If it's not Ethan. . . well, you get my point.

So, on a scale from 1-10 I rate this trilogy a 9. I would have rated it a 10, but the ending, though it makes perfect sense, just did not leave me with a good sense of closure. It's probably just me. I mean, I ADORED these books from beginning to the almost end, but then something happened that crushed my heart and the ending just. . . the ending just eats at me. I still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys paranormal romance, or even just fun adventure wolf type things. Seriously, you should give these books a whirl, they are totally magnificent!

Until next time, Friends!

♥Jessica(:

Oh, Mondays & BLOODROSE (my current reading-endeavor update!)

What. A. Day. I am personally not a fan of Mondays at all, but some day of the week has to be this way, right? I had school today. Is it just me or can school be immensely frustrating? I was having a fantastic day. I really was.

Until I went to chemistry class.

For those of you who don't have to take chemistry or never did or whatever the case might be. . . well, you're missing out on nothing. It is a pointless subject for most people that I will never use once I get out of high school. I want to write. When in any part of my future will I have to know how to balance a chemical equation or know the difference between desposition (or whatever it's called) and sublimation? NEVER. I have no problem with school in general; I understand its importance and whatnot, but it can be so irritating. Especially when your most difficult class is something so unneeded.

Our chemistry class is a mess. We are on our third teacher. I'm not even kidding. We had one teacher for the whole first semester, and he was actually doing a great job. I sort of understood what was happening with him around. Then after Christmas Break, we had a new teacher. She had an accent that no one could understand, and didn't explain anything thouroughly enough. (Note: I have absolutely NOTHING against accents. I love them. I wish I had one. Sometimes I slip into using one without trying because I love them so much. In this situation, though, it was mighty inconvenient and so unpredictable.) Science has never been my strong suit. Ever. It's just not my cup of tea. So when I have a teacher that does not seem to be doing her job well at all. . . well I am not going to be happy. But I was sort of getting used to her. I could barely understand what she said, but she gave good fill-in-the-blank notes that kept me doing well on the three tests she was actually, you know, here for.

Because at the beginning of last week, I walked into class. And we had a new teacher. She told us the old teacher wasn't teaching us anymore and she would be here for the rest of the year. Explain this to me: since when to we just get new teachers out of the blue without any warning whatsoever? Oh, that's right. It isn't supposed to happen. So now we're dealing with this new teacher. She's okay. She seems nice enough, but stern enough, too, like she's not a push-over. That's good. Our class is insane. No one knows how to be quiet and listen for more than five minutes. Who knows, I may actually learn something now. But my problem is, what made me so annoyed about today. . . SHE HELD US AFTER THE FLIPPING BELL. I know, it sounds juvenile and immature to whine about this. But I have that class last period of the day, and when that bell rings I want to go home. I do not want to sit in class and listen to my chem teacher attempt to explain the procedures of a lab we aren't going to do until, like, Friday. Plus, I have a bus to catch. Luckily, I made my bus and got 10 extra credit points (along with everyone else who stayed and listened) for remaining somewhere around two minutes after the bell.

Yeah. So now that I got that out - gee, this blogging thing will be great for venting - I will move on to the book I am currently in the middle of reading. First, I just want to ask: you understand where my frustration comes from about chemistry, right? It makes sense? Being irritated at the total instability our class has? Good.

I am currently reading the last book in the Nightshade trilogy, Bloodrose. I plan on finishing it today or tomorrow (let's see how my Gatsby homework goes later. . .) then I'll just write a review on the whole trilogy. But I'll let you know my impression of the books so far: GENIUS. These books are so much more than just the ordinary werewolf story. There is so much background behind it that makes total sense in the world created in these pages. Bloodrose in particular is very well-written so far. I am happy with where the story is going, though I have a doom-y feeling about what is going to happen to a character whom I love. Yupp, read these books and you'll fall in love with someone. At the moment, I am fully aware that this book has the power to break my heart when I finish it. I'm kind of hoping that doesn't happen, but it usually does.

I'm a sucker for the underdogs.

Alright, so lastly I want to say thank you to everyone who is reading this right now! If you haven't read my revieew of The Demon's Lexicon trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan yet, then I think you should check it out. . . like, NOW. Those books were phenominal. READ THEM. Okay, bye Friends!

♥Jessica(: